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Though I have written several articles about Pope Francis’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (AL), I am repeatedly struck anew, as time goes on, by its inexorably destructive implications. Despite AL’s generally good summary of Catholic teaching on marriage and the family, its moral subjectivism ultimately undermines not only the truths affirmed in the document, but also those of Catholic morality in general. And once truth is in doubt, there is no longer any stable basis for trust. AL certainly undermines the trust of Catholics entering marriage, as they become aware that in many countries and dioceses, perhaps even their...

WASHINGTON, DC, April 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – “If you insist upon the commandments, it’s like throwing stones at people.”   Famed Catholic author Janet Smith, speaking to a group gathered at The Catholic University of America (CUA), in Washington, DC on April 5, warned of new challenges to the Church’s teaching against contraception that will arise in coming years, centered around the concepts of conscience and discernment. In particular, theologians who Smith identifies as “discerners” will focus not on the authority of conscience as it is traditionally understood, but on a “very different understanding of what the conscience is. This is...

During Easter, not only did a German priest and monk declare that he could well imagine a female pope in the future, but Cardinal Christoph Schönborn – whom Pope Francis has called a “great theologian” and to whom the pope entrusted the public interpretation of Amoris Laetitia – gave an interview in which he appears to express the belief that a future ecumenical council could approve of the ordination of women to the priesthood. In an 1 April interview given to a group of Austrian journalists – prominently to some from the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, but also from the Salzburger Nachrichten...

Teenage killer Morgan Leppert laughs in disturbing police tapes as she admits to murdering disabled elderly manViewers heard the chilling laughter of child murderer Morgan Leppert in police interview tapes from ITV documentary Children Who Kill. The show saw presenter Susanna Reid meet Leppert, who was labelled the ‘blue eyed devil’ aged 15 when she was convicted of the murder of an elderly disabled man back in 2008. The 62-year-old man named James Stewart, was stabbed multiple times in his Florida home with metal rods and a knife, before being suffocated with a plastic bag by the teenager and her...

Retiring Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards urged abortion supporters to "fight back against the moralists who threaten women's freedom." She pointed to "a few bright spots we've seen in recent weeks that should encourage our faith in the ultimate victory of our cause." "First there was the virtually unanimous vote by House Democrats against requiring abortionists to render medical aid to infants who survive the procedure," Richards recounted. "This nonsensical Republican attempt to impose their own notion of what they call 'common human decency' would completely negate the purpose of the procedure. The mother came for the express purpose of...

Is Pope Francis a "Atheist" according Pope John Paul II? "When mortal men try to live without God, they infallibly succumb to megalomania or eratomania or both. The raised fist or the raised phallus; Nietzsche or D. H. Lawrence" (Malcolm Muggeridge) Certain teachings in Amoris Laetitia are exactly the opposite of Church doctrine in Familiaris Consortio and "explicitly atheist" according to Veritatis Splendor. Father Raymond J. de Souza said: "Veritatis Splendor, entitled 'Lest the Cross of Christ Be Emptied of Its Power,' warns precisely against the view that the demands of the moral life are too difficult and cannot be lived...

WHY PARAGRAPH 301 OF AMORIS LAETITIA IS SO PROFOUNDLY TROUBLING “When it is a matter of the moral norms prohibiting intrinsic evil, there are no privileges or exceptions for anyone. It makes no difference whether one is the master of the world or the “poorest of the poor” on the face of the earth. Before the demands of morality we are all absolutely equal.” (Saint Pope John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor, no. 96) Here is the very troubling passage from Amoris Laetitia (no. 301) which clearly suggests that a person can be in a “concrete situation” where he has no choice but to...

President Donald Trump said he’d promote commonsense policies that would “Make America Great Again” and would stand up to politically correct bullying from the left.So why isn’t he doing that in the case of religious freedom?Twice now, he has failed to stand up for commonsense policy on religious liberty when liberal opponents lashed out against it.Back in February, he caved to the protests of liberal special interest groups as he declined to issue an executive order on religious liberty that had been leaked to hostile press.And earlier today, he issued an executive order on “free speech and religious liberty” that...

FULL TITLE: The Little Sisters of the Poor Case Isn't About Contraception. It's About When the Government Can Force You to Violate Your Conscience. The real issue is more foundational, however: When an American says a law or regulation infringes on his conscience, under what circumstances should he be exempted from it, and under what circumstances should he be forced to comply anyway? It's a tricky question to which there isn't a fully established answer (though I've ruminated on the topic before). As Justice Stephen Breyer put it today, "I'm [still] trying to find the distinction between those things we...

(Full title):Black Delegate Rips Movement to Unbind Delegates: I'm Only As Good As My Word And Ask The Same Of You After the RNC Rules Committee decided to vote down a measure to unbind delegates using the "conscience clause" via a voice vote, a delegate made a plea for unity. Conversely, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) made an impassioned plea for delegates to vote their conscience. "I think our elections are important," Lee said to the committee. "They are essential and fundamental. Delegates traditionally have been considered honorbound to follow the decision of their state and they overwhelmingly have done so....

The amendment to unbind delegates and allow them to vote "their conscience" has been soundly defeated in the RNC Rules Committee

The left has always had great admiration for the conscientious objector. I know something about that because I was a kid in the late 60s and early 70s when the Vietnam War was being fought. Some people refused to serve in the war because of their deeply held religious beliefs. To those on the right they were cowards. To those on the left they were heroes. As the son of a military officer I got one side of the story. As a student in the public schools I got the other. My teachers did their best to convince me there...

Like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, psychopaths can be intelligent and charming, while hiding a lack of empathy. So given their ability to manipulate others, how easy it is for you to spot one? Self-professed psychopath Jacob Wells has revealed how he behaves in different situations and has listed questions that may help others identify whether they have any psychopathic traits - as well as recognise them in others.

Ironically, Beza found his "signal example"8 of how to deal with tyranny and resistance not so much in the work of early Calvinists as in the work of later Lutherans—particularly the Lutheran jurists and theologians who had drafted the Magdeburg Confession of 1550. The Magdeburg Confession was a major distillation of the most advanced Lutheran resistance theories of the day.9 The leaders of the small Saxon city of Magdeburg had drafted this Confession in response to the order of the Holy Roman Emperor to impose by civil law the uniform Catholic doctrines and liturgies being crafted by the Council of...

Conscience is King! And Ignorance is Bliss! Chicago’s Windy City Prelate Blase Cupich divines that the conscience is inviolable and reigns supreme in all things theological. In an interview with the National Catholic Register’s Edward Pentin, Archbishop Cupich, the personal appointment of Pope Francis to the Family Synod said when it comes to giving holy Communion to civilly remarried divorcees, people need to “come to a decision in good conscience” and that the Church’s job is to “help them move forward and to respect that.” “Conscience is inviolable,” the archbishop told the Vatican press reporters, “and we have to respect...

Pope Francis said on Monday government officials have a “human right” to refuse to discharge a duty, such as issuing marriage licenses to homosexuals, if they feel it violates their conscience.

Religious Protestants, Catholics, and Jews have been under strict scrutiny by the activist courts for violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment for simple, peaceful, and innocuous displays of religious symbols. Some of these religious symbols, such as a replica of the Ten Commandments, or references to God, such as the one in the Pledge of Allegiance, have been a part of this country since its founding. Yet, the legal community feels that anything short of eradicating public display of Judeo-Christian symbols violates the constitutional directive against establishing a national religion. Why shouldn’t paganism and secular agenda items, which...

n Instrumentum laboris (working paper) was prepared for the XIV Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and published on June 23, 2015. It covers a range of topics germane to the Synod’s theme of the family. Paragraph 137 addresses a key document of the modern Magisterium, Humanae Vitae, in a way that both calls the force of that teaching into question and proposes a method of moral discernment that is decidedly not Catholic. This approach to discernment contradicts what has hitherto been taught by the Magisterium of the Church about moral norms, conscience, and moral judgment, by suggesting that...

It goes without saying, as many conservative commentators have argued (see here, here, and here), that liberals who wax sanctimoniously about the “rule of law” in condemning Rowan County, Kentucky, Clerk Kim Davis for illegally refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, are being laughably inconsistent. The left cheered San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom for illegally granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004. They defend “sanctuary cities” that defy federal immigration law and local officials who refuse to comply with federal drug laws. In short, they are demonstrable hypocrites. But, beyond agreement on this collateral point, social and religious conservatives...

’m sympathetic to Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who has stopped signing marriage licenses. In her position, I’d do the same. Her decision was straightforward, it seems. After Obergefell, the Supreme Court decision mandating a national right to same-sex marriage, Davis decided that she could not affix her signature to documents perpetuating the falsehood that husbands can have husbands and wives have wives. To do so would be to act in a way contrary to her conscience as formed by her Christian faith. With admirable consistency, she decided to stop signing marriage licenses altogether, not wanting to discriminate...