Saturday, May 28, 2011

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Waiting for the Rapture


The Bad Catholic has been patiently waiting for the Rapture of the Fundamentalist Protestant Evangelical Church led by Preacher Harold Camping. Under Pastor Camping's Pre-Millennial Dispensational Theology, the Bad Catholic and other "Heathen Papists" can expect to be left behind not being "Real Christians."

I just wonder why these guys believe every word of the Bible literally except the scripture where Jesus says that no man knows the day or the hour of His return? (Matthew 23:36). Jesus is, indeed, coming back, but it's probably not going to be on Saturday, May 21, 2011. Read "Live Blogging the Apocalypse" from Shameless Popery. Further great commentary on this story by Father Dwight Longenecker. God Bless.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Olympic Leader Booted Over Religious Beliefs

The head of the U.S. Olympic team has resigned after being criticized for his religious opposition to gay marriage. Mark Shea has posted that gay activists want all opponent economically ruined and eventually will want all religious opponents jailed as criminals for their "hate speech."

137th Kentucky Derby

Here's Mr. and Mrs. Bad Catholic and friends at our local Kentucky Derby Party last Saturday.

The 137th Kentucky Derby was won by Animal Kingdom ridden by John Velazquez

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Ping Pong Good, Jesus Bad

A New York high school principal has refused to allow a Christian club to meet on campus due to "financial reasons" even though the school has money to fund a Ping Pong club and 35 other clubs. The Principal was quoted as saying that she will not allow any Christian clubs in her school. Full story from Creative Minority Report.

Friday, May 6, 2011

U.N. May Declare Criticism of Islam "Hate Speech."

The United Nations may soon declare that criticism of Islam is "hate speech" which should be criminally punished. Full story here.

Eamon Duffy's Stripping of the Altars


I finally did it. It took three months, (and I admit that I read a lot of other things during the last three months), but I finally finished Professor Eamon Duffy’s massive tome The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400 – 1580 (Yale University Press, 1992).

This book goes into exhaustive detail regarding the practice of Catholicism by the laity at the time of the English Reformation. The last third of the book describes the attack on traditional religion by the Protestant Reformers as well as the efforts of the Catholic authorities under Queen Mary to restore the Catholic faith.


Professor Duffy shows that contrary to the usual Protestant history of the Reformation, English Catholicism was a vibrant faith whose practice was popular among the people. Contrary to the popular belief that the majority of the laity were either ignorant regarding their faith or had adopted Protestant beliefs, Professor Duffy shows that the laity were, for the most part, well catechized and there was much sincere devotion. The English Reformation was a top down affair in which the majority of both the clergy and the laity tried their best to conform to changing orders of the Crown regarding religion.

“In parishes all over England decent, timid men and women set themselves to do just that (conform to the dictates of the Elizabethan regime). It was not for them to rule the winds: the conscience of the prince was in the hands of God, and the people must make shift to do as best they could under the prince. . . . But the price for such accommodation, of course, was the death of the past it sought to conserve. If Protestantism was transformed so was traditional religion. The imaginative world of the Golden Legend and the Festial was gradually obliterated from wall and window and bracket, from primer and block-print and sermon, and was replaced by that of the Old Testament. Cranmer’s somberly magnificent prose, read week by week, entered and possessed their most solemn and their most vulnerable moments. And more astringent and strident words entered their minds and hearts too, the polemic of the Homilies, of Jewel’s Apology, of Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, and of a thousand “no-popery” sermons, a relentless torrent carrying away the landmarks of a thousand years. By the end of the 1570’s, whatever the instincts and nostalgia of their senior, a generation was growing up which had known nothing else, which believed the Pope to by Antichrist, the Mass a mummery, which did not look back to the Catholic pastas their own, but another country, another world.”


The details of the liturgy and popular devotions are quite extensive and voluminous. Anyone who is interested in Church History, liturgy or the Reformation should read this book. So if you haven’t read The Stripping of the Altars, go to Amazon.com right now, buy a copy, and then take a month off and read it.


Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Proper Christian Response to the Death of the Enemy

"Osama bin Laden, as we all know, bore the most serious responsibility for spreading divisions and hatred among populations, causing the deaths of innumerable people, and manipulating religions to this end," Father Lombardi said.

"In the face of a man's death, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibilities of each person before God and before men, and hopes and works so that every event may be the occasion for the further growth of peace and not of hatred.
"

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican Spokesman

Prayer For our Enemies
"O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth: deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." (1979 B.C.P.).

A Prayer to be said before a battle:

O MOST powerful and glorious Lord God, the Lord of hosts, that rulest and commandest all things; Thou sittest in the throne judging right, and therefore we make our address to thy Divine Majesty in this our necessity, that thou wouldest take the cause into thine own hand, and judge between us and our enemies. Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come and help us; for thou givest not alway the battle to the strong, but canst save by many or by few. O let not our sins now cry against us for vengeance; but hear us thy poor servants begging mercy, and imploring thy help, and that thou wouldest be a defence unto us against the face of the enemy. Make it appear that thou art our Saviour and mighty Deliverer, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


Prayer with respect to the enemy:

THOU, O Lord, art just and powerful: O defend our cause against the face of the enemy.
O God, thou art a strong tower of defence to all who fly unto thee: O save us from the violence of the enemy.
O Lord of hosts, fight for us, that we may glorify thee.
O suffer us not to sink under the weight of our sins, or the violence of the enemy.
O Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us for thy Name's sake. Amen.

(1789 B.C.P.)

Thanksgiving after a Victory.
A Psalm or Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving.


IF the Lord had not been on our side, now may we say; if the Lord himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us;
They had swallowed us up quick, when they were so wrathfully displeased at us.
Yes, the waters had drowned us, and the stream had gone over our soul; the deep waters of the proud had gone over our soul.
But praised be the Lord, who hath not given us over as a prey unto them.
The Lord hath wrought a mighty salvation for us.
We got not this by our own sword, neither was it our own arm that saved us; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto us.
The Lord hath appeared for us; the Lord hath covered our heads, and made us to stand in the day of battle.
The Lord hath appeared for us; the Lord hath overthrown our enemies, and dashed in pieces those that rose up against us.
Therefore not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto thy Name be given the glory.
The Lord hath done great things for us; the Lord hath done great things for us, for which we rejoice.
Our help standeth in the Name of the Lord, who hath made heaven and earth.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord, from this time forth for evermore.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
(1882 B.C.P.)