A Catholic Critique of National Socialism

ALOIS Karl Hudal (1885-1963) was a German Catholic theologian and bishop in his prime during the rise of National Socialism in Germany. American Reform at Substack has posted about Hudal's important observations on the subject of race: Hudal was an advocate of German nationalism and believed in the need for a reconciliation between Christianity and certain aspects of National Socialism. In 1937, he published Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus (The Foundations of National Socialism), in which he sought to create a bridge between the Catholic Church and the German Reich. Years earlier, in defense of the Church, he played an instrumental role in securing a reproval of several anti-Christian National Socialist ideologues, notably Alfred Rosenberg and Ernst Bergmann. Their works, The Myth of the Twentieth Century and The German National Church, respectively, were condemned by the Holy Office, based on his analysis. His book on National Socialism, making a key distinction between Christian and unchristian strains in the movement, was delivered to Adolf Hitler, bearing the handwritten note of dedication, praising him as “the new Siegfried of German greatness”. This same work would receive an imprimatur from Cardinal Innitzer, an Austrian prelate, in 1937. AR includes an excerpt from the book and it is highly relevant. Bishop Hudal wrote: A solid racial science, a prudent racial care and therefore a racial protection within certain limits is something that is entirely desirable and necessary. But racial research must never become a playground for dilettantism. It would be regrettable if…

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On Just Anger

"IRE may be understood in two ways. "In one way, as a simple movement of the will that inflicts punishment not through passion, but by virtue of a judgment of the reason: and in this case, without a doubt, lack of ire is a sin. This is how Chrysostom understands ire when he says: ‘Ire, when it has a cause, is not ire but judgment. For properly speaking, ire is a movement of passion. And when a man is irate with just cause, his ire does not derive from passion. Rather, it is an act of judgment, not of ire.” "In another way, ire can be understood as a movement of the sensitive appetite agitated by passion with bodily excitation. This movement is a necessary sequel in man to the previous movement of his will, since the lower appetite naturally follows the movement of the higher appetite unless some obstacle prevents it. Hence the movement of ire in the sensitive appetite cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will is altogether lacking or weak. Consequently, the lack of the passion of ire is also a vice, as it is the lack of movement in the will to punish according to the judgment of reason." -- St. Thomas Aquinas  

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Crown of Thorns

"Go forth and see king Solomon, that is, Christ, in His diadem, that is to say, the crown of thorns with which His mother the Synagogue has crowned Him; in the day of His espousals, the day when He joined to Himself the Church; and in the day of the joy of His heart, the day in which He rejoiced that by His Passion He was delivering the world from the power of the devil. Go forth, therefore, and leave behind the darkness of unbelief, and see, understand with your minds that He who suffers as man is really God." --- St. Thomas Aquinas, Meditations for Each Day of Lent  

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Lenten Thoughts

BE ye not like unto horse and mule, who have no understanding. With bit and bridle bind fast the jaws of those who come not nigh unto Thee. Many are the scourges of the sinner, but mercy shall compass him that hopeth in the Lord. Be glad, O ye just, and rejoice in the Lord; and glory all ye that are right of heart. --- Psalm 31  

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Staged Tariff War and Carbon Tax

THE goal of the Trump administration is to discredit American conservatism once and for all. This is what Communists do -- sabotage economies to weaken all resistance so they can take control. (Video source)  

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Trump, the Communist

"TRUMP’S actions towards Ukraine are catalyzing the European Union to organize into a cohesive, socialist government with a standing army. Russia and China are becoming closer and are emboldened to unite along with the central Asian countries and become a third geopolitical Communist big space. Thus, under Trump we are seeing three of the socialist multipolarity powers rise with the others soon to emerge. These transnational socialist governments will and are completely divorced from their ethnos and only serve as a stepping stone towards unified world Communist government. "Trump is rabidly pro-immigration. Deportations are down; the last statics show that deportations have been halved since he took office. Trump’s shadow-consiglieri, Musk, is on record as saying he will die for H1B1 visas. Many in Trump’s presidential clique are Indian, including the director of the FBI, Czar of AI, Vivek Ramaswamy, and his Vice President James Downsyndrome Vance. Trump is on record saying he will sell off American citizenship. These are not the actions of a fascist, but rather the actions of a Communist who is rebelling against the races and peoples diversely created by God. It is a rebellion which seeks to de-legitimize the natural authority a people should have over themselves through their government and replace it with very smelly mercenaries. It is the Communist who seeks to miscegenate his own people to evolve them into something lower than what God has created them to be." Read more here.…

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Works of Satisfaction

"[A]LL kinds of satisfaction are reducible to three heads: prayer, fasting and almsdeeds, which correspond to three kinds of goods which we have received from God, those of the soul, those of the body and what are called external goods." --- Catechism of the Council of Trent  

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Ash Wednesday

 "LAY not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where thy treasure is, there thy heart is also. ---- Matthew, 6:19-21  

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The Happiness of Lent

LENT is often mistaken for a grim season. The truth is that, when observed well, it can be not only the happiest time of year, but the path to a generally happier life. Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more. John 5:14 Many people practice Buddhist-style meditation or "mindfulness" today, seeking to empty themselves and draw closer to an ambient, mindless force. Lenten meditation and repentance, by contrast, involve filling oneself up with the divine existence of God. He is mindfulness itself. Happiness consists in meaning. Happiness is loving the truth, even the truth of our own depravity. "Man can be made happy, not by things, but by life," Fr. Edward Leen wrote in Why the Cross?, "Mere existence cannot give him beatitude. He becomes happy when existence is transformed into veritable life by being brought into contact with Life itself. Without the Saviour man would exist, but would not live. Hence Jesus states that the purpose of His coming is that man might have life and have it in ever increasing measure. Life expresses itself in appropriate activity." “Lent” is from an Old English word “lencten” meaning spring. As this French Lenten hymn reminds us, Lent partakes of gladness: To bow the head In sackcloth and in ashes, Or rend the soul, Such grief is not Lent’s goal; But to be led To where God’s glory flashes, His beauty to come nigh, To fly, to fly, To fly where truth…

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The Vatican II Trainwreck in Africa

SUPPORTERS of Vatican II, when faced with its shocking fruits in the West, sometimes point to growth and success in Africa as a hopeful contrast to disastrous decline. The numbers are up by many millions in Africa, they say. Some even argue the “reform” was all necessary because the Church needed to be de-Westernized. Africans and Asians being incapable — so they say — of appreciating the solemn and ancient liturgies, only the great watering down and “evolution” of Vatican II could have accomplished that de-Europeanization.

The writer George Neumayr visited Africa in 2022 and 2023, hoping to write a book on this very subject. What he found was contrary to this idea of a “vibrant” Africa.

Writing in American Spectator, he described his visits to Côte d’Ivoire, the former French colony where the faith was robust and growing in the first half of the 20th century. His observations are collected in a new book published by Os Justi Press, Is African Catholicism a “Vatican II Success Story?”  with co-authors Peter Kwasniewski, Claudio Slavucci and an “African seminarian.” While I cannot recommend these authors on the general meaning of Vatican II, this book is a perceptive glance at Africa since the robber council.

Neumayr wrote:

But all that momentum is now gone and the Church in Côte d’Ivoire is a shadow of its former self. Today’s Catholic priests offer not unvarnished Catholicism but its pitiful “social justice” variant, a blend of socialist politics, modernist theology, and ecumenical babble. (more…)

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Trump’s Alleged Child Sex Settlements

"DONALD Trump has paid roughly $30 million to settle child-sex complaints brought against him since 1989, according to a D.C.-based investigative journalist. "Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), which is a subscription site, describes the settlements in a Jan 14-15 post titled 'Why is Trump so afraid of Cohen's testimony?'" Read more.  

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On Consideration

"UNLESS we ponder and consider the mysteries of our faith, our faith is as it were a letter closed up, and sealed." --- Ven. Louis of Grenada, Of Prayer and Meditation  

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Hoity-Toity Evangelicals

FUNNY and true comments from J.D. Hall:

These men choose their political beliefs like they choose their theology; they choose whatever belief that is least likely to bring controversy to their door step, as close to the middle as they can possibly get, so as to offend the least number of God’s enemies as is humanly possible while still keeping up the facade that they’re conservatives. (more…)

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We Can’t Even Trust the Weather

S. writes: I hope this finds you well. I remember a few months ago there was a discussion on your blog about the flooding in Western North Carolina and other areas from hurricane Helene and whether the weather could actually be modified to make storms more severe. I thought I would send this old short film I just found. It seems they have been working on this technology for a while.  

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