Classic Catholic Truth Society Pamphlets, Free Online

September 23, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

About 12 years ago, I had the occasion to visit the office of the Catholic Truth Society in London during a speaking tour there. A number of their venerable apologetics tracts and booklets were on display in a bookcase, most of them having been written decades earlier (some, many decades earlier) during a time in England when vigorous Catholic apologetics outreach to Protestants, atheists, and other non-Catholics was quite common.

The CTS staffer I spoke to that day made sure to provide me with a stack of pamphlets before I left, and in the ensuing years since that visit, I have lost track of them. That is, until today, when I discovered a whole cache of them posted on a Catholic website — each of them scanned in and available for free as PDFs of the originals. I’ve downloaded them all and would like to encourage you to go and do likewise. As basic, Catholic explanations of doctrinal, moral, and social issues go, these CTS materials are accessible, interesting, fact-filled, and compelling. As the old Alka-Seltzer commercial used to say, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

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Queen: "You're My Best Friend" bass lesson

September 20, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

2 Comments

If you play the bass guitar, or just love the bass guitar (it’s both, in my case), you’ll probably enjoy this. If you don’t, you may not. By the way, this So-Cal bassist, who goes by Zuma, really, really knows his way around the 70s & 80s pop scene. I learned how to play a lot of AM Top-4o songs sitting in my bedroom in the mid-70s, plonking away on my first bass till I had figured out the riffs. If only YouTube had existed then! I’d have taken lessons from Zuma (who probably wasn’t even born then).

Is good.

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The Strange Case of Mamie Cadden, Backstreet Abortionist

September 20, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

3 Comments

She was an Irish nurse/midwife who specialized in performing abortions in a country where killing unborn children is still illegal. She died in 1959, but the specter of her murderous legacy still haunts the pallid corridors of abortuaries everywhere.

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Banned in Ireland

September 20, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

23 Comments

This is the commercial that the Irish Government feels you should not see, at least not if you are a citizen of the Republic of Ireland. What are they afraid of? That’s right: the truth. They can’t handle the truth. So, thankfully, YouTube and other internet outlets can be the conduits.

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Blessed John Henry Newman on the English Martyrs

September 19, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

2 Comments

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Bee Gees in a box, and other truly primo 70s weirdness

September 18, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

1 Comment

As goofy as this ad is, it gets much better, much weirder than this. Trust me. Take the tour of the other 57 “what were they thinking?” ads. They’ll make your head spin.

Me, I was a teenager when this stuff was au courant. I guess that says a lot.

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A mother seeks advice on how to draw her grown sons back to the Catholic Church

September 17, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

12 Comments

Yesterday, on the EWTN “Open Line” radio broadcast, I received a question from a mother whose adult sons have left the Catholic Church and gone into “non-denominational” Protestantism. Concerned about maintaining a good relationship with them while telling them that they’ve made a big mistake in leaving the Faith, she asked what practical things she can do to help them come home. Take a listen.

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When you care enough to send the best (but you still have your doubts)

September 16, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

2 Comments

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A reader asks, "What's the deal with Medjugorje?"

September 14, 2010 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog

12 Comments

Hello Patrick,

Am I correct in believing that the apparitions at Medjugorie and the messages to the visionaries have never been officially approved/endorsed by the Church? Is approval in the works — likely to be given soon? Or is there a major problem with the whole Medjugorie phenomenon? Thank you for your answer.

David

MY RESPONSE (slightly altered):

Hi, David.

That’s correct. The alleged apparitions at Medjugorje have not been approved by the universal Church, though they have been repeatedly disapproved by the local bishops of the diocese within which Medjugorje is situated.

A Vatican commission was established recently to further evaluate the phenomena there, but so far no definitive decision has been rendered, at least not publicly.

It’s hard to predict how soon or far off a decision might be in coming. It seems to me that the best thing we can do in the meantime is to pray, especially the rosary, do penance, frequent the sacraments, and strive by God’s grace to live good and virtuous Christian lives. These are, of course, the essence of Our Lady’s messages in approved apparitions, such as Fatima and Lourdes.

In due time, the Lord will guide the Church to formally pronounce its decision on whether the alleged apparitions at Medjugorje are either authentic or false. In the meantime, let’s be at peace about it and let Him reveal the truth about this according to the timing of His loving providence.

God bless you,

Patrick Madrid

P.S. www.medjugorje.net has lots of positive information on Medjugorje, and this other website contains fascinating information that is critical of it: http://en.louisbelanger.com.

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