De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

  You know something Pope Francis does is bad when Trent Horn comes out against it. You couldn't classify Trent, a full time apologist at Catholic Answers, as any kind of ideologue or extremist. He is careful, measured and informed. He does, however, recognise the extremely problematic nature of Pope Francis' selection of dissident Dominican Timothy Radcliffe for Cardinal at the next consistory. He even draws the line between Radcliffe and Cardinal Hume, while making clear the differences between their approaches. This shows how progressives like Radcliffe manipulate the legacy of respected Church men to further their own private agenda in contradiction to Catholic teaching. This deserves to be widely shared:

This is a great discussion from Trent Horn who puts together a really good argument which could be a better explanation of Pope Francis' condemnation of "proselytising". Because the pope's explanation is virtually impossible to understand if you ask me: "These so-called “evangelicals” preach prosperity. They promise a Gospel that does not know poverty, but simply seeks to make proselytes. This is exactly what Jesus condemns in the Pharisees of his time. I’ve said it many times: proselytism is not Christian." By contrast, Trent uses the idea from CS Lewis that an Atheist will get more from a well written science book written by a Christian  than a book by the same person on Christian apologetics which they will dismiss without reading. Developing the theme further, he explains how we need to build a bridge of love in order for the truth to heard. If we are all focused on love and therefore knowing and loving Jesus and sharing our love of Him and what we know...

One of the things I have really noticed lately is that, as the hierarchy melts into meaningless apathy, terrified of Francis, the Dictator Pope, lay people are stepping into the void. They are standing up for the faith that they love and they are speaking out, in place of the bishops, against the struggles that we face as Catholic families every day. People like One of Nine  Robert Nugent Brian Holdsworth Katherine Bennett Tim Gordon And, probably my current favourite; Trent Horn . All these producers are providing an invaluable service by creating and contributing to a vibrant online Catholic community, sharing the beauty of truth and discussing issues that are interesting and appropriate to Catholics.  Sadly we see our bishops addressing these issues less and less, and crapping on about climate change and illegal immigration more and more. A MASSIVE issue facing Catholic families is the LGBTQI+ political ideology which is an avalanche of wrong-headed madness being foisted on...

I came across this YouTube video from Trent Horn today and listened to the whole thing.  I do think that these sorts of discussions are absolutely essential given the stark contrast of Church teaching with a culture that continually pushes the boundaries of sexual morality. This discussion between Trent Horn and liberal/ progressive pastor, Brandon Robertson, encapsulates and analyses a lot of the ideas we see mainstreamed in society today without any pushback from the Catholic Church which, presently seems to only be interested in acceptance. This is extremely troubling because of what the Church actually teaches: that homosexual acts are sinful. To virtually everyone what the Catholic Church says and what it does are at odds. We can speculate as to why this is. The well known fact that many Catholic clergy are themselves subject to homosexual tendencies must be a factor in the Church’s silence. But given the teaching itself, such silence is fatal and screams of hypocrisy. Not on...

It is hard to understand why there is such confusion about this consistent teaching of the Church, but there is, and, for those of us who have studied the faith, it is a huge cause of pain to go to Mass on Sunday knowing that the queue for Holy Communion will far, far outnumber that for the Sacrament of Confession, and that all those who are receiving the blessed Sacrament unworthily will not benefit from the grace conferred by the Sacrament: it is not enough to perform an action, especially if there is no change of heart behind that action. What God wants is for us to change our hearts, our very way of being. And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men learned by rote; Isaiah 29:13   The blessed Sacrament may well be food for sinners, but dead people cannot eat. This is the whole sacramental theology of the Eucharist throughout Church history. Today...

Trent Horn is an adjunct professor of apologetics at Holy Apostles College and staff apologist at Catholic Answers. He has an academic, thorough style which avoids scoring easy points or driving traffic by focusing on scandal. This can make some of his YouTube videos quite difficult to watch unless you relish facts and dislike salacious or hyperbolic reporting. This is part of the reason I was surprised to see Trent doing a full video on Father James Martin . You know Father James, he's this guy: This is important. Father James Martin's reach and popularity is enormous. He has 300,000 Twitter followers, far more than any other American bishop or priest or lay Catholic commentator, and he Tweets a lot. Why does he have so many followers? Well because he has exposure born of the fact that he is a priest who speaks against the Church and Church teaching. He doesn't do this explicitly or angrily. He does it subtly and gently and in the name of love. But he IS doing it and he i...