The Brian Holdsworth Podcast

I often see comments from people who have just found my channel that is some approximation of, "How can you defend the Catholic Church?" And the implied, or sometimes explicit, accusation that accompanies this question often betrays a misunderstanding of what "The Catholic Church" is. So, in this video, I offer some insights into how to make distinctions between the institution, its members, and the Church as it truly is by pointing out that we tend to make these distinctions in other areas of life and community (such as the education system). Next, I spend some time discussing the many prejudices that I brought to my understanding of the Catholic Church which have slowly unraveled as I have devoted time to learning about the Church's history. Events like the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the supposed persecutions of scientists, aren't nearly what I was taught they were, if not outright fabrications relying on outdated historical narratives composed by Protestants or other rivals of the Catholic Church.

We are living in a time in the Church when social justice seems to be at the forefront of everyone's mind, and I think this is largely the result of the emphasis of Pope Francis who has made talking about the needs of the poor a priority. But one thing that is true of a crisis is that it will test the sincerity of certain beliefs and how committed people are to them, especially if it starts to cost them something and I would say recent events did just that. And it makes me wonder that for the people who talk about social justice the most, do they actually understand what the Church even teaches about social justice and even if they do, are they sincere when they rehearse those concepts in conversations that will portray them as those most committed to the needs of the poor? Whenever you explore Catholic social teaching, you will inevitably collide with the concepts of solidarity and subsidiarity and many respectable commentators and instructors on the subject will point out that if you ever want to evaluate and compare some system or fabric of society for its compatibility with Catholic social teaching, you should look to see if they get these two things right.

We are told that the Synodal Way is going to be a time for listening in the Church. If that's sincere, then this is my attempt to penetrate into that conversation with what I think needs to be a the top of our hierarchy of priorities, as a Church. If we intend to renew the Church, if we intend to see it flourish, and if we intend to enable the mission of the Church, evangelization, then we have to offer what only the Church can - a mystical, transcendent encounter with God. Instead, we keep getting distracted by a desire to offer a natural, down to earth, worldly-minded message and culture. It's self-defeating and, when I was a convert, it was a bit turn-off. And as much as we may not want to hear it, the Tridentine Latin Mass is the kind of thing that does offer that encounter. So what can we do now, to reform ourselves to be more capable of embracing the mysteries of our faith then trying to brush them under the rug for fear that they will repel naturalist sensibilities?

This is my conversation with Dr. Anthony Esolen in which we discuss what it means to get a liberal arts education and how it produces liberty (freedom) in its pupils. We cover topics including utilitarianism, leisure, culture, university, humanities, freedom/liberty, and more.

The word Rigid or rigidity has become something of a buzzword and specifically a hammer to use, indiscriminately against orthodox or traditional Catholics who want to hold fast to the teachings of the Church, without compromise. I've heard pastors and bishops using it a lot these days and what I find interesting is that this term doesn't appear among lists of sins in scripture or in tradition. When St. Paul enumerates who will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven in 1 Corinthians, the rigid don't appear there. When we think of the 7 deadly sins, it doesn't appear there either, so it raises the question, is this something new or. The first thing to notice about it is that the word rigid, is a metaphorical word. It doesn't describe a literal trait that someone could have, unless you're talking about diseases like Parkinson's… but I doubt that's what clerics mean when they are accusing people of being rigid. Now, the thing about metaphorical language is that it is drawn from objects which are not human and is therefore, imprecise when it is applied to us… which means, it needs a lot of clarification when it is used. It needs to be related back to traits that are, literally, human traits. This is the thing about metaphorical language. It can help expand our understanding of something literal, by providing references and associations to other things that we might already be familiar with. Because, as Catholics, grounded in the knowledge of scripture and revelation, as well as the great wisdom of the tradition of reason which gave us virtue ethics, we have a fairly comprehensive list of qualities that we can be confident are precise and accurate in defining good qualities, what we might call virtues, and bad qualities, what we might call vices. If we want to use metaphorical words like Rigid to expand or enhance our understanding of a literal vice or virtue, then it can be a welcome rhetorical device as long as it's accurately applied in a way that brings clarity rather than ambiguity and confusion. Unfortunately, when I've heard this term used by Catholic leaders, it often appears divorced from the kind of clarity that I think is necessary. It's tossed out in vague allusions which can be seized on by anyone who wants to use it to condemn people they don't like. So, I think we need to be more precise with this term by clarifying what literal vices or sins we are associating it with or stop using it altogether because of how easily it can be associated with qualities that are not only not sins, but virtues, in fact. As a side note, notice that the definition of virtue is, a stable disposition to good. The catechism substitutes stable for firm but whichever word you use, it means unfaltering.