Ash Wednesday

"For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return" (Genesis 3:19).

"Repent, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

I'm glad I'm not looking for a teaching position anytime soon.

See this petition.

The most interesting bit:

Read this:

"Many colleges and universities require faculty, students, and staff to follow certain 'ethical' standards which prohibit engaging in homosexual acts" (Emphasis mine; also note their use of scare quotes).

Now compare it with this:

"The American Philosophical Association rejects as unethical all forms of discrimination based on... sexual orientation..." (Emphasis mine).

Sing all together now: ♫ One of these things is not like the others,/One of these things just doesn't belong,/Can you tell which thing is not like the others/By the time I finish my song? ♫

I learned about Aristotle’s categories when I was a first year undergraduate philosophy major. Perhaps that is not how it is done anymore, or how it was done in most places even then, but that’s how it was done at my undergraduate university ~7-8 years ago.

An orientation is a disposition, an inclination, a tendency. This would fall under the category of quality.

Acts, on the other hand, would obviously fall into the category of action.

The categories are the supreme genera. Orientation and acts fall into different categories. Thus orientation and acts do not share even the most basic genus and must be recognized as fundamentally different. One would think a group of philosophers would realize that.

Well, a group of philosophers would. A group of philosophy professors, on the other hand...

Hat tip: Dr. Francis Beckwith at What's Wrong with the World, who offers his own commentary here.

Novena for the Pope

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has asked the members of the Fraternity and all the lay faithful in their Apostolates to pray a novena for Pope Benedict XVI, starting today, February 14, and going until the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 22.

The novena, in Latin and English, and further information are available here. I have reproduced the English below. I ask all who read this to consider joining them and offering prayers for our Papa, so that God bless and keep him, and that he "may not flee for fear of the wolves."

God bless our Pope! The great, the good!

Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, Glory be.

V: Let us pray for our Pope Benedict.
R: May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

V. Thou art Peter,
R. And upon this Rock, I will build My Church.

Let us Pray,
Almighty and everlasting God, have mercy upon your servant, Benedict, our Sovereign Pontiff, and guide him in your goodness on the way of eternal salvation; so that, with the prompting of your grace, he may desire what pleases you and accomplish it with all his strength. Through Christ Our Lord. R. Amen.

V. Mother of the Church. R. Pray for us
V. St. Peter. R. Pray for us

A Rabbi speaks

"Left Wing of the Catholic Church Destroying the Faith Says Orthodox Rabbi," by Hilary White.

Hat tip: Fr. Zuhlsdorf, who offers his own commentary here.

Martin Mosebach on the Pope and the SSPX

Martin Mosebach, author of The Heresy of Formlessness, has an article on the Pope's lifting of the excommunication of the four SSPX bishops in the German magazine Der Spiegel. An English translation of the article has been posted on the blog of the Society of St. Hugh of Cluny and can be found here.

Hat tip: Fr. Zuhlsdorf, who offers his own comments of the article here.

On religious liberty

If one actually wants to understand the "plain meaning" behind the Church's teaching on religious liberty, one might want to look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2104-9) and follow up on its footnotes. One would then be pointed towards Leo XIII's Immortale Dei and Libertas praestantissimum; various writings of Pius XII in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis; Pius XI's Quas primas; Pius IX's Quanta cura; and Pius VI's Quod aliquantum. One might find one's self surprised at how many restrictions on false religion can fall under "due limits" when prudence properly takes into account the objective moral order.

Catholicism is true and other religions are false. The truth is owed duties that falsehoods are not. I know such an idea is radically contrary to modern pieties, but it is true none the less.

Between two thieves...

And one of those robbers who were hanged, blasphemed him, saying: If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him, saying: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art condemned under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done no evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom. And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise

"Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art condemned under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds..."

One criminal refuses to admit that he is being justly punished and tries to escape it. He dies with blasphemies fresh from his lips.

The other admits that his punishment is just and accepts it. He obtains a moment of grace and the promises of eternal joy.

The conclusion to be drawn from this I will leave to the reader.

Support the Holy Father

Please go here and sign the letter.

Hat tip: Fr. Zuhlsdorf.