The MM Show is Ending! Thank you for learning and growing with me. The book is left open, but the pen has been put away in the lock box for the future.

I have always appreciated not just the library of knowledge @TheModernMonarchist possesses, not just the clarity with which he shares it, but also the unyielding dedication he evidently has for his craft.

For my part, the doors will always be open to ponder some Tolkien by the hearth.

The Feast of St Thomas Aquinas
At the end of the 19th century, Pope Leo XIII placed St Thomas’ theology back at the centre of Catholic thought, and in opposition to the emerging modernist philosophies. Most are familiar with Pope Leo XIII’s 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris, on the restoration of Christian philosophy. He asks for us to seek the same humility St Thomas shows in the use of his great gifts:

“Therefore in this also let us follow the example of the Angelic Doctor, who never gave himself to reading or writing without first begging the blessing of God, who modestly confessed that whatever he knew he had acquired not so much by his own study and labor as by the divine gift; and therefore let us all, in humble and united prayer, beseech God to send forth the spirit of knowledge and of understanding to the children of the Church and open their senses for the understanding of wisdom.”

In continuity with Pope Leo XIII, and amidst the relentless fight against modernism, Pope St Pius X asserts that St Thomas’ “divine genius fashioned weapons marvelously suited to protect the truth and destroy the many errors of the times”. Abandoning St Thomas now meant at least great harm to a Christian, and at worst abandoning the Church.

Let us beg, on his Feast day, in humble submission, for the graces to wield these weapons St Thomas left us, and for the courage to defend our Holy Mother Church on today’s spiritual battlefield.

Sancte Thoma de Aquino, ora pro nobis.

Francis says homosexuality is not a crime

In a recent interview, Francis says that homosexuality is “not a crime, it’s a human condition”, and calls laws against homosexuality “unfair”.

To the latter I answer that of course anti-sodomy laws are just, as it is the duty of any pious state to conform its laws to the laws of God, and thus to the teachings of the Church. I will discuss the relation between religious and secular authority in later posts. Here let me focus on the vice of homosexuality.

So, is homosexuality a human condition? It is not. God does not create homosexuals. These torments are rather a consequence of grave sin and unbelief, as St Paul teaches.

“For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature.
And in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.”
— Romans 1: 26-27

Indeed, this vice seems to be so clearly wicked and unnatural, that even cultures outside the light of Christ have considered it so.

The only natural sexual act is one which takes place within a marriage between a man and a woman for the purposes of creating a new life. All else is sodomy. The Church’s condemnation of homosexuality, as Francis seems to recognise himself in the interview, is ancient. From the early Church Fathers, to St Thomas Aquinas, to the Inquisition, surely this condemnation is unambiguous.

But of course the claim to ambiguity is Francis’ defenders’ favourite shield. Just as long as they can cope by “interpreting his words in light of tradition”, they are content and shall cal him “Holy Father”.

But the Church does not speak in ambiguities. How many more Catholic teachings would Francis have to corrupt and deny for his supporters to see him for what he really is?

A false shepherd.