My Blog
Reformers or Revolutionaries
October marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Secular and religious media will feature stories about the main leaders of the Protestant movement, Martin Luther (1480-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564). Most of those stories will paint them as holy...
Did the Church Ever Support Slavery?
Many years ago I attended a conference organized by a national Catholic organization on the topics of marriage and human sexuality. One of the speakers was a professor from Creighton University who, in the middle of his talk on contraception, launched into a long...
The Real Story of the First Crusade
Last month (July 15) marked the 918th anniversary of the liberation of the Holy City by the warriors of Christendom on the First Crusade. It was a momentous event, and when news reached Christendom that the Crusaders had succeeded, there was much rejoicing. Those who...
Leo and Luther – The Real Story of the Pope and the Heretic
THE MYTH: Martin Luther was a simple reformer who desired to rid the Church of corruption and abuses, but when he challenged the pope on the issue of indulgences he was unjustly condemned, which forced him to break from the Church. THE REAL STORY: This narrative is...
In Defense of the Crusader Mascot
Controversy concerning sports mascots has been raging in our culture for the past several decades. Many groups have found certain mascots offensive due to pejorative racial or ethnic epithets, such as the National Football League’s Washington Redskins. The clamor to...
Remember Pearl Harbor: The Sacrifice of Fr. Al Schmitt
Fr. Aloysius Schmitt (Lieutenant, Junior Grade), known affectionately as “Father Al,” had just finished celebrating 7 a.m. Mass aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) at Pearl Harbor on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, when Japanese aircraft began their attack on...
The Real Story of the Children’s Crusade
This post is the fifth in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them. Pick up most books on the Middle Ages geared toward elementary-school students and you will more than likely find an article on the so-called...
The “Honey-Sweet” Doctor
Today marks the 862nd anniversary of the death of one of the most important and influential saints in the history of the Church, St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). This great saint was the third son of seven children (six boys and one girl) born to a noble family...
The Massacre of Jerusalem
This post is the fourth in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them. This month we remember the 916th anniversary of the liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem by the First Crusaders (July 15, 1099). News of the...
Why the Crusaders Went
This post is the third in a series about the most prevalent modern myths about the Crusades and how to refute them. Anna Comnena was the thirteen-year-old daughter of Emperor Alexius I when the initial group of Crusaders marched into Constantinople during the First...
The Story of the Crown of Thorns
When the magnificent Cathedral of Our Lady (Notre Dame) in Paris caught fire earlier this week, the world was mesmerized by the apparent destruction of such an historical and holy edifice—one of the most widely recognized and frequently visited structures in the world.
Did the Church Chain Up the Bible?
In his 1929 book Survivals and New Arrivals, Hilaire Belloc examined the forces attacking the Catholic Church and its role in society. He put them into two chief categories: “survivals,” those “old forms of attack” that continue to be used by the Church’s enemies but are, in the main, on their way out; and “new arrivals,” the newer forms of attack that focus primarily on the Church’s moral teachings rather than its theological doctrines.
Among the “survivals” was a holdover from Protestantism Belloc termed the “biblical attack.” Its key element, he wrote, is “Bibliolatry”—elevating the Bible to the level of an idol. It is Bibliolatry that is the root of the myth that the Church locked and chained Bibles in medieval churches to prevent the laity from reading them.
Bl. Miguel Pro: Anti-Fascist Martyr
The twentieth century was witness to the rise of three political ideologies that brought destruction and death to the world and persecution to the Catholic Church. Communism, National Socialism, and Fascism may appear to be at odds in their teachings, but each of these ideologies has the same fundamental worldview: the individual is subservient to the state. Anyone or anything that stood in opposition to this fundamental tenet was an enemy of the state.
Columbus: the Real Story
In popular myth, Columbus is the very symbol of European greed and genocidal imperialism. In reality, he was a dedicated Christian concerned first and foremost with serving God and his fellow man.
Peering into the future, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) could not have anticipated the ingratitude and outright contempt shown by modern man toward his discovery and exploration of the New World. Few see him as he really was: a devout Catholic concerned for the eternal salvation of the indigenous peoples he encountered. Rather, it has become fashionable to slander him as deliberately genocidal, a symbol of European imperialism,[1] a bringer of destruction, enslavement, and death to the happy and prosperous people of the Americas.[2]
Reformers or Revolutionaries
October marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Secular and religious media will feature stories about the main leaders of the Protestant movement, Martin Luther (1480-1546) and John Calvin (1509-1564). Most of those stories will paint them as holy and upright men appalled at the impiety, superstition, and corruption in the Catholic Church and dedicated to returning the Christian Faith to its pristine original form. But is that the real story of these men?
Martin Luther had a difficult childhood, owing to his overbearing and sometimes abusive parents. His father wanted Martin to study law, but after a frightening near-death experience, Martin decided to enter an Augustinian monastery. His academic brilliance landed him a teaching job at the University of Wittenberg in 1508.
Did the Church Ever Support Slavery?
Many years ago I attended a conference organized by a national Catholic organization on the topics of marriage and human sexuality. One of the speakers was a professor from Creighton University who, in the middle of his talk on contraception, launched into a long tangent about how the Church had never condemned slavery in the past, which “proved” that the Church had made a mistake, and so perhaps its teaching on contraception would be viewed as incorrect in the future (a viewpoint he agreed with).
I did not get the opportunity at the conference to talk with this professor about his erroneous statements about the Church and slavery, so I emailed him and we engaged in a courteous exchange in which I pointed him in the direction of several papal condemnations of slavery, which he dismissed out of hand. He ignored the historical record because it did not fit with his agenda of changing Church teaching on contraception.
The Real Story of the First Crusade
Last month (July 15) marked the 918th anniversary of the liberation of the Holy City by the warriors of Christendom on the First Crusade. It was a momentous event, and when news reached Christendom that the Crusaders had succeeded, there was much rejoicing. Those who returned home from the Crusade were feted as heroes and known as “Jerusalemites” for the rest of their lives.
The story of how the First Crusade succeeded is filled with personal heroics, sacrifice, and miraculous interventions throughout the journey. The real story has been obscured by the sensationalism and “Hollywood history” of our time, and the story should be set straight.