CHE COSA E' L'UOMO? UN ITINERARIO DI ANTROPOLOGIA BIBLICA

Sandro Magister: The Most Beautiful Document of This Pontificate. Which Almost Nobody Has Read

LEV

A Confusion Regarding the Christian Priesthood

What Catholic clergy and laity have in common: a Gospel mission

There are also important distinctions in the priesthood of all baptized Christians and those who are priests and bishops by virtue of sacramental ordination. The hierarchical priesthood is not simply “more of the same priesthood that the baptized have,” he added. “It’s not a super priesthood somehow completing, displacing or superseding the common priesthood.”

At the same time, there is a “priesthood which marks the whole Church as a priestly people.” This does not imply “that there is an ‘inner Church’ of ‘super Christians’ and that that is the hierarchy,” because that falls into the error of clericalism.

“if baptism confers a priesthood, it means it confers a participation in the sacrifice of Christ which, made present in the Eucharist, makes the Church,” Cavadini said.

“The exercise of this priesthood, then is ordered towards communion, and evangelization, if it is truly an exercise of the baptismal priesthood, is intended to bring people to the encounter with the Risen Lord, which is the incorporation into the eucharistic body, through configuration to Christ’s sacrifice.”

McGrath Center

What would Latins know about synodality at this point?

CNA/CWR: Pope Francis announces a 2022 synod on synodality

Related: Eastern Christian Books: Shaun Blanchard on Jansenism, Pistoia, and Catholic Historiography

Georgios Theodoridis

Agrapha

A Divine Gift

Latins still confusing the Patriarchate of Rome for the Church Universal.

Rorate Caeli: Announcing Tradivox: An International Catechism Restoration Project

Nikolaos Loudoviko: 'What is Ecclesial Unity?'

A Latin Group Issues a Latin Document with a Latin Conclusion Produced from Latin Premises

CNA/CWR: Theologians say there is ‘doubt’ of sacramentality in marriages between ‘baptized non-believers’

"Re Against Zen"

Sandro Magister: Re Against Zen. Divided By a Wall of China

A Patriarchate for Capartho-Rusyns?

Sandro Magister: The Unreal Dream of a “Church of the Ruthenians.” A Clarifying Letter

Real Presence? Or Transubstantiation?

At the L.A. Religious Congress...

More Videos of Bishop Georg Bätzing

Opening the Remaining Archives of Pius XII

CWR: History Redeemed: Justice for Pope Pius XII by William Doino, Jr.
The March 2nd opening of the last remaining archives from Pius XII’s pontificate will likely reinforce what historians already know about the war-time pontiff’s actions on behalf of endangered Jews.

Time to Move the Chairs on the Deck Again

"Younger." Sure.

CNA/CWR: German bishops’ elect new conference chairman





Erstes Pressestatement von Bischof Bätzing nach seiner Wahl zum Vorsitzenden der DBK
Der neue Vorsitzende der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz Bischof Georg Bätzing zu seiner Wahl

Monastère Saint-Benoît

website

via Fr. Z

A Product of Western "Semi-Arianism"?

For contemporary monothelites, by contrast, Jesus’s humanity is firmly in the driver’s seat. To the extent that we may say that Jesus is divine, this is at best a secondary claim, derived from the historical Jesus, the product of a scientific quest.

First Things: Jesus: Less Than Divine by Hans Boersma

Showing of New Men at SVOTS

Matt Fradd: Byzantine Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, & The Schism | Pints With Aquinas Ep.194

Disciplina Arcani

The Sound of Hagia Sophia

NPR: Listen: The Sound Of The Hagia Sophia, More Than 500 Years Ago

Changes in Personnel for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches

Magister: From the East Not Light But Darkness. Strange Shufflings in the Roman Curia

And in fact, rather than a promotion, the new role given to Vasil is a downgrade. His ambition was to return home as the major archbishop of an unprecedented and transnational Church of the Ruthenians, with its metropolitan see in Presov, which would bring together Slovaks, Croats and Hungarians of the Greek-Catholic rite, plus the  the annexation of a Ukrainian diocese, that of Mukachevo, also populated by Ruthenians, for a total of about 200 thousand faithful.

Of course, this project was hardly pleasing to the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine. It was counting instead on the promotion to Rome, as the new secretary of the congregation, of one of its bishops, Teodor Martynyuk, auxiliary of the Greek Catholic diocese of Ternopil.

But neither aim has hit the mark. Instead of the Ukrainian Martynyuk - or at least another easterner - a Latinizing Italian has been made secretary. While Vasil is for now only temporary administrator of a diocese subordinate to Presov, that of Kosice, whose bishop, Milan Chautur, is still in office, albeit under investigation by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith for allegations of sexual harassment against a minor.

Debating Theological Explanations for the Real Presence

First Things: The Theology of Transubstantiation
From First Thoughts
Brett Salkeld and Mark discuss Reformation-era debates over the Real Presence and what Catholics and Protestants believe about the Eucharist. Continue Reading »

Eastern Christian Books: Jansenism and Other Bogeymen

Eastern Christian Books: Jansenism and Other Bogeymen

OUP: The Synod of Pistoia and Vatican II: Jansenism and the Struggle for Catholic Reform

Interview with Fr. Chad Hatfield

The Presentation of Our Lord and Savior in the Tmple

"Offer"

Un'altra libertà

Un'altra libertà by Camillo Ruini, Gaetano Quagliariello
Contro i nuovi profeti del paradiso in terra

Magister: Praise of Freedom, the Real Kind. Dialogue Between a Cardinal and a Lay Thinker

Il cardinal Ruini contro il multiculturalismo: "Non è valore in sé"

In the Foosteps of Marx

CNA/CWR: Secretary of German bishops' conference steps down

Fr. Hans Langendörfer, SJ, has held the position since 1996.
Langendörfer made the announcement Feb. 26, through the official media outlet of the Church in Germany. He said that he is stepping down to make way for someone younger.
“I have come to the conclusion that it is now a good time to hand this position over to younger hands,” he said Feb. 25. Langendörfer is 68.

Martin Earle

"Keeping Eastern Catholic Traditions"

(via Byz, TX: Eastern Catholics make ad limina apostolorum visits to Rome)

The Open Question of Church Polity and Governance: Trent, Vatican I, Vatican II

Erich Fromm

CWR Dispatch: Lent, fear of freedom, and love of slavery
This year, during Lent, I am going to focus on this question: “In which areas am I unfree, and why do I prefer this slavery to freedom?”

Eastern Christian Books: Ivan Illich and Erich Fromm on the Corrupt Church

John Behr: Becoming Human in Light of the Gospel of John

Tom Hibbs on Catholic Liberal Education

Warrior Saints in Iconography

Fr. Luigi Giussani

50 Years of OCA Autocephaly

A Lacuna in the Gospel of St. John

The Epistle to the Hebrews

Reform of the Roman Code of Canon Law

CNA/CWR: Pope Francis: Canon law revision project is concluding

Romanus Cessario, OP: Accompaniment and Moral Development

The End of Education

Church Life: Education Should Aim at God, Not the Job Market by Daniel Drain

The Latin Churches in Germany

Magister: Francis and the Schism of Germany. History of a Nightmare

The Selection of Bishops

Fr. Hunwicke: An oligarchy of mediocrities?

Andrew Hofer, OP: St. Thomas Aquinas on Divinisation

Anthony Andres: Dialectic as a Way to the Principles

TAC: Dialectic as a Way to the Principles by Dr. Anthony Andres

Advertising New Wine New Wineskins

Church Life: How to Do Moral Theology Today by Alessandro Rovati

But what future for Roman Catholic academia in the United States? And for academics living in the ivory tower?

More on Offering and Sacrifice

CWR: Priest diagnosed with brain tumor offers his sufferings for abuse victims by Bree A. Dail

Last week, Father John Hollowell announced to readers of his blog and followers on Twitter that he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, and that he will be offering his sufferings for the victims of the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis.

 ...

CWR: When you announced your diagnosis, you said that after the revelation of clerical sex abuse scandals in the summer of 2018, you asked God to let you share in the sufferings of the victims. This self-offering is not one that is taken lightly—were you afraid of what God would send as a cross?
Father Hollowell: That day I did it, yes. I was in the rectory saying Morning Prayer. It was clear, this calling. There was a part of me that—looking back on it now makes me smile—even then a part of me knew I was in trouble…in a good way. It’s not something to enter into lightly. I guess everything that I have read, and come to know—all the theological studies I was able to take in the seminary, reading St. John of the Cross and being really formed by him, and Mother Teresa’s autobiography—all of these seem to have gotten me to this point, being totally comfortable making that prayer. I said, “Lord, if there is something I can suffer to bring healing to the Church, I would do that willingly with great joy.”

Byzantine Music

OAJ

Latin Notions of Sacrifice

Holy Mass: You Cannot Do Anything to Glorify God More by Peter Kwasniewski

Jesus Christ delivered us from the abyss of sin and death by the mysteries of His life and, above all, by His death on the Cross, when He offered Himself to the Father as an infinitely pleasing sacrifice of love.

Faith and Reason

TAC: Call for Papers: College to Host
First-Ever Thomistic Summer Conference

Joshua Hochschild: True Friendship: Insights from the Classical and Christian Traditions

Pope Francis on Tradition

The pope who is "not a theologian" and apparently it shows.

CWR: The Idea of Tradition in Querida Amazonia by Eduardo Echeverria

Pope Francis leaves unspoken the relation of Tradition to the normative Scriptures, the Sacraments and Liturgy, creeds and confessions, councils, the theological exposition of the Church’s dogmas and doctrine, and the magisterium of the Church.

A Part of Latin Spirituality

Is it found in any of the other ecclesial traditions?

1P5: On Offering It Up

Eastern Christian Books: Russian Thought on Deification

Eastern Christian Books: Russian Thought on Deification

OUP

David Bentley Hart Responds to Michael Pakaluk

First Things: A Pakaluk of Lies by David Bentley Hart

(see also Eclectic Orthodoxy: St Basil and the Hoi Poloi: Side Note on the Hart–Pakaluk Quarrel)

Ed Peters Responds to Adam DeVille

Ignoring law is not remedied by ignoring it even more

The crux:

According to canon law, the Roman Pontiff (nb: a human being) “possesses supreme, full, immediate, and universal ordinary power in the Church, which he is always able to exercise freely.” 1983 CIC 331. Surely some indication from DeVille that he is aware of this law, and of the doctrinal values behind it, is owed lest he seem to imply that, in establishing Peter as the one Rock, Our Lord invited disaster upon his Church.

Further according to canon law, the College of Bishops (nb: a small group of people) “is also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church.” 1983 CIC 336. Again, no indication is given that DeVille sees how Our Lord’s vesting supreme and full power in this tiny group of believers passes muster under DeVille’s supposedly foundational maxim.

But these claims that I have underlined are theological or ecclesial, particular to the patriarchate of Rome, and not "canonical" and certainly not reflecting the canons of the Church Universal.

But the solution to unenforced canon and civil law is not the further and complete ignoring of those laws and the fashioning of new, institutionally unsound procedures resting on fantastical histories and flimsy logic. The solution is the enforcement of laws by Church and State officials and the visitation of harsh penalties on the perpetrators of wicked crimes.

New laws may be necessary. Is the logic flimsy? I don't think so -- more likely than not, they are logically sound with respect to DeVille's ecclesiological principles. One can debate whether those principles are sanctioned by Tradition, but the ecclesiological principles as held by the patriarchate of Rome may be dear to Rome but they are not universally accepted.

Eastern Christian Books: Divine Guidance

Eastern Christian Books: Divine Guidance

OUP: Divine Guidance: Lessons for Today from the World of Early Christianity

Sacred Liturgy Conference

Magister Returns From Hiatus

Sandro Magister: Francis’s Silence, Ratzinger's Tears, and That Never-Published Statement of His

It Would Be in Opposition to Scripture

but I am curious if there is a theological argument to be made that a baptism that is not immediately completed by chrismation is not a complete baptism and therefore not valid. It is unlikely that this is the justification used by some Chalcedonian Orthodox to rebaptize Latins who decide to become Orthodox, but could they make such an argument? (I say it would be in opposition to Scripture because the New Testament records that many were baptized and received the gift of the Holy Spirit only later through the laying on of hands by the Apostles but they did not have to repeat Baptism.


Perhaps it is just incomplete, then, even if the consequences of this cannot be immediately elucidated.

An Interesting Reference

Here:

There is no evidence for the alleged apostolic obligation of perpetual continence until the third century, and that is contradicted by contemporary patristic evidence, e.g., Clement of Alexandria.

Furthermore, as Vogels notes, ‘… present-day canon law teaching has to regard the fourth century law as void, since the Codex Iuris Canonici regards “the conjugal act which by itself is apt to produce offspring” (conjugalis actus per se aptus ad prolis generationem), as belonging to the enduring “essence of marriage” (ad quem natura sua ordinatur matrimonium), which is guaranteed by “divine law” and i co sewuence, cannot be removed by tbe ecclesiastical lawgiver (canons 1061 s 1; 1057 s 2; 1059 CIC/1983)’ Vogels, Celibacy – Gift or Law?, Kansas City, 1993, p. 42.

"Ordinary Magisterium"

If the synod is not a real synod but a rigged one, then of what value is it, and of what value is the opinion of the pope on the synod, when he has no infallibility with respect to the judgment of particulars? The defenders of Rome's claims may go as far as to say that the pope's judgment about what is a legitimate synod and what is not falls under his authority and may even be "infallible" but is that true?

Vatican officials: ‘Querida Amazonia’ is magisterium, Amazon synod’s final doc is not

The text of the Post-Apostolic Exhortation.



CWR: Pope Francis’ Amazon exhortation calls for holiness, not married priests
Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’s much-anticipated post-synodal apostolic exhortation, presents the pope’s “four great dreams” for the Pan-Amazonian region’s ecological preservation and “Amazonian holiness.”

5 things to know about ‘Querida Amazonia’
America Magazine: Five Takeaways

Even Benedict XVI Is Not Above Criticism

The Ratzingerian Constants and the Maintenance of Harmony in the Church

Bishop Barron: "A similarly illuminating remark was made by Pope Benedict XVI concerning the work of the Church, and I would like to spend a little time exploring it. Papa Ratzinger said that the Church performs three basic tasks: it worships God, it evangelizes, and it serves the poor. The religious activities of over a billion Catholics around the globe, he maintained, can be reduced finally to these three fundamental moves."

If this is an accurate representation of Ratzinger's thought, he is guilty of a simplistic reductionism in his enumeration the tasks of the church. These three tasks flow from the Great Commandment, but they are not the only ones, and the other tasks of the Church, especially of the Christian "laity," are not reducible to these three. Ratzinger leaves no room for explicating the ordinary path to holiness or the lay vocation. This would be bad moral theology or bad catechesis.

Princeton Project

Providing Cover for the Synod? Or Legitimizing Its "Synodality"?

CNA/CWR: Cardinal Marx will not seek re-election as head of German bishops’ conference

Christ and the Forms of Worship

Christ as First-Born

A Two-Year Charade

First Things: As the Synodal Way Begins by Hans Feichtinger

Breaking the Monopoly

CWR Dispatch: Relieving Rome’s burdens: A proposal for handling abuse cases by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille

Apophaticism and Mysticism

Church Life: Prayer and the Darkness of God by Denys Turner

And Weigel Thinks...

That this isn't a respectable Roman Catholic outlet. Who among the respectable is reporting on this?

LSN: EXCLUSIVE: Vatican bishop defends giving Communion to pro-abortion Argentine president and mistress
It’s a ‘problem’ only for U.S. Catholics and Cardinal Raymond Burke, Bishop Sorondo said.


(via Fr. Z)

He Shouldn't, But...

LSN: Bishop Schneider: ‘The Pope cannot be silent as he watches the wolves devour the flock’
Bishop Athanasius Schneider speaks out against the German bishops’ ‘synodal path.’

A Photo

Edward Pentin Interviews Cardinal Sarah

NCReg: Cardinal Sarah: The Priesthood Today ‘Is in Mortal Danger’
In an exclusive English-language interview, the African cardinal discusses his new book, the status of the Catholic priesthood, and addresses those who say he opposes Pope Francis.
Edward Pentin

(via Fr. Z)

But what about exceptions to the law of celibacy that already exist, for example in the Eastern Catholic rites or the Anglican Ordinariate?

An exception is transitory by definition and constitutes a parenthesis in the normal and natural state of things. This was the case of Anglican pastors returning to full communion. But the lack of a priest is not an exception. It is the normal state of any nascent Church, as in the Amazon, or dying Churches, as in the West. Jesus warned us: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” The ordination of married men in young Christian communities would prohibit the raising of vocations of unmarried priests. The exception would become a permanent state. A weakening of the principle of celibacy, even if limited to one region, would not be an exception, but a breach, a wound in the internal coherence of the priesthood. On the other hand, the dignity and greatness of marriage is increasingly better understood. As Benedict XVI points out in this book, these two states are not compatible because they both demand an absolute and total gift.

In the East, some churches have married clergy. I do not in any way question the personal holiness of these priests. But such a situation is only livable because of the massive presence of monks. Moreover, from the point of view of the sign given to the whole Church by the priesthood, there is a risk of confusion. If a priest is married, then he has a private life, a conjugal and family life. He must make time for his wife and children. He is unable to show, by his whole life, that he is totally and absolutely given to God and the Church. St. John Paul II stated it very clearly: The Church wants to be loved by her priests with the very love with which Jesus loved her, that is to say, with an exclusive spouse’s love. It is important, the saintly Polish pope said, that priests understand the theological motivation of their celibacy. He said: “Priestly celibacy should not be considered just as a legal norm or as a totally external condition for admission to ordination, but rather as a value that is profoundly connected with ordination, whereby a man takes on the likeness of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd and Spouse of the Church” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 50). This is what we wanted to recall with Benedict XVI. The true foundation of celibacy is not juridical, disciplinary or practical; it is theocentric. On this subject I refer you to the extraordinary speech of Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia on Dec. 22, 2006. Celibacy for God is an absurdity in the eyes of the secularized and atheistic world. Celibacy is a scandal for the contemporary mind. It shows that God is a reality. If the life of priests does not concretely show that God is enough to make us happy and to give meaning to our existence, then who will proclaim him? More than ever our societies need celibacy because they need God.

What Will It Say Regarding Clerical Celibacy?

CWR Dispatch: Pope’s exhortation on Amazon synod to come out next week
Sources say something similar to the process for ordaining married Anglican clergy coming into communion with Rome is being suggested in the case of the Amazon.

A Secular Endorsement Worth Having?

NCReg: UNESCO Recognizes Byzantine Chant as Part of World’s Treasured Heritage
Byzantine chant takes its place among 42 other traditions and practices recognized by the United Nations as part of the shared intangible patrimony of humanity.
Peter Jesserer Smith

Eastern Christian Books: Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Nazis

Eastern Christian Books: Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky and the Nazis

Brill: Metropolit Andrey Graf Sheptytskyj und das NS-Regime

Part 2 of Echeverria's Critique of Francis

CWR: Making sense of Pope Francis on faith, evangelization, and proselytizing (Part II) by Eduardo Echeverria

Does Francis recognize that the Church makes determinate truth claims, and hence that the central truth claims of Christianity conflict with the truth claims of other religions about God?

Feast of the Presentation

“Does the Father Want the Son to Die? Aquinas on Christ's Passion and the Trinity”

CNA/CWR summary

Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Genie Back in the Bottle?

Rorate Caeli: Exclusive: Francis “is not opening up” to viri probati and the priesthood for married men

Keeping Museum Pieces?

Perhaps traditionalists monastic communities will continue to grow and there will be a use for side altars. But what about diocesan temples? What will prevent the further contraction of the size of Latin local churches?



NLM

Pope Francis Is No Theologian

But he does theology nonetheless.

CWR: Making sense of Pope Francis on faith, evangelization, and proselytizing by Eduardo Echeverria

Pope Francis diminishes the significance of the fides quae creditur, the beliefs which one holds to be true, affirms, and asserts, in the initial evangelical encounter. However, there is no such thing as a non-doctrinal encounter.

Eastern Christian Books: John McGuckin's New History of Orthodoxy

Eastern Christian Books: John McGuckin's New History of Orthodoxy

Yale University Press: The Eastern Orthodox Church: A New History

Machinations in Germany

NCReg: German ‘Synodal Path’ Aims to Shape Vatican Decisions, Says Plan’s Architect by Edward Pentin
‘We believe it is unacceptable that all issues decided in Rome, now and in the future, should be taken largely without the participation of the ...

CWR Dispatch: Analysis: Pope Francis and the Germans by Ed Condon for CNA

Timothy Noone on the Semiotics of Augustine

TAC Lecture: Dr. Timothy B. Noone: “Augustine on Words, Signs, Thought, and Things in De Magistro”

Ecclesiology Has Consequences

Never mind that the Roman Code does not apply to any church outside of the patriarchate of Rome.

Latin ecclesiology shapes/informs Latin canon law. (As Latin canon law is particular to the patriarchate of Rome alone, it cannot be used as a source of Tradition, as it is not derived from or accepted by the Church Universal.)

"The first see is judged by no one." (Canon 1556 of the 1917 Code, canon 104 of the new code.)

Ed Peters: A canonical primer on popes and heresy

In sum, it needs to be said clearly that a [publicly] heretical Roman Pontiff loses his power upon the very fact. Meanwhile a declaratory criminal sentence, although it is merely declaratory, should not be disregarded, for it brings it about, not that a pope is “judged” to be a heretic, but rather, that he is shown to have been found heretical, that is, a general council declares the fact of the crime by which a pope has separated himself from the Church and has lost his rank.

How does this solve the problem? A general council can make a statement that the pope has committed heresy but it cannot judge (that is, it does not have the legal authority to judge him guilty of a crime and give a punishment)? How is the former at all binding?

Related:
The heresy letter is intelligent, but doesn’t quite convince

2020 Sacred Liturgy Conference

NLM

Fr. Stephen Brock, "Aquinas and the Life of the Mind"

World Over Discussion of That Book

More on Rights

Thomistic Institute NYC

Cardinal Sarah Responds to His Critics

NCReg: Cardinal Sarah Calls For End to ‘Sterile Controversy’ Over Celibacy Book by Edward Pentin
The Vatican cardinal urges the faithful to cease discussing ‘ridiculous side issues’ over the book and to read the ‘essential question’ it covers instead.

Related: Looking East: Book on celibacy barely acknowledges Eastern tradition

David Bentley Hart's Objection to the Existence of Hell

Al Kimel summarizes in Apprehending Apokatastasis: The Incoherence of Everlasting Perdition:

1) The doctrine of creatio ex nihilo asserts the absolute liberty of the Creator in all of his acts. As the infinite plenitude of Being, God did not need to create the cosmos to fill some­thing that was lacking in his life (remember—no passive potency) and having created it he does not find that his happiness and bliss have been increased. Moreover, not only does God enjoy absolute freedom to create, or not create, the cosmos; but he also enjoys absolute freedom in what kind of cosmos to create. He is not subject to constraints outside himself.

Nothing remarkable so far. This is just the classical doctrine of divine aseity which Hart has so ably presented in The Experience of God.

2) God eternally wills himself as the Good, and his willing of the cosmos is encompassed within this eternal self-willing. The purpose, telos, goal, consummation, and end of the divine act of creation is the Good; or to put it in the language of Aristotle, God is the final cause of creation. The cosmos is created by Love out of Love toward consummation in Love.

In the background we hear the voices of St Gregory of Nyssa and St Maximus the Confessor, as well as Dionysius the Areopagite and St Thomas Aquinas.

3) God does not create evil. Only goodness flows from God. For this reason the classical theologians of the Christian tradition have understood evil as a privation of being, a defect, lack, surd, nothingness. The presence of evil within God’s good creation urgently raises the question of theodicy. The question cannot be banished with a mere wave of a philosoph­ical wand. Evil will always be the greatest challenge to faith, both intellectually and existen­tially. It’s one thing to acknowledge, and suffer, evil’s presence in the temporal order; it’s quite another thing to assert its eschatological perdurance.

4) The eschaton, therefore, necessarily and definitively reveals the character and identity of the Creator. The conclusion of the story can neither surprise nor disappoint him, for the conclusion is willed in the initial act of creation. Hence the presence of evil in the eschaton is quite impossible. In Hart’s words: “He could not be the creator of anything substantially evil without evil also being part of the definition of who he essentially is.” Here is the cru­cial Hartian claim: if everlasting perdition belongs to the climax of the cosmic narrative, then it was so intended by God from the beginning. Every free act is teleologically directed and therefore defined by its final cause. The inference cannot be avoided. After all, nothing compelled God to create this particular universe with this particular eschaton, and the omnipo­tence–omniscience combo precludes divine failure. If hell was intended, then it is good and inheres in the Good; if hell is intended, then hell becomes God.

To summarize: in his goodness the triune God creates the cosmos for consummation in his infinite goodness. All comes from Love and returns to Love. The Creator is both material cause and final cause. The eschaton, therefore, is not simply the climax of a story. It is the final revelation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the fullness of their lordship and glory. In the words of the Apostle:

And, when all things have been subordinated to him, then will the Son himself also be subordinated to the one who has subordinated all things to him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:28)

God will be all in all. This is the eschatological promise. How then hell everlasting?

The above reasoning leads Hart to the conclu­sion that a pernicious incoherence lies deep within the theological tradition. For the past 1500 years the Church has asserted three claims:

• God freely created the cosmos ex nihilo.
• God is the Good and wills only the good.
• God will condemn a portion of his rational creatures to everlasting torment.

Two of these propositions may be rationally held without contradiction, argues Hart, but not all three simultaneously.

And Apprehending Apokatastasis: Revealing the God Behind the Curtain

Interview with Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P.

CWR: The fundamental crisis of contemporary culture and the wisdom of St. Thomas
“The division between the mind and reality,” says Fr. Cajetan Cuddy, O.P., “and the project of self-creation, has sparked the disunity between us and all others.”

CWR: How would you define “Thomism”?
Fr. Cajetan: I recently had the honor of answering a form of this question in a video interview (“Thomism and Intellectual Monasticism”) conducted by iAquinas. Several additional points, however, come to mind.

The person of Thomas Aquinas: Thomism is more than the repetition of Thomas’s words and phrases or the imitation of his literary style. Thomas did not posit himself as the goal of Christian thought. Although he gave intellectual shape to the tradition that bears his name, the object of his teaching resides outside of Thomas’s person. In his writings, Thomas largely ignored himself because he found reality to be far more interesting. Were he to speak to us today, he would undoubtedly discourage students from embarking on something like a “Quest for the Historical Thomas” if this were to distract them from taking up Thomas’s own project: the quest for truth. A Thomistic gaze is not so much oriented to Thomas himself as it is to what Thomas knew (and whom he loved). Therefore, Thomism is a way of thinking that searches with Thomas for the truth about reality (and, ultimately, the truth about God).

Wisdom: Consequently, Thomas Aquinas hands on (“traditions”) to his students something much more precious than a collection of erudite books. Thomas’s true gift—and the essence of Thomism—is a way of wise thinking governed by first principles. And it is here that we distinguish wisdom from the memorization of facts. Wisdom and native intelligence are not the same thing. Smart people can formulate stimulating ideas in their minds. Wise people allow their minds to be formed by the most fundamental truths. Wisdom enables us to recognize—and to promote—order. The contemporary world is dominated by an overwhelming amount of information. Not all information is created equal, however. And, as a wise teacher, Thomas identifies the most important truths – the “first truths” (or “first principles”) that configure all knowledge in all contexts. Chief among the first truths is this: being and nothingness are really distinct. Thomas recognized that all other truths proceed from this foundational principle. His graced genius enabled him to see profound depths in – and to recognize the universal implications of – the nature of being. Therefore, Thomism approaches all of reality in light of the “first truths” that underlie everything that exists – everything from a blade of grass, to the squirrel, to the newborn baby, to marriage, to the Church, to God. “Thomism” receives its name from Thomas because he is the one who identified which principles are absolutely primordial. And “Thomists” see how these first truths permeate all aspects of thought and life.

“Intellectual Monasticism”: Interestingly, amidst the noise and chaos of contemporary life, there has been a renewed interest in monasticism and contemplation. (See, for example, Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Optionand Cardinal Robert Sarah’s The Power of Silence.) Everyone pines for “peace of mind.” This is unsurprising. Tranquility and thought are essential parts of human experience. All of the most important elements of our lives involve rational reflection—the kind of career we pursue, whom we choose to marry, how we raise our children, what our political affiliations will be, etc. Thomas Aquinas offers an ordered way of thinking that shapes the intellect just as a monastic rule shapes the rhythms of human living. I like to describe Thomism as an intellectual monasticism. Monasticism orders all aspects of human life around God—time, work, recreation, and even the very architecture of the monastery are God-directed. Thomism orders all aspects of human thought around the highest truths. Each of Thomas’s “first truths” serve as the “building blocks” upon which the “intellectual monastery” is constructed in the soul of the Thomist.

To summarize: Thomism is a wise – ordered – way of thought that reflects Thomas’s consecration to the truth. The truth alone enables one to find abiding peace, authentic freedom, and real happiness. And only the truth has grace.

Roberto de Mattei on Acies Ordinate

Rorate Caeli: “La Verità” Newspaper interviews Professor Roberto de Mattei

Fr. Dominic Legge on Rights

SCL 2020

NLM