A traditional Catholic theologian on clerical celibacy

The following extract is taken from Adolphe Tanquerey's Synopsis Theologiae Moralis et Pastoralis (1922).

The papal conclave

The next Pope will be elected by the most exclusive club in the world, the Sacred College of Cardinals (on whom see more here).

The Prayer to St Michael - A lesser-known piece of Catholic folklore

Before the Catholic liturgy was reformed in the 1960s, every Low Mass in the world ended with the recitation, in the local language, of a set of prayers known as the "Leonine Prayers" or the "Prayers for Russia".  These prayers are still sometimes recited today after celebrations of the Tridentine Mass.

Bishop Richard Williamson - Fall of a Wykehamist

As all watchers of the Catholic extreme right must know by now, Bishop Richard Williamson has been expelled from the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX).  This development has been years, if not decades, in the making, and is fascinating on a number of levels.  A great English eccentric, Williamson is a highly cultured, charismatic and intellectually gifted man.  He is also a political extremist and conspiracy theorist who has managed to alienate most of his fellow traditionalist Catholics, and who now finds himself cast into ecclesial outer darkness.  He would be a gift to a novelist.

Blasphemy in English law

New post on my constitutional law blog.

Some examples of "cases of conscience"

See also here

Some sample casus conscientiae (cases of conscience) taken from the early 20th century Catholic publication The Casuist.

Review of "Goddess Unmasked" by Philip G. Davis

This book is Triumph of the Moon's evil twin.  It is a work in roughly the same genre - a well-researched academic inquiry into the historical and cultural roots of contemporary neopaganism.  The difference is that, while Triumph (published in 1999) was written from a broadly neutral perspective by an author who was sympathetic to neopagans, this book (published in 1998) is a hostile critique written by a conservative Christian.