Pontifications.
The Dark Night of the Church
Our progress along the spiritual path to God is essentially one of purification, illumination, and union. The purification of our souls should be thought of as the refinement of precious metal, trial by fire and the expurgation of impurities under the blows of the...
Two Catholic Wolves and Gospel
Inside of you are two wolves. Catholic wolves. And they’re fighting a battle for your soul. Everywhere you go in the Church today, there seems to be schism, division, and civil war. And what’s the dividing line? It’s not what you think. What politician is the most...
Butts in the Pews: The Sacraments as Marketing
Last week, I made the case for why Confirmation should never involve required service hours. (TL;DR: it’s the sin of simony.) This week, I will explain a broader problem common to sacramental prep in parish catechesis. It is an open secret among clergy and lay...
Set Pieces: The Puddle Home
Purchasing the Seal: Confirmation and the Sin of Simony
This is the first post in a four-part series on a broad-reaching problem in modern catechesis. When Simon saw that the Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me this power too, so that anyone upon whom I lay...
What If? Episode 1 Review
Now that the first episode of the much anticipated What If? has dropped on Disney+, it seems the Marvel multiverse is full steam ahead with a question that’s sure to please the moderns and tick off many of the trads, both in Marvel circles and Catholic ones: what if...
In Praise of Superfans
It’s been a few months since TGC’s redesign and I want to give a shout-out to my Superfans. Some of you are newcomers, others have been with me since 2015, when I first started drawing some horrible scribbles in ink. TGC has grown consistently but slowly, even for a...
Sad Christian? You’re Not a Failed Evangelist.
"We are told to hide our blemishes because bad news doesn’t evangelize. However, hiding blemishes isn’t evangelization, it’s marketing."Eric Sammons, Is the Catholic Church a House of Cards? Eric Sammons and I don't agree on everything, but this we definitely agree...
The Motu Proprio
Traddeus is having a bad one. As many of you have probably heard, Pope Francis today released a motu proprio severely limiting the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, who may celebrate it and where it may be celebrated. This was done for the stated goal...
May Flowers: Baby Murphy #7
The hardest day in our family’s life was May 26, 2020, when we lost our Margaret Clare. At the height of the pandemic, the world already in the midst of terrible upheaval, we went to the hospital expecting a normal delivery as we’d had 5 times before. From the hopeful...