The Intellectual Foundation of Catholocism

Jimmy Akin has a great post on an interview with Frank Beckwith at the National Catholic Register. In the interview he discusses the intellectual foundation of the faith and the misrepresentation of Catholic teaching by protestants and evangelicals.

I think GK Chesterton said this, although I could be wrong so please correct me if I am. Of course I'm paraphrasing from memory:

"There are many people who hate what they think is the Catholic Church, but few who actually hate the Church"

Organist Fired for Selling for Pure Romance

I would like to applaud the priest in this story. It is not easy to do the right thing. People always perceive the actions of the church as discriminatory. The priest did not say this woman had to quite her job selling sex toys. He simply said it was inconsistent with Catholic teaching, and that she would have to choose whether to continue her duties with the Church or Pure Romance, but she could not do both. It was her choice. She exercised her free will, and the Church did not interfere.

The tone of the story is slightly derogatory to the Church and the priest involved. The priest doesn't even condemn all of the products Pure Romance sells. He says some of the products are inconsistent with church teaching, and he's right. He handled it in a very restrained and loving way. Why do people constantly want the Church to bend to their ideas? One of the things that is great about the Catholic Church is the consistency of the teachings. I can understand acting out of ignorance, and sinning because of the human condition. However, once you are aware of the teaching, to act willfully and consistently in opposition to it is to choose not to be Catholic.

That's up to the individual, but don't ask the Church to change teaching just so you can remain Catholic and continue sinful behavior.

International Sex Trafficking Ring in Minnesota

Like I've been saying, this is happening almost daily now. Via Power Line comes this report of the indictment of 25 people involved in smuggling illegal immigrants to Minnesota who were then kept as slaves to work in the sex industry there. It seems most are more interested in the immigration aspect of this story, since the government in Minnesota has taken a laissez faire approach to immigration policy. Still, the more interesting thing to me is that there is enough demand, in Minnesota of all places, for an international sex trafficking ring to take root there.

Congratulations Father Chris Decker!

I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Fr. Chris Decker who was ordained over the weekend. If you don't know him, he is the host of The Catholic Underground, a podcast that is well worth your time. I've been listening to it for about six months now, and it is entertaining and enlightening. Here is the text of the homily given at the ordination mass.

New Study Finds Non-Contraceptive Sex Acts as an Antidepressant for Women

A new study outlined in Psychology Today claims that women who have sex without condoms gain an antidepressant effect. The author writes:

"Study author Gordon G. Gallup, Ph.D., a psychologist at the State University of New York in Albany, also found that women who routinely had intercourse without condoms became increasingly depressed as more time elapsed since their last sexual encounter. There was no such correlation for women whose partners regularly used condoms."

The study attributes this to chemicals in the semen. Reductionist science at work. To me it's just more proof that God's plan for sex and marriage has more benefits than we can imagine. Someday the science will catch up with what the church teaches.

HT - Instapundit