The Catholic Blog of Shane Schaetzel
The video above, from Church Militant, outlines the challenges facing Catholic schools today. It should be noted that Catholics schools have been in consistent decline for fifty years! The COVID-19 pandemic has only served to highlight and accelerate the problem. The chief causes of the decline in Catholic schools are listed as follows… Cost Basic […]
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The above painting serves as a reminder to the Christian reader. As bad as things are, we’ve seen worse. There was once upon a time, near the founding of our great religion, that the world’s greatest superpower turned against us, persecuted us, captured us, and executed us for entertainment. The early Christians were mauled by […]
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The Catholic Church, especially in North America and Europe, is in a demographic nosedive. The writing is on the wall, and it cannot be denied anymore, at least not by any reasonably informed person. Throughout the United States, for example, parishes are closing. Congregations are being merged, and dioceses are downsizing. Our bishops today have […]
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It’s December of 2020, and this year I want to give a Christmas gift to any Catholic priest out there willing to receive it. It consists of some basic bullet points that, if implemented, should revive your parish in the face of creeping Secularization in our culture, and growing Evangelical sects that constantly pilfer our […]
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As a Practicing and Faithful Catholic blogger, I get some interesting messages every now and then. I won’t reveal any of their content here, but one common theme I’m asked is how to escape the influence of a bad bishop. Believe it or not, there are ways of going about this. But before we go […]
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No matter how you look at it, and no matter how things play out in the months and years ahead, the storm we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. Things are about to get very difficult for Faithful and Practicing Catholics in the days ahead. Whether it’s battening down the hatches, or boarding up the […]
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What do we call it when a pope doesn’t act like a pope? That’s something modern Catholics struggle with, because for over a century, we’ve had some pretty good popes, including a few Saints! Catholics haven’t had to deal with corrupt popes, or even heretical popes, in a very long time. It’s been centuries. So […]
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Ever since the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court, she has come under relentless attack from media personalities, and political pundits, for her alleged membership in the “dark and mysterious cult” called the ‘People of Praise’ (POP). So what are the ‘People of Praise?’ Are they a cult? I’ll address […]
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The only Good Catholic is a Lapsed Catholic. That’s what the Democrats believe. That’s what they preach. That’s what they demonstrate. And this has been going on for a very, very long time. It’s just now center stage for the first time in a heat of a presidential election. So many Catholics (otherwise clueless on […]
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Words matter, and I think we’ve reached a point in US Catholic history, perhaps long ago, where we really need to start thinking about our vocabulary. There are many different rites, forms, uses and jurisdictions in the Catholic Church. There are Roman Catholics, Byzantine Catholics, Maronite Catholics, Coptic Catholics, English Patrimony Catholics, Franciscans, Dominicans, Benedictines, […]
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The separation of Church and State, as defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica, takes on two main forms, classified as American and French. These two are similar, in appearance, but work toward opposite ends. The American form: “as implied in the Constitution of the United States, was supported by a tendency to leave to the church, […]
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This essay builds on the logical conclusion that naturally follows my two previous essays on the current state of affairs in American society and the abysmal state of affairs in the Catholic Church. It’s based on realism, not idealism, digesting the data as is, without relying on some pie-in-the-sky hope that God’s just gonna come […]
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Religion demographic polls treat Catholicism like a monolith, as if all Catholics are the same, while they break down Protestantism in detail based on beliefs and social positions. The truth, however, is that Catholicism in America is not nearly as unified as the typical demographers would have us believe. About a year ago, the Pew […]
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This is addressed to all of America’s Christian pastors, both Catholic and Evangelical; NOW is your moment to shine. Don’t miss it!!!!! Allow me to explain. Something very big is happening right now in the United States, and it’s the result of many different factors, but the big catalyst (and perhaps the final straw) is […]
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There are really only two paths in economics: Moral and Amoral. That’s it. Either economies are governed by a system of morals, or they’re not. That’s all there is to it. Basically, economics is just morality (or lack thereof) by another name. There’s really nothing all that complicated about it. Either we have a moral […]
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In recent weeks we’ve seen a remarkable Marxist coup unfold before our eyes. What began as a credible public-health threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Virus, has been hijacked into an attempt by Marxist leaders around the world to seize control of the people, business and economies for the purpose of “restructuring” according to […]
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I live in the Bible Belt, and I recently had a Baptist ask me if the Catholic Church is as strict as his church. I told him that all depends on what you mean by “strict.” He elaborated by telling me that at his Baptist church, nobody is allowed to smoke, drink or dance, and […]
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Something very strange is happening in the world of traditional Catholicism, and I think I know where it’s coming from, but rather than point fingers, I’m just going to explain myself and my position for what it is. Let me finish, then call me what you like. Some very prominent traditional Catholics, who I deeply […]
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What is the real state of the US Catholic Church? Well, it’s not good, but at the same time, it might not be as bad as we think. I started to run some statistics based on the EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Poll of the state of the Catholic Church. I decided that the best way to […]
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The world has radically changed in the wake of the Wuhan Virus (COVID-19) and with it the Catholic Church has changed too. The worldwide quarantine, of both the sick and the healthy, has spawned the birth of something new. Or maybe I should say the rebirth of something very old. The rise of Militant Catholicism […]
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Here in the United States, most people associate prayer beads with the Catholic Rosary. However, Catholics aren’t the only Christians who pray with beads. The practice is common among Eastern Orthodox Christians, and is growing in popularity among Protestant and Evangelical Christians as well. The prayer discipline is nearly as old as Christianity itself, and […]
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O Mary, recall the solemn moment when Jesus, thy divine son, dying on the cross, confided us to thy maternal care. Thou art our mother, we desire ever to remain thy devout children. Let us therefore feel the effects of thy powerful intercession with Jesus Christ. Make thy name again glorious in the shrine once […]
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This morning I read an article (see here) that made me laugh, because it relayed a story about a cardinal in the Catholic Church who doesn’t seem to understand some very basic terms. He suggested that Catholics who protest some actions of the pope ought to become Protestants, because that’s what they essentially are. I […]
Read MoreAs we approach the release of Pope Francis’ Amazon Synod Exhortation (late January or early February), it’s very important to keep your eye on the ball. The objective of the looney Left is to portray traditional Catholics as hysterical retrogrades who cannot handle any change. We MUST NOT let this narrative play out. As I […]
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Living in the Bible Belt, I run across a lot of misconceptions about what Catholicism is. Of course, I ran across these things in Southern California too, so the problem isn’t just limited to the Bible Belt. Strangely, I’ve even seen Catholics display some pretty funny ideas of what makes one Catholic. I remember the […]
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Faithful Catholics and American Patriots now find themselves on the same team, fighting against a cabal of Modernism, Marxism and Globalism that really and truly is hell-bent on world domination. Unlike the Soviet Union or the Nazi Third Reich, this cabal is not planning the military overthrow of Western Civilization, but rather a subversive and […]
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It appears that what we have going on here is an ecclesiastical game of “chicken.” Bonn and Rome are on a head-on collision course, and both are waiting to see who turns first. The objective of the German Bishops Conference in Bonn is to set the agenda for radical changes in the German Church BEFORE […]
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A video chronology of the decline of the Catholic Church. Living in the Ozark Mountains, deep within the Bible Belt, I am immersed in a Baptist/Pentecostal (Evangelical) culture that is, for the most part, ignorant about the Catholic Church and what’s going on therein. The Catholic population of the Ozarks is between 3% and 6%, […]
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It seems strange to have to say that Catholics are Christian but to a growing number of Evangelicals (particularly in the English-speaking world) it needs to be pointed out. Catholic Christianity is Complete Christianity. In fact, we Catholics were the first Christians because we Catholics were the original Christians. Sadly, a lot of Catholics have […]
Read MoreRod Dreher is an amazing author and columnist. He was an Evangelical Christian who came into the Catholic Church, where he was confronted by the “Spirit of Vatican II” (a bastardization of the authentic Vatican II) and the Lavender Mafia, which promptly drove him out of the Catholic Church and into the arms of Eastern […]
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