Bücher veröffentlicht von Os Justi Press

Thomistic theology is rarely associated with liturgical prayer, even by many of St. Thomas's own disciples. Such a dissociation reveals more about the priorities of later Thomism, however, than it does about St. Thomas Aquinas, who himself devoted considerable energy to the contemplation of the sacred liturgy. In Thomistic Mystagogy: St. Thomas Aquinas's Commentaries on the Mass, Urban Hannon considers the saint's teaching on the meaning and purpose of the various rites that surround the holy Eucharist. Drawing on four essential texts-two from St. Thomas's earliest major work, two from his latest; two on the words of the liturgy, two on its actions-this little book pieces together a properly Thomistic commentary on the Mass. "Because in this sacrament the whole mystery of our salvation is embraced," St. Thomas says, "thus it is carried out with greater solemnity." This is a study of that "greater solemnity," and of how St. Thomas believes it relates to "the whole mystery of our salvation."

What does it mean to say that the Apostle Peter-and each of his successors-is kepha, the rock on which Christ has built His Church? Could this rock ever be allowed to crumble, without the Church herself crumbling? Can a successor of Peter fail in his office, or even in his faith, without negating the Church's indefectibility? What are the nature-and limits-of the pope's infallibility and primacy? Has the role of the supreme pontiff sometimes been exaggerated or distorted?Today questions like these are asked with greater urgency than ever, owing to the pontificate of Pope Francis. In Super Hanc Petram, Fr Lanzetta answers them with balance, realism, and confidence in Divine Providence. Lanzetta investigates Pope Francis's sources, leitmotifs, methods, and goals, examining the return of nominalism and pragmatism, the elevation of pastoral care over doctrine, the proclamation of a mercy that severs charity from truth, the substitution of "a people on the move" for "the mystical body" and of a panreligious humanistic fraternity for the salvific Christian mission, the inversion of hierarchy by synodality, the selective use of Vatican II as an impetus for "paradigm shifts," an evolutionary vision of doctrinal development driven by sociological-cultural theories, and the supplanting of eschatology by ecology.Pastors, theologians, laity, converts, non-Catholics interested in the Church and her relationship with modernity-all will find Fr Lanzetta's study valuable for the light it sheds on the age-old office of the papacy and on the tempestuous reign of its most recent incumbent.

Three days before His Passion, Our Lord warned the High Priests: "the Kingdom of God is taken from you and given to a nation that will bear the fruit thereof." What is this nation? Who are the people of the Messiah? What is the Kingdom inherited by the saints of the Most High, and why does the Messiah rule the nations "with an iron sceptre"? The Church Fathers, East and West, are clear in their answer: the people of the Messiah are the Romans. Although in its pagan form it is Babylon and the Beast, the Roman Empire is translated by the power of the Cross from the temporal to the spiritual order and becomes what the Apostle calls "the restrainer": the power that holds back the coming of the Antichrist. The removal of this restrainer signals the commencement of the final persecution of the Church and the end of all mortal things.Guided by the teachings of the Fathers, St Thomas Aquinas, and St John Henry Newman, The Iron Sceptre of the Son of Man explores the essentially Roman character, the Romanitas, of Christ's One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, and demonstrates how a true understanding of this fifth Note of the Church can guide us in the most vital and perilous of all discernments.

"The exposition will be as profound and comprehensive as I can make it; nature and grace must furnish the basis for a reasonable chart of life and growth. My cherished aim is to bring out the supernatural character of the Christian economy of salvation in its full sublimity, beauty, and riches. The main task of our time, it seems to me, consists in propoupding and emphasizing the supernatural quality of Christianity, for the benefit of both science and life. Theoretical as well as practical naturalism and rationalism, which seek to throttle and destroy all that is specifically Christian, must be resolutely and energetically repudiated." Thus writes the great 19th-century theologian Matthias Scheeben, a vibrant, original, and poetic author who re-opened the enchanting world of St. Thomas to new generations of Catholics in a period marred by the desiccated rationalism of the Enlightenment period in its last rays before the darkness of modernism. In the new Thomism that has sprung up in the postconciliar Church, Scheeben makes for essential reading.

As St Augustine told his flock in Hippo Regis, the books of Scripture are letters that have come to us from the City toward which we are on pilgrimage. Yet for many decades, the teaching and study of Scripture in academic settings within the Catholic Church has served more to undermine faith than to nourish it. This disastrous situation has arisen through a forgetfulness or rejection of the principles that should guide exegesis. In particular, many renowned scholars whose works have dominated the Catholic landscape sought to erect exegesis into an autonomous discipline, separated from both the teachings of the Church and from speculative theology. To shield themselves from such a secularized exegesis, and in response to the wider assault on orthodoxy within the Church, some Catholics have taken refuge with the magisterium, yet in a way that can obscure the fact that popes and bishops themselves must remain subject to the word of God. In this brief but profound primer, Fr Thomas Crean OP sets forth principles fundamental to all exegesis-in particular, the plenary inspiration and inerrancy of the sacred books-and responds to modern attempts to limit these two properties of Holy Writ. He discusses disputed questions about the nature of inspiration, literary genres, the plurality of senses, and the sufficiency of Scripture, and explains the enduring importance of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. Letters from that City will be of use especially to seminarians and other students of theology.

The seventeenth-century Baroque synthesis of the divine-human relationship emphasized the primacy of the Christian God in the lives of all men as the basis for legitimate humanism. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century tore apart the components, emphasizing matter over spirit and pushing God far away as a remote cosmic architect. In the first half of the nineteenth century, spirit prevailed once again over matter in Romanticism. This effervescent movement, opposed by a renewed scientific materialism, ended up fragmenting into utopianism, sentimentalism, psychologism, existentialism, and pessimism. The history of Romanticism is the story of an explosive creative force that always consumes itself.Such is the thesis of this ambitious historical and philosophical study, in which the author shows how thought and art forms from the end of the Napoleonic wars have left their mark on every aspect of the Western civilization we inhabit today. Its pages are a tour de force of cultural history as seen in a procession of influential figures-among them Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Comte, Delacroix, Darwin, Hugo, Zola, Monet, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Dali, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Malraux, Gide, Bergson, Maritain, Marcel, Bernanos, Sartre, Ortega y Gasset, Dostoevsky, Ruskin, Wilde, Weber, Freud, Barth, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, and Niebuhr.Modernity's accelerating dissolution becomes, in Fr. Steckler's telling, a negative apologetic for the truth of the Catholic Faith, which takes the whole of reality into its gaze and harmonizes the contradictories of matter and spirit, nature and divinity, feeling and reason, faith and science. Man is doomed to a cycle of experimentation, frustration, and skepticism so long as he runs away from the revelation and grace of God, which bring newness rather than novelty, freedom rather than frenzy.

O Papa Bento XVI afirmou o crescimento contínuo e a validade perpétua da Missa Tradicional, sublinhando que "aquilo que para as gerações anteriores era sagrado, permanece sagrado e grande também para nós e não pode ser de improviso totalmente proibido ou mesmo prejudicial."Contudo, com a publicação do Traditionis Custodes, em 2021, o seu sucessor declarou precisamente o contrário, provocando ondas de choque na Igreja com o apelo à restrição e, eventual, supressão da sua mais bela e venerável forma de culto - e aquela que experimenta o mais acelerado e apaixonado crescimento.O que é que um Católico consciente deve fazer?Neste livro fundamental, o Dr. Peter Kwasniewski oferece-nos um tratado fundamental sobre a questão da obediência na Igreja - de onde deriva e como deve ser correcta e prudentemente compreendida e vivida. Ele examina as orientações de São Tomás de Aquino sobre o assunto, que tipo de obediência é necessária para a salvação e a questão da licitude e ilicitude. Haverá situações em que as estruturas habituais de obediência se tornem impedimento, em vez de facilitadoras, para a missão da Igreja e o bem das almas? Houve casos na história da Igreja em que sacerdotes fiéis exerceram o seu ministério em violação das normas canónicas ordinárias? Como deve o clero reagir se a Missa Tradicional lhes for proibida ou se for declarada "abrogada"?

El Papa Benedicto XVI afirmó el sostenido crecimiento y la perpetua validez de la Misa Tradicional Latina, insistiendo en que "lo que para las generaciones anteriores era sagrado, también para nosotros permanece sagrado y grande y no puede ser de improviso totalmente prohibido o incluso perjudicial."Sin embargo, con la publicación en el 2021 de Traditionis Custodes, su sucesor ha declarado precisamente lo opuesto, enviando ondas de choque a través de la Iglesia llamando a la restricción, y a la eventual supresión, de la más bella y venerable forma de culto, y la única que experimenta el crecimiento más dramático y apasionado.¿Qué es lo debe hacer un católico consciente?En este crucial libro el Dr. Peter Kwasniewski ofrece una exposición esencial sobre la cuestión de la obediencia en la Iglesia: de dónde procede, y cómo debe entenderse y vivirse correcta y prudentemente. Explora los lineamientos de Santo Tomás de Aquino sobre la materia: cuál es la obediencia necesaria para la salvación y cuándo es legal o ilegal. ¿Puede haber situaciones donde las estructuras usuales de obediencia se transformen en impedimentos o bien, en facilitadores de la misión de la Iglesia y del bien de las almas? ¿Se han dado casos en la historia de la Iglesia donde los sacerdotes fieles han ejercido su ministerio violando las normas canónigas ordinarias? ¿Cómo debe responder el clero si se les prohíbe la Misa Tradicional Latina o si ésta fuera declarada como "abrogada"?

On July 16, 2021, Pope Francis published Traditionis Custodes, an apostolic letter that aimed at a drastic reduction of the use of the traditional Roman liturgy. In a letter to the bishops published on the same day, the pope explained at length the reasons for his decision. The harsh measures, in tandem with the violent and accusatory tone of the accompanying letter, have aroused consternation among the faithful who are attached to the usus antiquior. The Responsa ad Dubia issued in December of 2021 by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, so far from clarifying matters, only intensified the growing dismay and debate.The inaccuracies, difficulties of interpretation, and problems of concrete application of Traditionis Custodes have meanwhile raised many questions among canonists, pastors, and institutes whose proper law binds them to the liturgical forms of the Latin tradition. The present tract, written by canon lawyer Fr. Réginald-Marie Rivoire, F.S.V.F., undertakes a careful canonical reading of these documents, chiefly from the point of view of their juridical rationality. It is well known that rationality is one of the essential characteristics of a legal norm, such that strictly speaking, an irrational norm is not a norm and does not bind.The tract first considers the legal status of the documents; then, the affirmation at the heart of this whole legal apparatus and its raison d'être, namely, that the liturgical books promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II are the sole expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite; and finally, the way in which numerous fundamental principles and precepts of canon law are undermined by the new norms.***The revised edition includes a 10-page addendum on (among other things) the implications of the "Rescript" released by Cardinal Roche on February 20, 2023.

Anchored in the arcana of ancient and modern history, Robert Lazu Kmita's debut novel follows the outer and inner adventure of a specialist in Greek culture, Alexander Jacob Wills, as he pursues evidence of the fabled city of Atlantis. The story takes place on a remote island in the Atlantic, owned by the eccentric aristocrat Gilbert Newman, Duke of Kirkwell. On this island is located the magnificent library of the Newman family, where the secret of Atlantis lies hidden in a maze of books and hard-to-reach hiding places. The reader is rewarded with a daring proposition: the chance to read the unwritten part of Plato's dialogue Critias. The protagonist ends up discovering far more than he intended: nothing less than the perennial truths of human existence.

The First Vatican Council solemnly defined that the pope is infallible when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, from the chair of St. Peter, which is the chair of truth. With this definition, the question as to whether the pope is able to speak infallibly at all has been finally settled; since then, theological discussion has centered on the subsidiary questions as to how often and under what conditions he does so. Here there are two errors to be avoided: the very real phenomenon of "creeping infallibilization," according to which almost every utterance of the pope is regarded as being (at least practically) infallible, and the equally dangerous tendency to interpret the conditions for papal infallibility so restrictively as to render the dogma almost meaningless.Paradoxically, these opposite tendencies seem to be almost equally widespread among Catholics in general. One constantly encounters the idea that the pope has spoken infallibly only twice-that is, in defining the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary-and yet, it is also everywhere assumed (indeed, often by the same people!) that no pope could possibly teach anything false in any of his official teaching on faith or morals.As is so often the case, the truth lies in between. Dr. John P. Joy, an expert on the magisterium, has chosen the format of the scholastic disputation in an effort to bring some measure of greater clarity to the topic. The first question concerns the extension and limits of papal infallibility in general; the second question concerns particular cases of papal teaching, including Evangelium Vitae, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Humanae Vitae, Quanta Cura, Exsurge Domine, and Unam Sanctam. A number of essays further develop key points, including what we are to make of Pope Francis's change to the Catechism on the death penalty.This succinct study brilliantly clarifies some of the most controversial and confusing questions in Catholic ecclesiology.

Between September and November 2022, Church Life Journal published a series of articles on liturgical reform, coauthored by Drs. John Cavadini, Mary Healy, and Thomas Weinandy. With its rosy view of the Liturgical Movement, its caricature of the Catholic faithful prior to Vatican II, its forensically questionable affirmation of Sacrosanctum Concilium's paternity of the Novus Ordo (not to mention its solemn chrismation of both by the Holy Spirit), and its severe rejection of the "Tridentine movement," the series sparked ample criticism of the authors' perplexingly inadequate scholarship, grandiose generalizations, and pastoral callousness.Because the innovationist and anti-traditionalist arguments of Cavadini, Healy, and Weinandy are perpetually recycled in seminaries and degree programs around the world-the "commonplaces" of countless bulletins, homilies, blogs, and workshops-the appearance of the series offers a providential opportunity to present Catholic counterarguments. This handy book makes a persuasive case in favor of immemorial tradition against yesterday's novelties at a time when a growing number of priests and faithful are longing for the sacred and the authentic.After an initial careful summary of the Cavadini, Healy, and Weinandy series, Illusions of Reform gathers the critiques of nine authors: in Part 1, Dr. Janet Smith's own five-part series; in Part 2, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski's rejoinders on several major issues; in Part 3, further responses by Alexander Battista, representing the point of view of Eastern Catholics; Fr. Samuel Keyes, a priest of the Anglican Ordinariate; Roland Millare, an expert on Joseph Ratzinger; Fr. Peter Miller and Dom Alcuin Reid, liturgically knowledgeable Benedictine monks; and Dr. Joseph Shaw, president of the International Una Voce Foundation. An epilogue by Gregory DiPippo and a select bibliography round out the volume.

En su último libro, el Dr. Peter Kwasniewski sostiene que, desde que entraron en vigor los nuevos libros litúrgicos tras el Concilio Vaticano II, los fieles católicos romanos han sufrido los efectos de una reforma precipitada y de gran alcance, impregnada de nominalismo, voluntarismo, protestantismo, racionalismo, anticuarianismo, hiperpapalismo y otros errores modernos. El hombre no es dueño de la liturgia divina, subraya el Dr. Kwasniewski; más bien, todos estamos llamados a ser administradores de lo sagrado, desde el laico de más bajo rango hasta el mismísimo Papa.El Dr. Kwasnieski muestra que la Tradición sagrada es el principio rector de toda liturgia cristiana auténtica, que tiene su origen en Cristo y es guiada por el Espíritu Santo a lo largo de la vida de la Iglesia. Su tesis principal en esta obra es que los rasgos identificativos prominentes del Rito Romano clásico -y de hecho de todos los ritos tradicionales, orientales y occidentales- están ausentes del Novus Ordo. Esta ausencia lo aleja de la compañía de los ritos clásicos y nos imposibilita llamarlo "el Rito Romano".Para responder a esta crisis de ruptura, el Dr. Kwasniewski aboga por un retorno pleno al rito tradicional, el Rito Romano en su robusta y perenne riqueza, para el que no se necesita ni podría necesitarse nunca ningún permiso especial, tal como expone el Papa Benedicto XVI.La fidelidad a la Liturgia latina tradicional es, en su raíz, fidelidad a la Iglesia romana y a Cristo mismo, que ha inspirado amorosamente el crecimiento y la perfección de nuestros ritos religiosos durante dos mil años. Este sobrecogedor don de la Tradición nos permite saborear, incluso ahora, el banquete de la tierra prometida del cielo.

The decline of the Catholic Church in the developed world has been accelerated in the last decade by a devastating series of scandals involving sexual abuse by Catholic clergy. But just as clerical abuse fits in to a wider story about the abuse of power in the modern "sexual marketplace," so the decline of Catholic church-going and religious belief finds its context in a wider collapse of cultural institutions and shared beliefs: the crisis of modernity.This is no source of comfort for Catholics, since in recent decades the Church has provided neither shelter from secular trends nor a compelling analysis of the crisis. In these essays, Dr Joseph Shaw examines what the Church has in common with the wider world as it passes through this crisis as well as the perennial wisdom of her tradition that shows us how to escape it.The first part examines the place of the ancient Catholic liturgy in modernity, defending it, against the misunderstandings of modernists, as something supremely suited to engage our deepest instincts towards the worship of God. The second part turns to the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council and addresses a series of lines of attack on those Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass-notably the attempt to link them to the crisis of clerical abuse. The third part addresses one of the most contested issues of our times, sexuality and gender roles, and asks what, if anything, the Church can still say about them.Dr Shaw approaches these explosive topics with seriousness and honesty, leaving behind the point-scoring of social media and partisan journalism while not shying away from unpopular teachings and uncomfortable conclusions.