Domestic Church
Authoritative sources of Catholic Truth. As much as possible, the content on this website follows these sources. Links earn commission from Amazon for the Apostolate.
St. Joseph Guild Chat
A group chat for the MOC Guild members to grow an online community for the sake of our concrete Catholic communities against the Marxists.
A group chat for the MOC Guild members to grow an online community for the sake of our concrete Catholic communities against the Marxists.
Our Lady of Victory Press
Our Lady of Victory Press is an Imprint of Meaning of Catholic.
About
The Meaning of Catholic is a lay apostolate dedicated to uniting Catholics against the enemies of Holy Church and restoring the rival schools of Christendom. It is hosted by Timothy S. Flanders (chief editor of Our Lady of Victory Press), Kennedy Hall, Luis Medina, Jake Fowler and Jeremiah Bannister who produce the online content, spanning the resources and articles on this site, as well as work on Twitter, and YouTube. Please see the internet promise and confession of faith. All members of Meaning of Catholic subscribe to this confession of faith.
The Apostolate works under the patronage of Our Lady of Victory who united a divided Christendom to repel the Muhammadan invasion at Lepanto in 1571. May our Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of our Lady of Victory, bring about the liberty and exaltation of Holy Mother Church against her enemies, for God’s greater glory and the salvation of souls, amen.
Truth and charity
This forms the basis of what this apostolate strives to achieve by the grace of God. The Blessed Apostle states the following in the letter to the Ephesians:
[Christ] gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors: For the perfecting of the saints, for the word of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ: That henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive. But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in him who is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in charity (Eph. iv. 11-16).
In this passage we see obvious application to our own age, in which the faithful are “tossed to and fro” by “every wind of doctrine” which has its origin in “cunning craftiness” of the “wickedness of men.” Our age is one dominated by such deceit, from the newspeak of secular media, to the unfortunate state of the Euro-American Church in which “bishops reject the Catholic tradition as a whole and seek to bring about a kind of new, modern ‘Catholicity.’”[1]
The Blessed Apostle gives the antidote to this chaos: ἀληθεύοντες ἐν ἀγάπῃ (literally “truthing in charity”) and the goal of this action: “to grow up in him who is the head, even Christ.” Explaining this passage, St. Thomas says that truth and charity are the form (foundation) of all good works.[2]
Truth is a virtue in which a man “owes another a manifestation of the truth.”[3] Charity to our brother is willing his good for the sake of God.[4] If you have truth but no charity, you will end up in sin by loving the truth in your intellect but failing to practice it with your will. St. Thomas points out, for instance, that fraternal correction is an act of charity unless it is known beforehand that the action will make someone worse.[5] We see this type of thing among “Traditionalist” Catholics who hold strenuously to Catholic faith and morals, but express themselves with rancor and bitterness, not charity.[6]
On the other side, Conservative Catholics are often unwilling to ask reasonable questions about the state of the Magisterium and look more deeply into the crisis in the Church. The reasonable Traditionalist critique of Vatican II and the post-conciliar Magisterium is often dismissed outright, which prevents a genuine search for truth to try to untangle the chaos of the this crisis.[7] Conservative and Traditionalists Catholics can work together in this crisis to learn truth and charity, and fight against the evil afflicting the Church.
May God grant that this apostolate will give Him greater glory, and contribute to the salvation of souls.
Footnotes
[1]The Church and the Scandal of Sexual Abuse,” translated by Anian Christoph Wimmer(2019)
[2]See his commentary on this passage, accessible online here: https://dhspriory.org/thomas/SSEph.htm
[6]One of the foremost traditionalist priests, Fr. Chad Ripperger, comments often on the lack of charity among self-identified “traditionalists”
[7]It seems that the Traditionalist critiques have been dismissed, from what I can tell. This is due to the fact that there is only one scholarly work to my knowledge that addresses Traditionalism. On the other side, one can easily find many dozens of scholarly Traditionalist books.
Internet Promise
- I will never speak a word on the Internet that is not in accord with truth and charity: truth, in that every word will accord with the thing as it is (as far as I know), and charity, in that it wills the good of my brother for the sake of God. As it is written, Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it on the day of judgment (Matt. xii. 36).
- I will always accept and welcome correction. As it is written, The way of life, to him that observeth correction: but he that forsaketh reproofs, goeth astray (Prov. x. 17).
- I will never say a dishonorable word regarding any superior whether ecclesiastical, natural or political: honor, as witnessing to the excellence of an office (ST II-II q103 a1). As it is written, The prince of thy people thou shalt not curse (Ex. xxii. 28).
- If I am constrained by truth and charity to speak of evil among my superiors, I will do so only out of necessity (that is, when the faith is endangered) while maintaining due honor to the office according to the Scripture, An ancient man rebuke not, but entreat him as a father (I Tim. v. 1).[1]
- I will never say anything profane or vulgar as it is written, But now put you also all away: anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech out of your mouth (Col. iii. 8).[2]
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[1] ST II-II q33 a4: “It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter’s subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Gal. 2:11, ‘Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.’”
[2] Profanity profanes what is a sacred, for example when men speak blithely of the action or place of God’s eternal justice. Vulgarity is against modesty by speaking of private or unclean things with vulgar words. For an explication of the Church’s moral doctrine on this matter, see Fr. Chad Ripperger, “Language.”
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