The marriage of Joseph and Mary

Super Flumina
Babylonis

under the patronage of St Joseph and St Dominic

By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, remembering Zion;
on the poplars that grew there we hung up our harps. . . Ps 136

St Dominic

Home

Philosophy behind this website

Professor Solomon's Introduction to Philosophy


For young readers:

Myall Lakes Adventure


© 2006 Website by Netvantage

 

PAPERS WRITTEN BY OTHERS

I. Separation of Church & State

The secular doctrine of the separation of Church and State is not part of the Church's teaching.  It never has been.  It is not now.  We commend to readers an excellent article by David Palm demonstrating this at the following link to the Seattle Catholic website -- http://seattlecatholic.com/a050615.html

II. Subjectivism & the Historians

We offer for your attention an opinion piece by Australian author Peter Ryan, 'Apologise to Blainey', published in The Australian on 15th December 2005. It damns the subjectivist academics at Melbourne University who contrived the removal from the University of Professor Geoffrey Blainey for daring in 1984 to criticise political correctness in the guise of multiculturalism. His reasonable views have been proved right by the tumultuous events in Sydney in the last week.
See http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17569269%255E7583,00.html -- or download an Acrobat version of the piece by following the LINK.

III. Freemasonry & the Church in Brazil

We provide this link to an article on the Seattle Catholic website we commend to our readers entitled: 'The Young Friar and the Emperor', by O. M. Alves.  It deals with the conflict between the Catholic bishops and Freemasons in Brazil in the late 19th century --http://www.seattlecatholic.com/a051102.htm

IV. The Witness of Pius XII

We attach a link to this fine paper by American writer George J Marlin published on the 51st anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII on The Catholic Thing.  https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2009/10/07/the-witness-of-pius-xii/

Also here

V. The Lost Tools of Learning

Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957) graduated from Oxford in 1916 with first class honours in modern languages and mediaeval literature after which she taught briefly.  Between 1922 and 1931 she worked as an advertising copy writer.  She published a popular series of detective novels featuring the aristocratic sleuth, Lord Peter Wimsey, a series of radio plays, a defence of Christianity and a respected translation of Dante's 'The Divine Comedy'.
In this paper, presented in Oxford in 1947, she demonstrates how society has lost the facility for teaching children to learn, and how to go about repairing the loss.  more

VI. Genesis & Literalism

This paper, by Australian theologian, Fr Peter Joseph, was written in 2006 to answer certain of the claims made by an Australian, the late Gerard Keane, and by Hugh Owen of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, an American based organisation.  Fr Joseph has given permission for its publication on this website.  more

VII. Prophets of our time

When, in the years to come, the Church raises up bishops and popes who recognise the shortcomings of the Second Vatican Council, and acknowledge the great evils which it has produced among the faithful, two men will be recognised for their devotion to the task of its unmasking in the face of overwhelming opposition from the Church’s intelligentia.  They are the Italian theologian (and layman), Romano Amerio, and the English layman, Michael Davies, both now deceased.  Amerio’s work, Iota Unum, published in Italian in 1985, and translated into many languages since[1] , and Davies’ many books, but especially his The Second Vatican Council and Religious Liberty[2], have been standards for those troubled by the theological problems precipitated by the Council.

We are pleased to refer the reader to an article which has just appeared on the chiesa website, the rather clumsily expressed The Defenders of Tradition Want the Infallible Church back, access to which he may obtain via the following link—

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1344019?eng=y

It may mark a significant step in the growth in disenchantment with the Second Vatican Council and its determinations.

Michael Baker
13th July 2010

[1]   See Iota Unum, A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the XXth Century, trans. from the Second Italian Edition by Rev. Fr John P Parsons, Kansas City, 1996.

[2]   Long Prairie, Minnesota (The Neumann Press), 1992.

VIII. A Theologian's Questions

Visitors to this website will be aware of the position we have adopted, in the face of opposition from members of the Catholic clergy and laity, on the authority of the Second Vatican Council.  The Chiesa website has just published an opinion piece by Canadian theologian John R T Lamont, who has taught at the Catholic Institute of Sydney and at the University of Notre Dame in Australia, which bears on this question—http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350219?eng=y.  That paper addresses issues raised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in respect of the attitude of the Society of St. Pius X to certain determinations of the Second Vatican Council.  We refer it to our readers for their careful consideration.  For those who are content to read it on this website we have reproduced the article in pdf format here.

IX. Hail the Conquering Hero !

Dr John Rao, Associate Professor of History at St Johns’ University, New York, has penned an acerbic commentary on the papal visit to the United States which may interest our readers here - http://jcrao.freeshell.org/HailtheConqueringHero.html - or here .  He makes points there which we have sought to make on superflumina, albeit with different terminology.

Let us offer up prayers and have Masses offered for Pope Francis at this crucial time.

X. Resistance and Fidelity to the Church in Times of Crisis

This—http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/11/majestic-lecture-by-prof-roberto-de.html#more—from Roberto de Mattei is outstanding in its contribution to coping with the current problems in the Vatican.  He makes points we have  been endeavouring to make on Super Flumina Babylonis for the last 10 years, notably, that while the Pope is occasionally infallible he is not indefectible, but God’s Holy Church is always infallible and indefectible. Those who wish to do so may read the article here.

XI. Considerations on the Dubia of the Four Cardinals

This—http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/12/article-considerations-on-dubia-of-four.html#more—by John R T Lamont addressing the issues raised by Pope Francis’s refusal to address the Dubia offered by Cardinals, Brandmüller, Burke, Caffarra and Meisner concerning Amoris Laetitia, serves as a companion piece to the paper of Robert de Mattei published here a week or so ago.  Those wishing to do so may read the article here.

XII. On the Formal Correction of Pope Francis

This paper by John Lamont is an admirable analysis of the historical reasons why many Catholics seem to be paralysed over the correct attitude to take to the errors of their superiors, bishops, priests and even popes.  It may be viewed at http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/02/article-on-formal-correction-of-pope.html#more.   For those who wish, a slightly amended version may be viewed as a pdf file here.

XIII. Evelyn Waugh & Amoris Laetitia

10th April, 2016 was the 50th anniversary of the death of Evelyn Waugh who died on Easter Sunday, 1966.  God in His providence has ordained that the anniversary should be marked in singular fashion.  An anonymous priest who calls himself Monsieur L'Abbé has written a commentary on the Pope's recent Apostolic Exhortation comparing the principles obtaining at the time of the setting of Waugh's most famous novel, Brideshead Revisited, with those the Pope sees as applicable today. The effect is memorable. The article may be viewed on the Rorate Caeli website at http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2016/04/guest-op-ed-pope-francis-pro-mundum.html#more   Alternatively, the reader may view a copy of it here.

 

XIV. Feedback from a 'Gay' Reader

We reproduce for the edification of our readers the content of a post on Fr Z’s Blog more

XV. The Bishops & Marriage

We reproduce here a copy of an extract from Don Pietro Leone’s The Family Under Attack which lists the causes that have left us with such ineffectual bishops.  more

XVI. Splendour of the Middle Ages: The Majestic Influence of teh Catholic Church on Mankind

This is a reproduction of part of chapter 2 of H J A Sire’s Phoenix from the Ashes (Kettering Ohio, 2015) where the author nails the lies purveyed by Protestant and agnostic commentators down the centuries about the effects wrought in society under the influence of the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages.

The author notes the adoption, under the Church’s influence during that splendid time of all that was best in other civilisations ; of her insistence on the universality of truth across every discipline and the acceptance, and worth, of the need for debate and disputation to arrive at the truth ; of the laying then of the foundations of the science of logic and of modern science ; of the elaboration, in the face of great opposition, of the one true philosophy grounded in reality (to the exclusion of all ideology) ; of the establishment of the roots of democracy ; of the origins of the university, the hospital, and of a dozen other institutions we take for granted in the modern world, institutions over whose provenance we never trouble ourselves such is the arrogance of modern parochialism.

We recommend the entire book.  A review of its content may be found here—http://www.superflumina.org/PDF_files/review-phoenix-from-the-ashes.pdf  The reproduction of the part of chapter 2 may be found here.

XVII. Devastation of the Church's Teaching on Marriage & Sexuality

Commentator Don Pietro Leone has performed a singular service for Christ’s Church in publishing, on rorate-caeli, an analysis of the degradation that has befallen the Church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality at the hands of popes and bishops over the last 60 years.  There are five sections : the references are as follows :

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-1.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-2.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-3-and.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-evils-of-amoris-laetitia-church-and.html#more

http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-church-and-asmodeus-part-5.html#more

There are one or two inaccuracies which do not disturb the trust.  The Master General of the Dominican Order referred to at the time of the debating of the issues was not Fr Michael Browne (who was not, in any event, created  a Cardinal until 1971), but Fr Aniceto Fernandez.  Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae did not precede, but followed, Gaudium et Spes, whose alteration of the Church’s constant teaching on the end of marriage to accommodate the Protestant view he adopted.  The reader should note carefully Don Leone’s reference in the text to the critical issue of finality, and the systematic failure of the Council’s bishops, as of the popes and heads of Vatican dicasteries thereafter, to advert to it.  This failure, which as Don Leone rightly says, demonstrates aversion to scholastic  thinking (read “thinking grounded in the philosophy of St Thomas”) justifies the contention that the Second Vatican Council was not an ecumenical, or general, council of the Catholic Church.  Don Leone puts the issue in a nutshell : “The end, or finality, of a thing determines its nature”.

We recommend the paper in all its parts for our readers’ close attention.  For those who wish to read it at one sitting, we have reproduced it here.

XVIII. The Protestant Imposition

Here is a further extract from the admirable study by H J A Sire, Phoenix from the Ashes, which we reviewed at http://www.superflumina.org/PDF_files/review-phoenix-from-the-ashes.pdf   We commend the book to all visitors to this website.

The author demonstrates the clumsy attempts by the reformers to justify their rejection of God’s authority in selective appeals to Councils of the Catholic Church even as they insisted on the rejection of the authority of His Church and of His popes.  Typical of their hypocrisy is the acceptance of the Church’s position on the procession of the Holy Spirit from Father and Son (against the view of the eastern Orthodox).  He writes : “The Filioque doctrine, which all the Protestant churches retain in the Creed, is not defined by the first four councils, or indeed the first eight.  It derives its dogmatic status from its incorporation into the Creed by papal authority in the eleventh century; in other words it stands or falls by papal infallibility.”   The extract is available here.

XIX. What We Have Waited to Hear, in Vain, from a Catholic Bishop in Australia

A suggested diocesan, or archdiocesan, letter from a Catholic bishop, one whose sole focus is on Christ and His Church and is not distracted by the zeitgeist of the age.  more

XX. Fr Hunwicke on Vatican II & Dignitatis Humanae

On his blogsite http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com.au/ Fr John Hunwicke has reproduced his comments on the above in the course of considering Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s text “They have uncrowned Him”.  To balance his offering we repeat our own contribution published back in 2016. more

XXI. Christopher Dawson, 80 Years On

This is a reproduction of the penultimate chapter of Christopher Dawson’s work, Religion And The Modern State, published in 1935 by Sheed & Ward.  It summarises the constant teaching of the Catholic Church admirably.  Note well : One should not think that current praxis of the Church’s bishops and clergy agrees with the Church’s constant teaching.  Our fidelity is to Christ and His Church, not to the ipse dixits of those who currently govern the Church.  more

XXII. The Errors in Dignitatis Humanae Come to Roost

Robert de Mattei has published an analysis of the effects of recent conduct of Pope Francis which reveal his submission to the demands of Freemasonry.  more

XXIII. Closer to the Threshold on Vatican II

Italian Catholic philosopher, Paolo Pasqualucci, has published 26 points of rupture with Catholic tradition found in the documents of Vatican II.  It will repay readers to study them closely. more

XXIV. God & the Theory of Everything

This is a paper by Dr Don Boland, graduate of the Angelicum (Pontifical University of St Thomas), former lecturer at Sydney’s Aquinas Academy and Centre for Thomistic Studies; now lecturer in philosophy at St John Vianney College, the Seminary of the Catholic Diocese of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales.  It was written in 2012 and is published on the internet here for the first time.  The burden of the paper is encapsulated in Dr Boland’s first paragraph of which the following is an extract.

“For Aristotle the endeavour to discover the theory of everything necessarily belongs not to Physics but to Metaphysics.  The philosophers of the modern era... have come to reject the notion that Metaphysics, as understood by Aristotle, has any cognitive value.  What this has meant is that the explanations of everything... are sought entirely within the world of material reality or what is available to sense observation and verification.”  more

XXV. Women in Defence…

The following is a link to the authoritative article (cited by Don Pietro Leone) by 86 women around the world opposing any use of vaccines that rely in any way on elements of the bodies of aborted children—https://edwardpentin.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/STATEMENT-The-Voice-of-Women-in-Defense-of-Unborn-Babies-and-in-Opposition-to-Abortion-tainted-Vaccines-WORD-DOC.pdf