Implicit in this is the premise that inflected languages are ipso facto unsuitable for international communication. I just don't see why that should be the case. Latin in all its complexity still became the language of an empire. Indeed its influence and words sprinkles the vocabularies of...
I'm sorry you feel that way. I for one think it's an equitable solution. A common diplomatic language not native to any nation and thus not privileging any particular nation.
A compromise would be to make Classical Greek an associate language. I privilege Latin over Greek due to Latin's larger...
I think it's unfair to blame an actor for not knowing a live round was in a prop gun. Especially considering the gun was handed to him by the another. And of course he was pointing the gun at people, as (IIRC) they were taking camera shots and planning out a scene. But I do think whoever is...
Common sense and context. Saying the Bible should be interpreted literally is not the same as saying that everything in the Bible is literal. It's not cherry-picking in the slightest to take creation literally while seeing Jesus' amputation advice as a hyperbolic statement meant to make a point...
Jesus' instructions to remove troublesome troublesome body parts is clearly hyperbolic. The point is to avoid the occasions of sin not to mutilate yourself.
As for the creation account I'm sympathetic to the young earth creationists in that I think they're right about the intended...
Reincarnation is not an article of Christian faith. You cannot believe in reincarnation and claim a commitment to Christian orthodoxy. As for me personally, I have in the past speculated about its possibility; so while I do not affirm the doctrine but I do not completely deny that it could be...
I wouldn't expect irrational mobs prone to hair-trigger lynchings to have any time for the nuances of historical Islamic jurisprudence.
I recall reading that the Hanafi school Pakistan claims to follow does not mandate automatic death sentences for non-Muslim blasphemers. Pakistan's obsession...
In this tired discussion 'pagan' means little more than anything not explicitly endorsed by a certain kind of fundamentalist Protestant reading of the Bible exemplified these days mostly by the JWs.
Rorate Caeli is one of my favorites and that particular rendition of it is wonderful. I think the cantor's French accent only adds to the charm of the Latin.
The predestination of the elect is de fide. It's Catholic dogma.
As far as this discussion is concerned, free will is our ability to cooperate with or reject the promptings of divine grace. To perform a salutary act without divine help is as impossible as choosing fly by flapping my arms. Free...
Who says they are? Catholic teaching has never claimed that all sin is of equal seriousness.
And? The point is that no one can become a saint without divine help. Which is the issue. Pelagianism in a nutshell is the doctrine that man can perform salutary acts independent of divine help. That...
Sin is inevitable, both on a personal and corporate level. But that does not in any way diminish our culpability for our moral failures. No one is preordained to sin but by their willed rejection of divine grace: a willful turning away from the law of God. Catholicism teaches that we need divine...
I think it is in part a consequence of inflated expectations driven by modern consumer convenience. The expectation of instant gratification has become so entrenched that many people simply cannot deal with either inconvenience or not getting what they want the moment they want it. Others are...
Trent said the same thing; that its liturgy was perpetual, now and forever. So I take the current pope's claims about the Mass of Paul VI with large dose of salt. After all, if the pope has authority over the liturgy then there's no mechanism to prevent a future pope reversing the reforms or...
@pearl With respect, I find your most recent post to be beside the point.
That the liturgy in the second century may have been comparatively simple is not in my opinion a compelling argument for the Novus Ordo. It is not a compelling argument for a policy that if maintained will see the TLM...
As far as the TLM goes invest in a missal. It is not difficult to become familiar with the Ordinary of the Mass. It is the same every week. But in any case I don't actually object to the availability of vernacular Masses. I myself attend the Ordinariate which uses Early Modern English in its...