Felix Romanus

The hate for Starmer is so fake and forced btw. Tories did FAR worse in those 14 years and people acting like it didn't happen.

"The New Reich Chancellery" in Berlin in color 🎨📸

France was a really great country. It all ended though, when the far-left Mitterrand was elected president. The only thing really growing in France since then has been debt/GDP: from 22% when Mitterrand was elected to 116% today. Don’t be like modern-day France.

In 1908 Asquith objected to a Catholic procession in London for the Eucharistic Congress: 'This gang of foreign cardinals taking advantage of our hospitality to parade their idolatries through the streets of London [is] a thing without precedent since the days of Bloody Mary'.

i've been watching the BBC series The Shadow of the Tower, which chronicles the rise to power of Henry VII after the War of the Roses and his struggle to establish the Tudor dynasty on the throne of England. Watching it is a stark reminder of how, not long ago, this was a very different country. Ask yourself, would the BBC today commission such a piece of historical re-enactment? Would it attempt to faithfully portray the mind and motives of Henry, the political intrigues of the Council, or the deeply alien world of late-medieval England - without smothering it in modern moral commentary? The answer is obviously no. The BBC of 1972 was actually interested in portraying British history, for a British public who had been taught this at school. There was an implicit sense that this is the history of the land and the people who inhabit it should naturally wish to see it faithfully represented. Today, we have lost confidence in our past. When we do deal with it, it is only insofar as we recognise our wrongdoings. It has become a cautionary tale about the present, rather than a world worth inhabiting in its own sense. And that's a great, great shame.

This is worth explaining, because I understand a lot of Christians are offended that their holy rituals are interrupted (just as I would be). During a war, the government relies on public order to avoid mass casualties. Every night, tens of thousands of civilians go to their bomb shelters to avoid bombing. There is no way for the government to enforce this discipline. But it's absolutely necessary. If there was constant chaos and thousands of dead, the government would have to stop the war. The general discipline of the populace is dependent on the fact that everyone willingly complies. If particular individuals take it upon themselves to avoid shelter, go into no-go zones, congregate in public, etc. it creates a motion of disorder that cannot be stopped by the police. That is why the police act to prevent individuals from violating directives. Not because their particular action is problematic (see for example, the admirable desicion by Pizzaballa to risk his life for the Mass), but because it will create a semblance of disorder in which each individual chooses for themselves and upends public discipline. I know that Americans in general really dislike the notion of the the government enforcing order. Much more so than Europeans and MEsterners. But Israel is not the US, rest assured Christians are not any more controlled by the government than Jews are. Additionally, many people have simply never been in a war. They do not understand the kind of governmental control necessary to win wars when the homeland is being bombed. This is a constant problem with Americans. They are blessed with having not been threatened in the homeland, and they truly do not understand what is required. Therefore, they see a government's actions during war as tyrannical. Because, indeed, during peace-time, they would be tyrannical. For example, preventing teachers from teaching schools, artists preforming in public, families from hosting weddings and funerals, clergy from conducting services, etc. etc. are all things which would be completely tyrannical during peace. But only a radical individualist would maintain that these things are a right that the government can't temper during war. The victory of the nation must limit the freedoms of the individuals, if only temporarily. So too, the right to travel in and out of the borders, the right to trade certain commodities, the right of the press to publicize certain facts, etc. etc. etc. none of this is anti-Chrisitian in sentiment. It's what Israelis take as a matter of course because they've lived through multiple wars and understand that communal spirit and national cooperation is necessary to win wars. You can't always be thinking of yourself.

This meme is to Protestants as the fedora meme is to internet atheists.

ソフィーちゃん、近くで見たら可愛すぎて、ちょっと照れちゃったけど写真から伝わるかな？笑

When I was in Kyoto with my friend, I kept seeing "geishas" walking around. My friend (who lives in Japan) assured me they were not real geishas, but Chinese tourists dressed up for fun. I asked him, "How can you tell?" He said, "Trust me. When you see a real geisha, you'll KNOW." Anyway went down a notorious geisha street - it was full of restaurants that featured geishas. You had to be a member to get in. And to be a member an existing member had to recommend you. So no way could I get into one of them. They had walls around the grounds so you couldn't even see in. Anyway, while we were gawking at the cool geisha establishments, a long black limousine pulled up and a geisha got out of the back seat and quickly hobbled into one of the geisha places. I was maybe 10 feet away from her. And friend let me tell you I didn't need a guidebook to tell that she was the real deal. Completely white face-paint. Amazing hairdo with sticks thrust through. Layers upon layers of gorgeous colorful kimono cloth. THAT was the geisha. I kept staring at the place after she was long gone. So that is my one story of how I saw a geisha. Sorry I was too stunned to pull out my camera and take a picture. Anyway my wife was there so ...

Tapping the sign

You’d be surprised how many Protestant objections to Catholicism center on sex. Contraception. Celibacy. Mary’s virginity. Divorce. Remarriage. Masturbation. IVF. Premarital sex.

I never understood the purpose of this doctrine. Obviously Mary was a virgin when she had Jesus, but why must she remain perpetually so? Especially when the Bible talks about Jesus’s brothers. She was married to Joseph and sex within marriage is good, not sinful.

'Absolutely null and utterly void' That was Pope Leo XIII's verdict on Anglican ordinations in 1896 His argument was exact: when the Anglican rite changed the ordination ritual in 1550, apostolic succession broke The seat of Canterbury has been vacant since 1558

Democrats in the 1990s

'Absolutely null and utterly void' That was Pope Leo XIII's verdict on Anglican ordinations in 1896 His argument was exact: when the Anglican rite changed the ordination ritual in 1550, apostolic succession broke The seat of Canterbury has been vacant since 1558