Fires of Faith: Review of Eamon Duffy's New Book

From Tea at Trainon

Eamon Duffy, author of Stripping of the Altars, offers his alternative interpretation on the reign of Queen Mary Tudor, in contrast to the received "wisdom" of Whig historiography.

Read it here.

Bocaccio's Jew

Image credit

This story from Giovanni Bocaccio's Decameron reminded me of a rhetorical question put by a non-Orthodox blogger in reference to the financial shenanigans going on in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese: "Why would anyone want to join a church like this?"

In the story, the Jew on pilgrimmage to Rome sees the corrutption in the papal court, in all of its unmasked unpleasantness, adn decides to become a Catholic anyway.

Why?

Read about it here, in Leon Podles' blog.

Just substitute the Antiochian Archdiocese, and the answer to the blogger's question becomes clear.

Biretta tip to Arturo Vasquez

The Immorality of Taxpayer-Funded Abortion

Dr. Ron Paul talks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthcare. Some gems:

The most basic function of government is to protect life. It is unconscionable that government would enable the taking of it. However this is to be expected when government oversteps its constitutional bounds instead of protecting rights. When government supercedes this very limited role, it cannot help but advance the moral agenda of whoever is in power at the time, at the expense of the rights of others.

Free people should be left alone to follow their conscience and determine their own lifestyle as long as they do not interfere with other people doing the same. If morality is dictated by government, morality will change with every election. Even if you agree with the morality of the current politicians and think their ideas should be advanced, someday different people will inherit that power and use it for their own agendas. The wisdom of the constitution is that it keeps government out of these issues altogether.

From Lew Rockwell

Hat tip: The Young Fogey

Romulus, Remus, Stimulus: A Brief history of Monetary Madness

Image credit

Bill Bonner gives an historical account of how stimulus has never, EVER, produced any real prosperity.

From Lew Rockwell

The Alternative Right

by Kevin DeAnna

In my view, the graying boomers who run and staff the current “conservative movement” probably represent the last generation of the Right that can justifiably call itself conservative. The constitutional and laissez-faire republic is long gone, a victim of the world wars, hot and cold. And the traditional Protestant and upright culture that once characterized American society as a whole, as well as the United States’ identity as a Western nation-state, won’t last much longer if present trends continue.

More than that, at a core level, we should ask ourselves seriously, What is there going to be worth conserving in the America of the next generation?
I’ve often thought that we got here because the conservative movement’s fetish about “the state” and the size of government fatally compromised its ability to challenge the left-wing ruling class. Who is a more important question than what, and a political movement that has as its chief concern what level of bureaucracy should handle policy can not accomplish anything important.

In contrast, Daniel McCarthy has argued, in the September 2008 issue of New Guard, that there is an anti-state Right and a national Right concerned about American identity, virtue, and culture. He points out the stupidity of trying to protect American through the government since, “[t]he state is the indispensable means by which the Left carries out its transformation of the country, and government in 21st century America cannot be turned into an instrument of virtue or nationhood.” I’d first counter that there hasn’t been much of a “national Right” in this country to begin with; those “conservatives” most interested in using the state for their ends have been social gospel types, who are as equally invested as the Left and the neocons in the idea of America as a “universal” nation.

But in the end, this debate actually doesn’t matter much—conservatives lost the battle against the state and the Left. Progress is not possible on either front without dismantling the current managerial regime.

Reas the rest in Taki's Magazine

Jobs of Our Own: A New book on Distributism

From The Distributist Review:

A history of distributism is often a short history of a few distributists: Belloc, Chesterton(s), and perhaps a McNabb, a Penty, and other assorted English scribblers. Between the failure of Ditchling and the trauma of World War II, the general impression is that distributism has never actually happened in real life.

Wrong. Mathews shows exactly how distributism has happened and is happening, right in the midst of the real economy.

Read the book review here.

Paving the Road to Hell

To reiterate Serge's matter-of-fact observation, many religious folk don't understand economics.

Rather than a job at a market rate how about no job at all or more people on the dole (the money for which comes from...)? The usual suspects seem to be out in force for this: Modernist RCs (whose average age is at least 60ish by now), self-hating Jews (Jews historically act economically conservative, which is why they made it big time, but vote left) and most of all (as Chris Johnson says) the National Council of Churches People Don’t Go to Any More.

This makes me wish the works of the Salamanca Theologians were required reading in all major seminaries, especially their reflections on economics.

Another biretta tip to The young Fogey

The Other Modern

A crozier for an English abbess and a chalice, both executed in ivory by Fernand Py and featured in Liturgical Arts Quarterly. Image Credit


Innovative approaches to design that nonetheless fell within the bounds of tradition, and sought to expand them in new directions rather than simply forsaking them.

Read article here

From New Liturgical Movement (Novus Motus Liturgicus)

Biretta Tip: The Young Fogey

St. Cyril on Divine Simplicity

An interesting discussion by the good fellows at Energetic Procession on St. Cyril's view of "divine operations". Are these to be viewed as "divine energies"? Who's closer to Cyril-Thomas Aquinas or Gregory Palamas?

Read the article, and read the discussion taking place there.

Heresy vs. Hope

Dr. Peter Bouteneff of St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary compares and contrasts the Orthodox Church of Greece's "Confession of Faith Against Ecumenism" (given by a quarter of the Church of Greece, but endorsed by many bishops, metropolitans and monks) and Archbishop Athanasios of Albania's address to the Conference of European Churches.

Listen to it here.

Read discussion here.

Biretta tip: Eirenikon

Two By Congressman Paul

Image credit


Update on Congressman Paul's attempt to get a bill passed that would require auditing the Federal Reserve-Tomorrow Dr. Paul will grill Bernake.

Article: Healthcare is a Good, not a Right

Political philosopher Richard Weaver famously and correctly stated that ideas have consequences. Take for example ideas about rights versus goods. Natural law states that people have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A good is something you work for and earn. It might be a need, like food, but more “goods” seem to be becoming “rights” in our culture, and this has troubling consequences. It might seem harmless enough to decide that people have a right to things like education, employment, housing or healthcare. But if we look a little further into the consequences, we can see that the workings of the community and economy are thrown wildly off balance when people accept those ideas.

First of all, other people must pay for things like healthcare. Those people have bills to pay and families to support, just as you do. If there is a “right” to healthcare, you must force the providers of those goods, or others, to serve you.

Obviously, if healthcare providers were suddenly considered outright slaves to healthcare consumers, our medical schools would quickly empty. As the government continues to convince us that healthcare is a right instead of a good, it also very generously agrees to step in as middle man. Politicians can be very good at making it sound as if healthcare will be free for everybody. Nothing could be further from the truth. The administration doesn’t want you to think too much about how hospitals will be funded, or how you will somehow get something for nothing in the healthcare arena. We are asked to just trust the politicians. Somehow it will all work out. Universal Healthcare never quite works out the way the people are led to believe before implementing it. Citizens in countries with nationalized healthcare never would have accepted this system had they known upfront about the rationing of care and the long lines.

Read the rest here

Remember the First Victims of the Bolshevik Revolution

The Royal PAssion-Bearers, The Right Victorious Nicholas, Emperor of All the Russias, The Empress, the Right Victorious Alexandra, and the Royal PRinces: Tsarevich Alexei, the Princesses Maria, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia: Orate pro nobis!


From The Young Fogey:

Lovely people, but an incompetent emperor, not particularly bright, getting the country mired in an immoral war, World War I, owing to nationalism and misplaced loyalties, causing (as Rasputin predicted) his own downfall - and death. The war destroyed so much of Catholic Europe, east (in this case) and west (the soon-to-be beatified Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary abdicated and his empire was carved up). Besides a basic monarchist inclination - a sacramentally crowned king is profoundly Catholic - what turned me in favour of the Russian royals was reading Robert Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra back in 1996. This American historian (writing about 40 years ago) with no bias either way (royalist or Communist) convinced me that personally they are saints. (As for politics, saints are fallible in their prudential judgement.) In a society littered with loveless dynastic marriages (like the late Diana in recent years) the tsar was a country gentleman who truly loved his wife.

This is something I'm asked often: If the Emperor Nicholas was such a saint, why was he an incompetent ruler? My answer: Who says saints have to be competent rulers? He did the best he could under the circumstances, but made some mistaken judgments. saints are fallible, after all. What makes a saint a saint is humility, and a thorough recognition of his own weakness and his need for God.

A film produced recently in Russia brings this out very well. Here's a clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5AJ43NJoY&feature=related

Warning: The scene where they are murdered in the end is quite graphic, and the Tsarevich Alexei covering his eyes is heart-wrenching. You have been warned!

Crimes Against Humanity 1794

Genocide in the Vendée at the height of the Reign of Terror.

As The Young Fogey reminds us, "modern liberalism was barbaric to begin with."

Warning: If you have a weak stomach, just read the first half. But if you have a passion for truth...

Le Fleur de Lys Too

Hat tip to Tea at Trianon and The Young Fogey

On the Abuse of Ecclesiastical Power

By Arturo Vasquez

Or: Things that happen when clergymen get too enthusiastic
Pope Paul IV when he was a cardinal was in charge of the Roman Inquisition: one of his first acts as a pope was to increase the powers of this institution and the penalties associated with heresy: even some cardinals were charged with heresy and Cardinal Morone was imprisoned in Castel Sant’Angelo as a hidden Lutheran. The pope imposed on the Romans a very austere lifestyle, but allowed his nephew Carlo Carafa to profit from his position to enrich himself and, according to widespread rumours, to behave badly from a moral viewpoint. He forced the Jews of the Papal State to live in two ghettos in Rome and Ancona: he built walls around an area of Rione Sant’Angelo which was subject to floods: the Jews were not allowed to live elsewhere and during the day had to go about wearing a distinctive sign… Pope Paul IV died in August 1559: the Romans reacted to the news by setting fire to the Inquisition palace and by destroying all the coats of arms of the pope: his statue in Campidoglio was beheaded and the head was rolled down the cordonata.
Source

Nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum... Psalm 126 (127): 1

Read the rest of the article here.

Giraldi says "Hands off Honduras" to both Left and Right

From Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty

This column is from a few days ago, but it is a continuing situation. Libs and neocons have taken sides, but no consideration has been entertained about what the Honduran people actually want.

It is perhaps predictable that the unrest in Honduras is being seized upon by the usual suspects in an attempt to exploit the situation to draw conclusions that are completely unwarranted by what is taking place. Neocons are hailing the removal of a "leftist" president while liberals are shouting "coup." In an attempt to determine what Hondurans think, I have recently had the opportunity to speak to a number of military officers, students, civil servants, and businessmen. As many commentators have correctly noted, there is a sharp class divide in Honduras, with 70% of the population mired in poverty and a middle and upper class that is much better off and politically empowered to stay that way. The existence of extreme poverty with little hope for improvement in the majority of the population has been exploited by populists in Latin America through promises to bleed the rich and help the poor. Though the promises have rarely been kept, the ability to organize bloc voting by the poor has created a de facto monopoly of power for the leaders who have successfully sold themselves as being champions of the disenfranchised, leaders like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

What is lacking in the media feeding frenzy is any deference to what the Hondurans themselves might want. Last month a crisis that had been building for nearly a year exploded. President Manuel Zelaya, a wealthy rancher elected as a center-leftist in 2006 but turned populist after entering into office, proposed a non-binding referendum that would have supported amending the country's constitution. Zelaya said that he was interested in changing the constitution to help the poor, though he did not propose any specific remedies. But according to most Hondurans, the particular part of the constitution that he was interested in obtaining a mandate for eventually amending was a non-amendable part that was designed to keep presidents like him from remaining in office beyond their constitutionally permitted terms. Article 239 of the Honduran Constitution reads in translation: "No citizen who has already served as head of the Executive Branch can be President or Vice-President. Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years." A number of Latin American countries have such clauses in their constitutions to avoid the establishment of presidents-for-life, which have resulted in continuous one party rule. The US Constitution also has several permanent articles.

Read the rest of the article here.

Dr. Paul on Napolitano's Freedom Watch

The good doctor talks about his bill, introduced in Congress, to audit the Federeal Reserve, and the threats the Fed is making to the American people if this passes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLGWIrBZCvY

Audit the Fed, then phase out all our ties with it, and let it die. Back to the gold standard.

This is the time for all good men (and women) to come to the aid of their country!

From Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty website

Caritas in Veritae

From The Distributist Review

Did you ever think you'd read an encyclical that advocated:
-energy efficiency, and the moral duty to reduce energy consumption
-consumer co-ops
-micro-finance
-large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale (this one reminds me of what Edmund Burke calls the real "Social Contract": "Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.")
-intergenerational justice—in the context of environmental resources
-opening international markets, especially in agriculture

As Benedict shows, these ideas are merely consistent developments (or repetitions) of Catholic social teaching. But he is fearless in applying CST in today's arena.Nor does he hesitate to dig into our dirty details:

As Benedict shows, these ideas are merely consistent developments (or repetitions) of Catholic social teaching. But he is fearless in applying CST in today's arena.

Nor does he hesitate to dig into our dirty details:
-NGOs peddling contraceptives and involuntary sterilization to poor countries
-the decline in birth rates
-the hoarding of resources, especially water
-human embryos are sacrificed to research
-the poverty of isolation
-abusive tourism
-usury

Tribute to King Louis XVI

On this "Bastille Day," I offer prayers for the soul of King Louis XVI, King of France and Defender of American Liberty!

+May his soul, and that of his Queen, Marie Antoinette, Rest in Peace!

+May their Memories be Eternal!