The Catholic Message Board

In general, I would say, that truth can never be a threat to the faith, even unpleasant ones that we would rather not admit.

peregrinator wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 8:22 pm

Obi-Wan Kenobi wrote: ↑Wed May 14, 2025 7:51 pm Trump and Pope Francis both are/were populists.

Was definitely odd when Pope Francis said that populism was bad

Which is actually typical of populists, "I'm not a populist but the people who oppose me are" is characteristic of populists.

Just noted a call for the Pope to denounce the President's immigration actions. That call is not the point; the point is the expectation that the Pope should become involved in US domestic politics ... progressively. Popes speak out about the polices and issues which they believe conflict with Cath...

I wasn't talking about any of the sources you suggested, of which I am unfamiliar; it's a general principle, better to be bluntly honest about the problems in the Church and the scandals of the past than to try to hide them and create unnecessary scandal. Look at Mormonism as an example, new convert...

zeno wrote: ↑Mon May 12, 2025 11:23 pm Maybe not the best choice for a foundational source, though.

However, neither is a hagiographic source, because when one views the Church through rose-colored glasses, it can be Earth-shattering and faith-shattering to learn of the various scandals that have arisen over the centuries.

Irenaeus wrote: ↑Tue May 13, 2025 4:32 pm A Dictionary of Popes from Oxford University Press. I have this in digital format for the Kindle Reader apps on my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Pro.

I did recommend that one, it isn't very in-depth, but is at least useful for helping distinguish Popes one from another

Obi-Wan Kenobi wrote: ↑Mon May 12, 2025 12:02 pm What you want is a good history of the Church. I wish I had one to recommend. The common ones all have strong axe-grinding going on.

Bur sometimes being aware of the views of the critics can be useful, I tend to seek out books that I know I am going to disagree with.

That book is not very accurate though, it perpetuates the myth of the "Papal Oath", which was supposedly said by every Pope for more than 1,000 years until John Paul I refused to say it (or in some versions of the legend, Paul VI or John XXIII were the first to omit it), yet the "oath...

A book written in the 1950's is a vague description, if you were not thinking of the famous one, I have no idea what it could be.

I almost forgot, the late Frank J Coppa was an excellent Papal historian. He focused on the era since 1789, and wrote excellent biographies of Pius IX and Pius XII. These books are not uncritical, but I do believe they are fair; his works are not a hatchet job nor a hagiography. "Pio Nono"...

I can recommend several books, but if what you want is a hagiographical book that says every Pope was great, well, I don't read those kinds of books. Some other books I can recommend include (general histories" "Saints and Sinners" by Eamon Duffy, excessively skeptical of the early Ch...

Can anyone recommend a book or books about the popes? I am not looking for biographical information, rather, I want to learn about each papacy so I can map out how things changed over the centuries, for better or worse. There was one published in the late 50s, so it's missing the last 5, plus the c...

anawim wrote: ↑Thu May 08, 2025 4:25 pm As an undergraduate, he majored in math....

So he knows both sin and cos

One commentator on YouTube, Redeemed Zoomer, who is a Presbyterian put it best when he said yesterday that “The Catholic Church is the main character in history”, this is why the death of a Pope and the election of a successor is given so much attention and coverage. Every person on the planet has a...

Don't give her more ideas

Her name is Noel Frame, she is a former Catholic who says she left the Church because she was outraged when she learned about the seal of the confessional, and has spent the last 4 years aggressively pushing for a law that would outlaw secrecy in confession, the other law she had advocated would rem...

Riverboat wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 9:31 am

Doom wrote: ↑Wed May 07, 2025 6:58 am But the real culprit is the Attorney General an angry former Catholic [woman] with an axe to grind.

My web search yields Nick Brown. Are you thinking of Christine Gregoire?

Frame

He's Catholic. Also, note that a majority of both houses voted in favor. More grandstanding. But the real culprit is the Attorney General an angry former Catholic with an axe to grind. She spen 4 years pushing for this law, she has also been pushing a law to force churches to perform gay marriages....

The bishops have already renounced the law and said they will not comply and that any priest who does comply will be excommunicated

Under the law, proposed by the Attorney General, who also wants a law forcing churches to perform gay marriages, priests would be required to tell the police if someone confesses sexual abuse during confession, something which I have to assume rarely, if ever happens, and they will go to jail if the...