I love this cartoon so much. It’s from 1873, by C.S. Reinhart, and shows a Jesuit telegraphing government secrets from the confessional to Rome, where they’re used to something something UNDERMINE AMERICA! “The Unseen Signal of the Jesuits”!
The Strange Legend of St. Christopher, and Whether or Not He Had the Head of a Dog
First of all: St. Christopher is still a saint. His feast day of July 25th was dropped as part of the revisions to the universal calendar in compliance with Mysterii Paschalis in 1970 because so little was known about him and many other early saints. He wasn’t, however, unsainted, and devotions are perfectly acceptable and…
Tertullian: Ghosts are Really Demons
In De anima, Tertullian acknowledges the extensive literature about ghosts, but rejects it as a “fraud.” He has specific pagan lore in mind: the idea that some could “call back from Hades the souls of those who are sleeping out their destined time, those who died through violence and those deprived of burial.” His explanation…
The Popish Octopus
Political cartoons are located somewhere between bonobo chimp vocalizations and bathroom graffiti on the spectrum of self-expression, and anti-Catholic cartoons are no exception. They tend to traffic in a few shopworn motifs to convey their contempt for Romish sorts, and the octopus makes regular appearances. This has the benefit of requiring no particular thought or…
Does Bloodstain Pattern Analysis Prove the Shroud is Fake?
The Shroud of Turin may or may not be the authentic burial cloth of Jesus Christ, but the Latest Scientific Research (TM) doesn’t move the needle on that argument one direction or the other no matter how many “Shroud Proved Fake!” headlines you see. The new research was presented in 2014 at a conference in…
