Tea at Trianon: Poorly Catechized Catholics

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Poorly Catechized Catholics

From The Federalist:

It’s ironic Walsh takes offense at Barrett’s moral beliefs being associated with Catholicism when those very beliefs constitute core teachings of the Catholic faith. Her circular argument ends with a self-defeating point when Walsh acknowledges that Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, also opposes abortion and contraception (in line, allegedly, with Barrett’s views).
Walsh appears to have a gross misunderstanding of what being Catholic means, equating Catholicism with statistical polling data of the personal views of 20th- and 21st-century American demographics, as opposed to living in accordance with the spiritual and moral teachings of the Catholic faith. As implicit evidence that Barrett’s views are offensive to Catholicism, Walsh points to polls wherein more than 50 percent of Americans who identify as Catholics support legal abortion while more than 40 percent do not.

Walsh might not have gotten the memo that Catholic teaching considers abortion an intrinsic evil, the killing of an innocent human child in the womb, and that the moral teachings of the Catholic faith are not based on polling data about what many nominal Catholics believe. That would be an incredibly empty and superficial “faith.” Instead, the faith is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ as articulated in Scripture and tradition, passed down to the apostles, and interpreted by the pope and the bishops as members of the magisterium, the divinely inspired teaching body of the church.

Walsh’s logic is absolutely nonsensical. In Barrett, she attacks a devout Catholic for having beliefs that are true to Catholic morality, portraying them as offensive to Catholicism. To say there is a logical fallacy here would be a gross understatement. (Read more.)

Some brave bishops and priests speak out, HERE.

julygirl said...: It is always open season on Catholics but one dare not speak a negative word about the Muslim faith even when many of its adherents subjugate women and have terrorized the world and butchered individuals.; October 13, 2020 at 1:25:00 PM EDT