Pugio Fidei - the dagger of faith. The name is taken from the magnum opus of medieval Dominican orientalist Raymond Martini, which was the standard manual of the time for Dominican missionaries to the Muslims and Jews. The book and this website have the same purpose, namely, to place before the reader motives of credibility for the Catholic faith, with particular attention and devotion to Sacred Scripture. "For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two edged sword (Heb 4:12).

Recent Updates

1/1/12: Humility: Willingness to Accept the Truth

A blessed New Year to all readers of Pugiofidei. It seems appropriate to begin the year with some reflections on this foundational virtue.

We also have another article from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, "Irenaeus and the Church of Rome," by Rev. James MacCaffrey. Fr. MacCaffrey demonstrates that St. Irenaeus affirmed that the whole Catholic Church must agree in doctrine with the Roman Church.

12/1/11: The Perpetual Virginity of Mary: Regarding Some Assertions of Ibarreta

From the Jesuit journal Razón y Fe, a translation from the Spanish. Victoriano Larrañaga defends the perpetual virginity of Our Lady using the Bible and other ancient historical sources.

11/1/11: Classic Biblical Apologetics

This month we have three new old articles of biblical apologetics. In "The Canonicity and Authenticity of the Apocalypse," Hugh Pope, O.P. defends the Johannine authorship of the Apocalypse and an early date of composition. In "The Messianic Prophecy of Jacob," E. Yuritch, S.J. offers an exposition of the Patriarch Jacob's deathbed promise to Judah as being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Finally, Edmund Sutcliffe, S.J. offers an exposition of Psalm 21 as referring exclusively to Jesus Christ in "The Messianic Character of the Twenty-First Psalm." I have also posted one new Q&A on the subject of the Immaculate Conception.

10/1/11: Malachy's Prophecy of the Eucharistic Sacrifice

From the Irish Ecclesiastical Record. A Jesuit Scripture scholar defends the traditional interpretation of Malachi 1:11 as a prophecy of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

I am not presently in religious life so updates should be monthly for the time being.

3/1/10: The Satan Box

In one of her revelations, Bl. Anna Maria Taigi saw the devil entering homes by means of a luminous black box at the center of each of them. The truth of this vision was illustrated for me some weeks ago when, in a hospital waiting room, I had the displeasure of catching a glimpse of what's on television these days. It was a cartoon intended for small children, and the characters were all in a perpetual tizzy: hyper, agitated, and tense, whether with anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, etc. Any significant exposure to this sort of atmosphere would make any small child similarly anxious and agitated.

The protagonists of this cartoon were attempting to ward off a big bullying hen. To that end, they consulted a magic fairy, to whom one bowed down in idolatrous worship, pleading "O great and powerful such and such." They subsequently succeeded in driving away the hen by being so obnoxious that the hen got fed up with their presence and decided to leave them alone. Is this how children should be taught to solve their problems? Furthermore, the female characters of this cartoon were drawn with the bosom absurdly conspicuous. What did the artists intend to accomplish by this?

As my brother and I were commenting on this cartoon, a young mother sitting nearby smiled at us and nodded her agreement. Thank God her children are going to be protected from this sort of thing. Would that all mothers were so discerning.

In brighter news, this October the Pope will canonize another great mystic, Bl. Camilla Battista da Varano. Her treatise, "The Interior Sufferings of Jesus in His Passion," is a great treasure, and emphatically deserves a quality, direct translation into English. Even in the old Oratorian translation from the French, it opened my eyes wider to the mental and spiritual dimensions of the anguish of Our Lord - far exceeding the physical - and the consequences of this for the spiritual life. For instance, one of Christ's principal sufferings was the vision of all the sins which He was to redeem (this fact, by the way, is taught in the Tradition and not only in private revelation). Hence, although His sufferings were completed 2000 years ago, their number and intensity were determined in part by events still present and future. Hence it is within our power to cause them to have been greater or less, by sinning or preventing sins. Hence for compassion for our Lord we must pray and sacrifice very much for our own purification and the conversion of sinners.

Yet another mystic, Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich, relates concretely some of the things our Lord had to suffer in Gethsemane from priests, acolytes, and sacristans, and hence what these categories of persons must compassionately labor to prevent:

...I saw many irreverent, ill-behaved acolytes, who did not honour our Lord in the holy ceremonies in which they took a part. I beheld with terror that many priests, some of whom even fancied themselves full of faith and piety, also outraged Jesus in the Adorable Sacrament. I saw many who believed and taught the doctrine of the Real Presence, but did not sufficiently take it to heart, for they forgot and neglected the palace, throne, and seat of the Living God; that is to say, the church, the altar, the tabernacle, the chalice, the monstrance, the vases and ornaments; in one word, all that is used in his worship, or to adorn his house.

Entire neglect reigned everywhere, all things were left to moulder away in dust and filth, and the worship of God was, if not inwardly profaned, at least outwardly dishonoured. Nor did this arise from real poverty, but from indifference, sloth, preoccupation of mind about vain earthly concerns, and often also from egotism and spiritual death; for I saw neglect of this kind in churches the pastors and congregations of which were rich, or at least tolerably well off. I saw many others in which worldly, tasteless, unsuitable ornaments had replaced the magnificent adornments of a more pious age.

I saw that often the poorest of men were better lodged in their cottages than the Master of heaven and earth in his churches. Ah, how deeply did the inhospitality of men grieve Jesus, who had given himself to be their Food! Truly, there is no need to be rich in order to receive him who rewards a hundredfold the glass of cold water given to the thirsty; but how shameful is not our conduct when in giving drink to the Divine Lord, who thirsts for our souls, we give him corrupted water in a filthy glass! In consequence of all this neglect, I saw the weak scandalised, the Adorable Sacrament profaned, the churches deserted, and the priests despised. This state of impurity and negligence extended even to the souls of the faithful, who left the tabernacle of their hearts unprepared and uncleansed when Jesus was about to enter them, exactly the same as they left his tabernacle on the altar.

The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1983) pp. 115-116.

1/1/10: Orátio Sancti Bonaventúrae

A blessed new year to all Pugio Fidei readers! May you achieve in it the greatest possible increase in sanctifying grace.

I regret that I have been unable to post new content the last few months, but of necessity I'm going to be scarce around here during my religious formation. As friary sacristan my priority, in terms of external activity, has to be the maximum glorification of the sacred liturgy.

Nevertheless, I am able to provide something worthwhile at present: parallel English and Latin texts of the beautiful Eucharistic Prayer of St. Bonaventure which is found in many Tridentine hand missals. The present English text is a revision of that found in the Angelus Press and Baronius Press editions.

It is with some trepidation that I post this, since I generally regard all the little variations in translations of Catholic prayers as serving the devil. When people who are accustomed to different versions try to pray together, they end up disrupting and distracting each other; it can't be a coincidence that the prayer with the most little variants is the St. Michael Prayer. However, the present prayer is generally prayed silently and personally, and when people do recite it together, they generally do so from a text rather than from memory. So, it seems that the danger is minimal of creating the sort of cacophony which results when a congregation can't make up it's mind whether the demons roam, wander, or prowl. All things considered, I believe the benefits of providing this resource outweigh the dangers. In particular, having a very literal English translation in parallel with the accented Latin text should facilitate learning and understanding St. Bonaventure's original Latin.

8/25/09: The Future of Pugio Fidei

For the past few years I have attempted, with occasional success, to update this website on the first of the month each month. Now that I have entered formation in an institute of religious life, it may no longer be possible to maintain a monthly publishing schedule. Furthermore, I will no longer operate a personal e-mail account, and so will no longer be able to take apologetics questions. However, I will still be able, in spare moments, to write for this website and, with the approval of my superiors, to publish updates. To spare readers the trouble of repeatedly checking for updates, I will only publish on firsts of the month. If there is no update on the first of the month, there will be no update for that month.

8/13/09: Gone Prayin'

I am entering a religious order today. Because of this, I am unsure to what extent I will be able to continue to update this website. I will let readers know as soon as possible.

In any case, I had hoped at least to be able to finish the John chapter of the NAB critique in time to post it today, but unfortunately circumstances intervened. There are, however, two new Q&A.

7/2/09: Catholic Biblical Scholarship Is Sick

As a sad illustration of this, a recent issue of the Catholic Biblical Quarterly pans a commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations by a conservative Protestant scholar because, among other things, he believes in the historicity of the garden of Eden and the book of Daniel, he says that the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah is founded on the death and resurrection of Christ, and he says that Genesis 1 depicts God creating ex nihilo, rather than out of pre-existent chaos. If this is the face which Catholicism presents to astute Bible-believing Protestants, we're never going to convert them.

For whatever it's worth, I here offer my contribution for this month to the task of restoring Catholic biblical scholarship to health: the Luke chapter of my critique of the New American Bible.

Additionally for this month, there are some new Q&A.

6/1/09: Barker's Toothless Atheist Arguments

On April 30, 2009, atheist Dan Barker disputed the resolution "The Triune God of Scripture Lives" with Protestant apologist James White. White asked me for my thoughts on the debate, which I gladly supplied. And, since the things I said to him are things I wanted to say publicly anyway, I provide them, for what they're worth, in this article.

Next, the Matthew chapter of the NAB critique is done. I unfortunately did not succeed in completing two chapters this month but will attempt to do so next time.

Finally, I offer the following flower for our Lady's May crown (posted in July, true, but written in May at least).

Biblical Mariology

For Fr. Stefano M. Manelli, FI

Handmaid through whom the Lord shines bright and clear,
From whose consent the grace of all ensues,
Nurse - mid-wife - in haste to the needy, whose
Christ-pregnant speech joys on reaching the ear,
Woman whose prayers warm our weddings and cheer,
Whose one novena won three thousand Jews,
Moon conquering Queen whom sun and stars suffuse,
Whose little foot the dragon's greatest fear:

In pain you many barren hills have trod;
For pierced by grim works and weary of limb,
Like Christ's Christ you from your body fed God.
He swam in you in whose Blood I would swim.
Pray that we may cherish it who, though sod,
Marylike for a moment may bear Him.

5/1/09: Shalom

In an effort to elevate Catholic apologetic discourse, and to promote peace and goodwill with our separated brethren, David Palm, Nick E., and I have compiled an article on Unsound Sticks, or, Arguments Catholics Shouldn't Use. It explains why several arguments which Catholics sometimes use against Protestantism should be abandoned. This is not by any means a comprehensive list so readers may contact us if they can think of additional arguments which ought to be added.

Speaking of arguments which ought to be dropped from religious discourse, Protestants and other non-Catholics sometimes allege that Pope St. Gregory the Great denied for himself the prerogatives which later theology would assign to the papacy. In St. Gregory the Great and Papal Supremacy, an excerpt from his 1728 book Charity and Truth, Fr. Edward Hawarden, S.J., demonstrates to the contrary that, in spite of his objections to the title "Universal Bishop," St. Gregory claimed and exercised jurisdiction over the whole Catholic Church. Similarly, regarding

Assurance

There's gangs insist that it comforts to know
Oneself toes to heaven, ever secure.
O Dear, their faith has its heady allure:
Not the aroma of Christ to God though.
For God's grandeur in all aspects will show
Patience, wrath the damned, mercy to the pure,
And accomplish His ends in me as sure,
Heaven or hellward, whichever I'll go.

For the real God-centered this ought suffice:
One, joy! regardless where he shall be cast,
Ineluctably the standard will trice.
Still God, to mast, bind, hold the high point fast;
I'd rather willingly hug Your device,
You loveworthy whether I'm picked or passed.

In other business, Ed Snyder has completed a comparison of the traditional and Novus Ordo rites of Baptism entitled, not surprisingly, The Poverty of the New Rite of Baptism. Finally, there are some new Q&A. I have been too busy with other projects to complete the next chapter in the NAB critique; I will try to catch up with two chapters next month.

4/9/09: Gethsemani

Consider Our Lord's Passion's chief pain.

"Then he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful, even unto death: stay you here, and watch with me" (Matt 26:38).

O suffering Saviour! fill my heart;
Sin was Thy Passion's fiercest smart;
'Twas not the cruel Jews, but we
Who heap'd Thy chiefest woes on Thee;
Our pride--our waste of grace--'twas this
Which stung Thy soul like Judas' kiss.

More, more to Thee than scourge or nail
Was that far-stretching deathful tale
Of human sin, in Eve begun,
And to the Day of Doom to run,
That, in the sad Gethsemani,
Rose to Thy Mind's affrighted Eye.

Of sins completed and forecast
The grim procession came and pass'd:
The sins that mov'd Jehovah's ire,
The sins that fed Gomorra's fire,
The sins that perish'd in the Flood,
The sins that shed Thy sacred Blood;
Nor least, nor lowest in the line,
Thy sins, poor child of God, and mine.

Frederick Oakeley, Lyra Liturgica: Reflections in Verse for Holy Days and Seasons (London: Burns, Lambert, and Oates, 1865) pp. 76-77.

4/1/09: Is the Bible Our Sole Authority in Religion?

The Sola Scriptura debate went very well, and I hope it will be profitable for the instruction, edification, and persuasion of those who listen to it. My only disappointment is that Mr. Donahue did not use his argument from Zechariah 13:2-6. Exegeting this passage properly is a real joy. So, I offer the material I prepared for the debate below.

There are two more additions to Pugio Fidei this month: the Daniel chapter of the NAB critique and Babylon the Bleak, an excerpt from Moran's Historical Sketch of the Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of Ireland under the Rule of Cromwell and the Puritans. I've decided to use abbreviations to trim down the footnotes in the NAB critique; the key is at the beginning of the article.

The past weeks have witnessed an intolerable eruption of public dissent from and criticism of the Holy Father on the part of Catholics, perhaps the worst since the publication of Humanae Vitae. If he passes from his office any time soon we can expect a severe liberal backlash against him within the Church. Please pray that he live long enough to confound his enemies. Mnóhaja, bláhaja l'íta, as the Slavs sing. With that, on to the text of Zechariah:

Mr. Donahue appealed to Zechariah 13:2: "And on that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit." He is quite correct that this passage refers to the first coming of Christ, although applying v. 6 to Jesus is absurd, as I will explain. Where he goes astray is when he claims that the prophets spoken of here are true prophets; they are not, they are false prophets. The Septuagint in fact explicitly calls them pseudiprophetes. And if you think it strange that Zechariah would refer to false prophets as prophets, just read Jeremiah 23:9ff.

So, the first thing to notice about this passage is that it describes the purification of the land, the land being the kingdom of God or the Church. If it refers to the end of true prophecy, what does that have to do with purification? Barry Webb, in The Message of Zechariah, recognizes this problem with Mr. Donahue's reading. "It would be possible, as the apostle Paul does in the New Testament, to speak of true, God-given prophecy coming to an end on the last day (because it will no longer be needed), but one could hardly speak of it being removed by God (along with idols) in order to rid a land of impurity! We must conclude therefore, that what is on view here is not prophecy as such, but false prophecy - the very antithesis of what is spoken of so approvingly earlier in the book - and the details of the passage clearly bear this out. The 'spirit' associated with these prophets is not the Spirit of God, but the spirit of impurity (v. 2). They speak lies rather than the truth (v. 3). They wear a prophet's garment in order to decieve (v. 4), and (very probably) the wounds on their bodies are self-inflicted, like those of the prophets of Ba'al on Mount Carmel (v. 6). Finally, and most tellingly of all, their removal here goes hand in hand with the 'banishing' of idols (v. 2). We have seen this connection between idolatry and false leadership before, back in 10:2: "The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false.'"

James Montgomery Boice, in The Minor Prophets, adds, "The purification of the land will cleanse it of every possible appearance of evil. Of the many that might be mentioned, however, Zechariah singles out only two... idolatry and false prophecy. These went together. In the age of Ahab and Jehoshaphat, when Micaiah was called to prophesy the death of Ahab by Ramoth Gilead, there were 400 false prophets but only one prophet of the Lord (1 Kings 22)... Jeremiah was plagued by the many false prophets who predicted peace for Jerusalem when actually destruction was coming (Jer 6:13-14; 8:10-11). When times were bad, idolatry and false prophecy went together and were widespread."

Now, Mr. Donahue thinks that the verses following Zechariah 13:2 demonstrate that on that day there will still be false prophets in the land, so it must only be true prophecy which ceases. This is not the case. Zechariah 13:3-6 describe how God will remove the false prophets from the land, and that is through the zeal of Christians. Verse 3 says that when the false prophet's father and mother catch him prophesying, they will say to him "you shall not live" and shall pierce him through, putting him to death, certainly a hyperbolic way of saying that false prophecy will not be tolerated in the Christian Church. Verses 4 and 5 say that every false prophet will be ashamed of himself; he won't want to show his face in public, so he will stop putting on his prophet suit and trying to deceive people, and he'll go back to the farm and claim he's been there all along. "Who, me? I've never been a false prophet; I'm just a simple farmer, always have been." You can just see him tugging on his collar. But people are going to notice that he has suspicious wounds on his back, and are going to ask him about them. Incidentally, Mr. Donahue's King James Bible says that he has wounds in his hands, hence the superficial application to Christ, but the Hebrew literally says between his arms; it refers to the torso. 2 Kings 9:24 uses the same construction when it says that Jehu shot Joram between his arms and the arrow went through his heart. Anyway, the reason these wounds are suspicious is because false prophets would cut themselves in their ecstatic frenzies, as we see the priests of Ba'al doing in 1 Kings 18:28. So the false prophet needs to make up some excuse as to where he got these wounds, so he tells them, oh, "I received them in the house of my friends." Just youthful horseplay. Boys will be boys, you know.

3/1/09: The Droghte of March

No poetry this month. On the other hand, the 1 Samuel chapter of the NAB critique is done.

A reminder: the Sola Scriptura debate is in less than two weeks. Saturday, March 14, 7:00 p.m., in the parish hall of St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly, VA. Patrick Donahue will affirm, "The Bible is our sole authority in religion." I will deny.

In other news, Gerry Matatics has finally opened his online store. I promptly purchased and listened to the second edition (updated and expanded) of his "Counterfeit Catholicism" seminar, recorded June 28, 2008. It is not a great improvement. He still offers the same shallow treatment of the issue of communicatio in sacris. His case that John XXIII and Paul VI were Freemasons is still weak. Furthermore, Gerry repeats old factual errors and adds new ones.

First, he still uses the following "prophecy" which Yves Dupont attributes to St. Nicholas of Flue: "The Church will sink deeper and deeper until she will at last seem to be extinguished, and the succession of Peter and the other Apostles to have expired." Gerry does, to his credit, at least tell his audience that one of his critics "claims to have done research" on this prophecy, and determined that it was spoken by Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, not St. Nicholas of Flue. However, he avers, he does not know whether his critic is right. Well, his critic had already shown him the source of this quotation, on pp. 336-337 of a translation of J. J. I. Von Döllinger's Fables Respecting the Popes in the Middle Ages, published in 1872. There the quote appears, in a form almost identical to the form it appears in Dupont, with attribution to Nicholas of Cusa and a citation to his collected works. Gerry had ample opportunity to investigate the matter for himself.

Since Gerry recorded this seminar in June, I have sent him additional documentation which proves, not only that this "prophecy" should be attributed to Nicholas of Cusa, but moreover, it is not a prophecy. Dr. Jasper Hopkins of the University of Minnesota has recently published an English translation of Nicholas of Cusa's Coniectura de Ultimis Diebus, the work from which the alleged prophecy is taken. As the title indicates, this is a work of conjecture. It consists of Nicholas of Cusa's personal speculations about the end times, based on his private interpretation of Scripture, which he admits might very well be wrong (he closes by saying that God might very well show his surmises to be vain). And he is certainly wrong on at least one point: he predicts that the world will end between 1700 and 1750. So he may just as well be wrong in his speculation that at the end of the world, "the Church will seem to be abolished, because the holy apostles, sowers of the word of God, will abandon it and flee. And there will be no successor of Peter or of any apostle" (Hopkins' translation).

Second, Gerry still claims that Pope Leo XIII wrote the long prayer to St. Michael the Archangel in response to his hearing a conversation between Christ and Satan, and that Leo commanded that it be prayed after every low Mass. Gerry also still cites its statement about enemies of the Church setting up the throne of their abominable impiety in the holy place as a prophecy of the modernist takeover at Vatican II. Fr. Cekada's refutation of this narrative, cited in my previous essay, stands.

Third, Gerry now argues that Joseph Ratzinger incurred the latae sententiae excommunication prescribed for modernists by Pope St. Pius X in Praestantia Scripturae. Gerry's major premise is that anyone who dissents from the decrees of the Pontifical Biblical Commission incurs this excommunication. His minor premise is that Ratzinger dissents from the PBC's decree "Concerning the Historical Character of the First Three Chapters of Genesis" in his book In the Beginning.

Whether or not the minor premise is true, the major is false. St. Pius X imposes the censure of excommunication only on those who dissent from his anti-modernist decrees Pascendi Dominici Gregis and Lamentabili Sane, not on those who dissent from the decrees of the Biblical Commission. Those who dissent from the Biblical Commission he censures with the lesser charges of disobedience and temerity. As such, even if Ratzinger did dissent from the Biblical Commission in In the Beginning, this would not render him an excommunicate.

Finally, Gerry repeats the myth (which has received wide circulation among traditionalists since appearing in The Great Facade by Christopher Ferrara) that every Pope beginning with St. Agatho in the seventh century took the same papal coronation oath until John Paul I broke the tradition and refused. This oath, as reproduced by Ferrara, contains the statement, "We subject to severest excommunication anyone -- be it ourselves or be it another -- who would dare to undertake anything new in contradiction to this constituted evangelic Tradition and the purity of the Orthodox Faith and the Christian Religion."

The text of this oath comes from the Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, a book of formularies which was used in the papal chancery from the eighth to the eleventh centuries. It is probable that Popes who acceded to power during this period took this oath. However, the Liber Diurnus subsequently fell into desuetude and complete obscurity, and was not published again until the seventeenth century. No Pope has taken this coronation oath for almost a millennium. Additionally, the translation of this oath which appears in The Great Facade is a mere paraphrase (the real oath is much longer), and based on a bad critical edition to boot. The original Latin text, in Eugene de Roziere's critical edition, is available through Google books (start at p. 424 of the pdf file, p. 174 of the book). Ferrara's use of this document is sloppy to the third degree, and Gerry simply repeats his errors uncritically.

That said, the authentic text of the oath does contain the statement in which the Pope anathematizes himself if he deviates from Apostolic Tradition: "Unde et districti anathematis interdictione subicimus, si quis umquam, seu nos sive est alius, qui novum aliquod praesumat contra eiusmodi evangelicam atque apostolicam traditionem." As such, Gerry can honestly cite this oath in support of the theological principle that if a Pope becomes a heretic, he ipso facto loses his office. Gerry cannot, however, account it some demerit in the past three Popes that they did not swear this oath; neither did St. Pius V.

Gerry might consider including an errata with his seminar when he sells it.

2/5/09: The NAB on Exodus

The latest chapter in the NAB critique is done. Thanks are due to Jacob Michael, who wrote the original version of this chapter, which is substantially present in the present revision.

I would like also to belatedly note the passing of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. He too, incidentally, was a sharp critic of the NAB, although he focused on its demerits with respect to clarity and literary grace, rather than doctrine. Anyway, we have certainly lost a great soldier in the culture wars. His "Public Square" column read like a grown up, moral conservative's version of the old Adam West Batman series. "Whammo!" "Pow!" "Bang!" Down go the bad guys. My favorite comment in his last column, writing of the chairman of the religion department at Columbia University: "Taylor has committed yet another book." Glorious. Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace. Amen.

2/5/09: At the Inauguration

I am out of place here.
Am I out of place?
Yes, but in a different sense,
In the cravenness whence
I've ill used this day's grace,
Blending while I should appear
A sign of contradiction.

A man of God mounts the stage.
The godless look sheepish as he prays.
No fear: this one's no Ambrose, Leo;
He lacks the perspicacity and candor of Pio.
Repent! Repent! you butcher of your ways
Is what he should have told that brephophage.
Or was that above his pay grade?

Time fumbles to the Moment,
And tumid enthusiasm erupts
Into a cheer, spasmodic
Eructation of unhealthy souls,
Which reechoed on the air extols
gods both olympian and chthonic.
The miasma out and in corrupts.

Some woman reads some spiny prose,
Exceptionable for its affected solemnity
And unshaped metaphors, ill framed
By periodic carriage returns.
She remembers some oppressed yet spurns
The names of the dead who were not named;
She writes them no indemnity.

Now who will do the benignity?
Who will tell that one
That his ideology needs darning?
If not cleric, nor artist, nor I disarming?
Few indeed, and of those some
Surpass the very liberals for indignity,
Whose bacchanalia lasts past 4 a.m.

There is nothing left today
But to bitterly clutch my Rosary and say,

O Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I adore Thee profoundly. I offer Thee the Most Precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges and indifference by which He is offended. Through the infinite merits of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I beg the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.

N.B., "brephophage" means "baby-eater."

1/14/09: In My Beginning Is My End

This is how T. S. Eliot transposed the last words of Mary, Queen of Scots in the first line of "East Coker." It is a fitting thing to bear in mind as we start the new year. The new year is a time for new beginnings, a time to make resolutions, to turn over a new leaf. "From here on out, I will live my life better in such and such a respect." May we make our resolutions bearing in mind our last end. "I firmly resolve, with the help of thy grace, to do penance, to confess my sins, and to amend my life. Amen." Yes, may our first resolution be to make peace with our consciences, if we are not at peace already, and if we are, to deepen the tranquility.

This is a way of putting it--not very satisfactory:

De Conscientia

O adversary faithful and true,
Resilient, indefatigable worm,
Ever gnawing, never dying,
Truth, not for our lack of trying,
To imbibe pesticide, and kill you.
No, you stand firm.

Tachú, I must make peace!
Met' autoû, lest this life cease
Euthús, and the fly worms feast
On me, in the waste dump gê-hinnom.

Faithful friend, by the Lord,
Show no lenience in the formulation of,
And be exacting in the ministration of,
The terms of our hopefully fixed accord.

N.B., the meter is four stressed syllables per line. Tachú means "quickly" in biblical Greek. Met' autoû means "with him." Euthús means "immediately." Gê-hinnom is Hebrew for "the valley of Hinnom," whence the biblical Gehenna. The "adversary" of Matthew 5:25 and the "worm" of Isaiah 66:24; Mark 9:48 are commonly interpreted as referring to conscience.

In other news, the Sola Scriptura debate will be held on Saturday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. in the parish hall of St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly, VA. More details are available in this flyer.

Lastly, the Genesis chapter of the NAB critique is complete. This has been a long time coming, and I apologize. Exodus should not be nearly so time consuming. As such, I hope to return to a regular schedule - updates the first of the month, every month - starting February.

12/17/08: On the Election

What is the sickly smell, the vapour? The dark green light from a cloud on a withered tree? The earth is heaving to parturition of issue of hell. What is the sticky dew that forms on the back of my hand?

T. S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral (San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1963) pp. 14, 41.

Basta.

In other news, this coming March I will engage Mr. Patrick Donahue (www.bibledebates.info) of the Church of Christ in a public, moderated debate on the subject of sola Scriptura. It will be held in the parish hall of St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly, VA. More details to follow.

I am predictably quite behind on the NAB critique. Nevertheless, I have completed a Prolegomena to Genesis, which is concerned primarily with defending the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, as against the NAB's advocacy of the documentary hypothesis.

11/01/08: Newman's Errors on Biblical Inspiration

In the February 1884 issue of Ninteenth Century, John Henry Cardinal Newman published an article in which he cautiously attempted to open the door to the possibility of small, unimportant, factual mistakes in Scripture. John Healy (the future Archbishop of Tuam), writing in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, effectively held the door shut. I have here republished his article, "Cardinal Newman on the Inspiration of Scripture."

The Genesis and Exodus chapters of the NAB critique will follow in a special mid-month update.

10/4/08: Computer Crash

Due to computer problems I've lost all progress on updating the Genesis section of the NAB article, so I can't finish it for this update. I'll publish both the Genesis and Exodus sections in November to compensate. In the meanwhile, I've published a Q&A on James White and Sola Scriptura which has ballooned into a mini-essay. Is It Superfluous to Cite 2 Thess 2:15 against Sola Scriptura?

9/3/08: On a Certain Rash Accusation of Dishonesty

I must apologize for failing to post at the beginning of August. Posting will resume the regular monthly schedule from here on out.

9/3/08: Oecumenius on the Woman Clothed with the Sun

N.B., Oecumenius is a 6th century Greek Father, one of the earliest witnesses to the Marian interpretation of Revelation 12.

The incarnation of the Lord, by which the world was subjected and made his own, became the occasion for the raising [of the Antichrist] and the endeavors of Satan. For this is why the Antichrist will be raised up: so that he may again cause the world to revolt against Christ, and persuade it to turn around and desert to Satan. Since again the Lord's physical conception and birth marked the beginning of his incarnation, the vision has brought into some order and sequence the events which it is going to explain, by starting its explanation from the physical conception of Christ, and by depicting for us the Mother of God. For why does he say, And a portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet? He is speaking of the mother of our Savior, as I have said. Naturally the vision describes her as being in heaven and not on earth, as pure in soul and body, as equal to an angel, as a citizen of heaven, as one who came to effect the incarnation of God who dwells in heaven ("for," he says, "heaven is my throne" [Isa 66:1]), and as one who has nothing in common with the world and the evils in it, but wholly sublime, wholly worthy of heaven, even through she sprang from our mortal nature and being. For the Virgin is of the same substance as we are. The unholy doctrine of Eutyches, that the Virgin is of a miraculously different substance from us, together with his other docetic doctrines, must be banished from the divine courts.

What is the meaning of the saying that she is clothed with the sun, and has the moon under her feet? ...[I]n order to show in the vision that even when the Lord was conceived, he was the protector of his own mother and of all creation, the vision said that he clothed the woman. In the same way the divine angel said to the holy Virgin, "The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35). Overshadowing, protecting, and clothing all have the same meaning.

He says, And on her head, a crown of twelve stars. For the Virgin is crowned with the twelve apostles who proclaim the Christ while she is proclaimed together with him. He says, She was with child, and she cried out in her birth-pangs, in anguish for delivery. Yet Isaiah says about her, "before the woman in labor gives birth, and before the toil of labor begins, she fled and brought forth a male child" (Isa 66:7). Gregory [of Nyssa], also, in the thirteenth chapter of his Interpretation of the Song of Songs talks of the Lord "whose conception is without intercourse, and whose birth is undefiled." So the birth was free from pain. Therefore, if, according to such a great prophet and the teacher of the church, the Virgin has escaped the pain of childbirth, how does she here cry out in her birth-pangs, in anguish for delivery? Does this not contradict what was said? Certainly not. For nothing could be contradictory in the mouth of the one and the same Spirit, who spoke through both. But in the present passage you should understand the crying out and being in anguish in this way: until the divine angel told Joseph about her, that the conception was from the Holy Spirit, the Virgin was naturally despondent, blushing before her betrothed, and thinking that he might somehow suspect that she was in labor from a furtive marriage. Her despondency and grief he called, according to the principles of metaphor, crying and anguish; and this is not surprising. For even when blessed Moses spiritually met God and was losing heart--for he saw Israel in the desert being encircled by the sea and by enemies--God said to him, "Why do you cry to me?" (Ex 14:15) So also now the vision calls the sorrowful disposition of the Virgin's mind and heart "crying out." But you, who took away the despondency of the undefiled handmaid and your human mother, my lady mistress, the holy Mother of God, by your ineffable birth, do away with my sins, too, for to you is due glory for ever. Amen.

(Oecumenius, Commentary on the Apocalypse, trans. John H. Suggit [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2006] pp. 107-109.)

7/16/08: Gotta Stop Making So Many Promises

Well, at least Ed Snyder's article on the liturgy is done. See "The Last Supper: No Layman's Blessing." Ed examines certain modern liturgical theories which derogate from Our Lord's priesthood.

7/4/08: Biblical Modernism

The past several days I have had the unenviable task of attempting to accurately represent and refute a Modernist. As anyone who has attempted to do this knows, it is one of the most difficult tasks in apologetics: Modernists are well nigh impossible to nail down due to their ambiguities and circumlocutions. Anyway, I have tried. See "How Not to Read Your Bible", a critique of the Modernist guide to Scripture which the Catholic Books Publishing Company has inserted into the St. Joseph edition of the NAB.

After this, returning to critiquing Gerry Matatics will be a breath of fresh air. Though Gerry and I do not share a Pope, at least we speak the same language. The final version of the Matatics essay will be posted the weekend of the 12th, along with a new article on the liturgy by Ed Snyder.

6/8/08: Wolf in Calfskin

Oh dear, I fear I'm becoming the perpetually apologetic apologist. A week late and still no Matatics essay! I had really better do a good job with this since I've made Pugio Fidei readers wait so long. Not that it's adequate excuse, but of late I have been very busy with my day job in structural engineering, which is similar to religious writing in that, if you're not careful, conscientious, and conservative, you might kill someone!

Next, I have rewritten the introduction to the New American Bible article, now under the title "Wolf in Calfskin: The Rampant Liberalism of the NAB." As promised below, additional chapters will follow at a rate of one per month or better.

Moving on, readers might recall that a few months ago I posted a very harsh criticism of Fr. Richard John Neuhaus of First Things magazine. It seems appropriate to balance this with praise. The following passage from his monthly column "The Public Square" in First Things, No. 184 (June/July 2008), pp. 62-63, has aptly been described by one blogger as "a sledgehammer blow to the face of the proud and the strong."

The taxpayers of California are paying for a multi-billion-dollar Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which specializes in embryonic stem cell research and other cutting-edge technology of the brave new world. Alan Trounson heads up the project and says in an interview that he was at first "very uncomfortable" about dissecting human embryos. But then, on a trip to Naples, he talked with "members of a Vatican university [who] persuaded me that if I felt that what I was doing was designed to address some problem of human misery, then it was acceptable." He means well, so that's all right then. Too bad about the very little human beings, but you have to look at the big picture. Says Trounson: "In a big-picture sense, I want to be up on the mountain looking down on the Serengeti, watching all the animals move through." You may remember Orson Welles in The Third Man, standing at the top of the ferris wheel, watching all the people moving through the square below, and explaining why this is the perspective in which to judge his dealing in diluted penicillin. When you're doing bad things to little people, keeping the big picture in mind is a moral comfort.

It is refreshing to see words of such simultaneous power and suavity employed in the service of the pro-life cause. Three cheers for Fr. Neuhaus!

I have corrected a small factual error in the article "Sungenis, 9-11 Truther, Not Trustworthy." That is, in their phone conversation of the afternoon of September 11, Larry Silverstein and Daniel Nigro were not discussing whether to pull the firefighters out of WTC7 itself, but whether to pull the firefighters out of the vicinity of the building.

Lastly, to wrap up this update, there is a new Q&A.

5/10/08: Retractationes

I know it is contrary to custom to update mid-month, but I want to correct an error of mine as soon as possible. I retract and apologize for my assertion that, according to the NAB, God commands the Jews to sacrifice to Satan in Leviticus 16. Rosemarie Scott pointed out that it is still possible to interpret Leviticus 16 in an orthodox manner, even if Azazel is read as the proper name of a demon. One might suppose that the Azazel goat was not offered in sacrifice to Azazel. Rather, sending the sin-laden goat out into Azazel's desert simply meant that the people were sending their sins far away into no man's land. Or, perhaps sending the sin-laden goat to Azazel was an act of derision, a way of sending him an insult, as opposed to an oblation. Or, perhaps it meant that the people were sending their sins back to the demon from whose influence they originated.

5/3/08: Mostly Heat, a Little Light

You'll never guess who was the first person to fire off a letter to the editor of Culture Wars in protest of my negative review of Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11. And you'll never guess the ethnicity of the man he attempted to implicate in mass murder. And you'll never guess how little diligence he exercised to discover the truth. Well, in case the answers to these three riddles are not yet obvious to you, I here provide them: Robert Sungenis, Jewish, and very little indeed. See "Sungenis, 9-11 Truther, Not Trustworthy."

Next, I regret to have to publicly oppose an error which Fr. Vincent Serpa, OP has promoted on the Catholic Answers Forums, i.e., that it is morally acceptable for a sexually active woman to take the abortifacient birth control pill for "medical reasons," so long as she does not directly intend to cause an abortion. I explain why Fr. Serpa is wrong in the article "Fr. Serpa's Sub-Catholic Answer Regarding the Birth Control Pill."

I write this immediately upon returning from, I believe, a fruitful discussion with Gerry Matatics on the issue of sedevacantism. Please God, I will post the final version of my essay opposing his sedevacantist position on June 1. Please pray for both of us.

4/3/08: A Multimedia Update

I am happy to report that both of my talks this past month were well received and appreciated. Thank you to everyone who helped with your prayers.

Next, Keep the Faith, Inc. has digitized last year's Catholics Defending Biblical Inerrancy Conference and made it available at their website. One may purchase the whole conference, featuring Fr. Brian Harrison, Sal Ciresi, and myself, here. The talks are also available individually. My two are called "Razón y Fe: The Spanish Jesuits in Defense of Holy Writ" and "Rebellion and Rationalization: The Mystery of Iniquity in the History of Exegesis."

I have also added a new Q&A on the Christological reading of Sirach 24. This is a fascinating topic and deserves to be expanded into an essay in the coming months. Lastly, the final version of the Matatics essay is being postponed until June 1 so I can attend another of Gerry's talks.

3/1/08: Two for Three

To begin, I wish all readers a blessed Lent. By means of this corporal fast may God extinguish our vices, elevate our understanding, bestow on us virtue and its reward, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Well, I have completed only two out of the three promised articles. My apologies. The first article is "A Heretic Seeks 9/11 Truth," a review of Christian Faith and the Truth behind 9/11 by David Ray Griffin. Griffin is a process theologian who believes that the Bush administration orchestrated the September 11 attacks in order to create a pretext for expanding the American Empire in the Middle-East. He is quite adept at amassing data, but, being neither an engineer nor a Catholic, Griffin lacks the intellectual tools necessary to interpret his data correctly. This article is slighlty revised from the version published in the February 2008 Culture Wars.

The second article is "Right and Necessity: Fr. Neuhaus on Abortion and the Popular Vote." It is a commentary on my exchange with Fr. Richard John Neuhaus in the February 2008 First Things. Several quotes from the Popes condemning the separation of Church and state are included as an appendix.

I am required to give two talks in the coming month: first, "Why Everyone Should Be Catholic," [Correction: March 13], 7:00 p.m. in the parish hall of St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly, VA; second, "The Philosophy of Personhood" at Penn State, March 19, 8:00 p.m. Prayers would be appreciated.

2/1/08: Some Gems from Tradition, and Some Things that Won't Stay Buried

I have found a new saint to love: St. Peter Julian Eymard. And Pugio Fidei now hosts his exposition on sanctification, "Union with Christ Sanctifies Your Actions," excerpted from his book How to Get More out of Holy Communion. This brief exposition is incredibly rich in insights concerning the purpose of the Incarnation, the supernaturally meritorious works of Christians, the infinite value of Our Lord's theandric acts (and hence the Catholic theology of the Atonement), and more. Next, that mine-full of beauty The Irish Ecclesiastical Record has yielded another gem: "The Catholic Missions in Iceland" by Jon L. Frederiksen. Fr. Frederiksen offers poignant reflections on his mission to bring the faith back to a Protestant nation.

Now for some rather less pleasant business. Robert Sungenis has seen fit to openly resist his bishop's will that he cease writing about Jews, and moreover has publicly accused his bishop of heresy. See his recent article, "The Old Covenant: Revoked or Not Revoked?" So, I have decided to put all my previous articles about Sungenis back online. I have also replaced the heavily edited version of "The Orthodoxy of Roy Schoeman", which suppresses it's original context as a letter to the editor of Culture Wars written in opposition to Sungenis, with the original version. Finally, I have added "Justice, not Fear", another letter to Culture Wars. This letter responds to Tom Herron's silly article "Fear of the Jews in Harrisburg" which attempts to paint Sungenis as the innocent victim of a judaizing smear campaign. All of these articles are now comprised under the heading of Catena San Genisi.

Next month I can promise, with confidence, a commentary on my exchange with Fr. Neuhaus in the February First Things, a review of Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11 by David Ray Griffin, and the final version of the Matatics essay.

1/1/08: For the New Year, Scholarship from 1886!

First things first, I wish all Pugio Fidei readers a happy and holy new year. May you end it greater in sanctifying grace than you began it!

Anyway, as is perhaps appropriate for an article about Gerry Matatics, I have not finished the final version of "Facts for Gerry Matatics to Face up to" in the time I said I would finish it by. However, I have reproduced two excellent articles originally published in 1886 in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record. "The Book of Tobias" by Denis Hallinan is the second of a two part series on that biblical book (i.e., Tobit, in modern Bibles). The first part, which I have not reproduced, consists mainly in a summary of the contents of Tobias. But the second part is dedicated wholly to defending Tobias' status as an inspired and inerrant history, according to the sound apologetic principles Hallinan had earlier laid down:

Now the modern enemies of the Christian religion, all of whom we embrace under the name of Rationalists, ridicule the idea of Divine inspiration, and, consequently, of the Divine authority. They are quite prepared to discuss, and to admit or reject according to the rules of historic criticism its human authority. Here we Catholics are bound to take up the challenge, and oppose to their false criticism, a true and sound one, by the aid of which we can prove that the canonical books are as worthy, aye, more worthy of credence, than the most received and approved works of profane authors, whose authority our adversaries do not question. We need have no fear of standing for the nonce on the same platform with them, and fighting them with their own weapons. Our position is perfectly safe--no scientific progress, no new phililogical, geological, or biological discoveries can dislodge us from it. But it is our duty to defend that position, to save, if not the sacred books which eventually can suffer nought from their impious attacks, at least the faith of numbers which may be severely tested by such well-planned, plausible and persistent onslaughts on their earliest, most cherished, and most sacred beliefs.

Next, I hope you will appreciate "A Catholic Utopia" by Richard J. McHugh. McHugh describes the idyllic Catholic society of Tryol, in the Austrian Alps. For all those intent on restoring Christian Civilization, McHugh's description of 19^th century Tyrol should set the bar. His quotation of a Tyrolean wedding invitation is particularly beautiful.

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