Pints With Aquinas - 126: The 4 Marks of the Church, 5 Really BAD Popes, & Your Questions

Episode Date: October 2, 2018

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Hello, welcome to Pines with Aquinas. Today we're going to ask Aquinas what are the four characteristics of the one true church. We're going to look at five of the worst popes in history, huge, fat, ugly sinner popes in history. We're going to talk about what we can learn from Aquinas regarding the current scandal in the church. And then I'm going to take some questions from my patrons. So it should be a fun day. Glad you're here. Get a beer. Here we go.

Hey, good to have you back here at Pines with Aquinas. Hope you're doing well. I'm doing really great. Really great. Let me tell you why. So for a while now, I've been telling you that I want to do these long sit-down video chats. Yes, yes, yes. Like Joe Rogan and all those wonderful people out there doing work, you know, on YouTube, yeah?

But these things are bloody expensive, you know, on YouTube, yeah? But these things are bloody expensive, you know? So, I've been saying, you know, one of the things we do on Patreon is I say, like, once we reach a certain number of people, we can do certain projects. Well, we have met that number. And so now, I am indebted to give to you what I promised. So, it was really neat. I went down to Atlanta to see this studio. I'm working with, you know, a video dude. I think that's his official title.

And he's going to be filming it. And we're talking about sets and stuff like that. I've got different guests scheduled. My wife will be one of the first ones because we want to do like a pilot one, you know. And I don't have to pay my wife to do it. So that's nice. My sister, I'm flying her in from Australia so she can be with me and the kids and my wife. And I'm going to interview her. We have Christopher West coming in December. So this is really neat. It's such a fun thing because I was trying to figure out how does this look, you know, do I have to buy two really comfy chairs,

put them next to each other, you know, and then what does it look does this look, you know, do I have to buy two really comfy chairs, put them next to each other, you know, um, and then what does it look like? And, and, you know, how long are these chats going to be? Um, but it's, and it's really great. Like, it's really exciting. Actually. I just, I would pay money to chat with Christopher West for two or three hours, you know, he'd probably pay not to have to do that with me, but that's okay. You know, cause I'm, you know, so this is really cool, but, um, just so everyone knows and, you know, full transparency and all that. Um, so like just to kind of do the shoot, you know, and, and the live editing or the editing after the fact, we're not sure what we'll do first. It's about, it's around a grand, Hey, like it's around a thousand dollars. And that's just for

the editing and the equipment. I got to rent an extra camera. It's the rental of the studio. Maybe eventually we'll get enough patrons and I'll even have a studio here in my house. We'll see. But for now, that's about a thousand for that. And then like, I got to fly people in. So let's say that's $300. Okay. I got to pay them, put them up at a hotel for a night or two. All right. What's that? I don't know. Let's just say 300. All right. So what are we at? We're at like, okay, that's 1600. Okay. And then I got to pay this person something, presumably, like until these videos are getting a lot of people watching. I'm not sure how people, I have to pay people to come, you know? So let's just say, all right, let's just throw a number out there. Let's say a grand to pay people to come, you know? So let's just say, all right, let's just throw a number

out there. Let's say a grand to pay someone, right? To leave their family to come and do an interview, right? And that won't be all the time. Sometimes people would do it for less, but that's like 20, but what's that? 2,600 that we're at per episode. So, but that's okay. Because I, you know, you guys are supporting me and I want to do this and I think it'll be super fun. And so that's what we're going to do. We're going to start with one a month. Thinking about calling it Pints with Matt Fradd, because it's not going to be based around Aquinas, eh? And then what I'll probably do is start another podcast called Pints with Matt Fradd. And then also, you know, for the first few episodes, throw them up at Pints with the Choir, and this is like a bonus episode. But these will be like two to three hour chats, just about everything. So I just want to give you an update

on that. So a big thanks to all of you who are supporting the show on Patreon and are making that possible. All right, today I want to talk about the four characteristic marks of the Catholic Church. Okay. This is a difficult time to be a Catholic. It reminds me of those memes that say, if you don't love me at my worst, like you don't deserve me at my best or something like that. And it's usually like someone who doesn't have makeup on or just got out of bed and looks terrible, you know? And then the next photo, they look absolutely beautiful or whatever. It's kind of like that right now. Like if you don't love the church at her worst, then maybe you don't deserve her at her best. You know what I mean? Something like that. And we're going through a weird dark time right now, right? Where there's all this sex abuse

scandal taking place. We're only going to hear more and more about it as more grand jury reports come out from different states. Pope Francis has been, you know, completely silent on the accusations against him. And my understanding is so have all the other cardinals who've been indicted by the Vigano letter. What do you do with that, man? I said in my recent interview with Matt Walsh, you know, like, if the Pope just doesn't respond, then what is EWTN going to do? It's not like every day they can say the Pope hasn't responded because that article has zero words in it. So it's like, if the Pope and these cardinals won't say anything, well, the whole point is to, you know, you're a news outlet.

You've got to sell papers if people still get papers. You've got to, you know, get people to click on your links and whatever else they do. Watch your videos. But you can't have nothing. So they've got to talk about something. current crisis. Perhaps you think that, you know, Pope Francis is innocent and people are kind of using the sex abuse scandal as sort of a club to beat him with, or maybe you think he's kind of guilty, or maybe you just have no opinion at all. I think what isn't really up for debate is that the church is going through a rough time right now, and we need to remember why we're Catholic,

you know. We're not Catholic because we like Pope Francis. We're not Catholic because we like Pope Benedict, you know. Like, we're not Catholic because we like our priest, necessarily, or because the music's great at our local parish or because whatever, you know, these are peripheral things. But the essential reason, like the reason we should be Catholic is that we think that what the church says about herself is true, right? That the Catholic Church was established by Jesus Christ. That's true or it isn't. And if it is true, then that's why we're Catholic. So I thought it would be a kind of cool thing to look at the four, as I say, essential conditions of the Church.

And this is laid out in the Nicene Creed. If you want to know, right, where the church is, you need to find a church that has these four conditions, right? The church is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. All right. So, let's just go through these each. So, the first thing Aquinas says is, of the first, it must be known that the church is one. Yes, he says, right? Although various heretics have founded various sects, they do not belong to the church, since they are but so many divisions. Of her it is said, one is my dove, my perfect one is but one. That comes from Song of Songs.

The unity of the church arises from three sources. Love it. So, he doesn't just stop there, right? He doesn't just say that the church is one, but this oneness has three sources. And he says the three sources are the unity of faith, the unity of hope, and the unity of charity. Okay. So number one, the unity of faith, all Christians who are of the body of the church believe the same doctrine. And he quotes scripture like he always does. All right, listen to this. I beseech you, this comes from first Corinthians. I beseech you that you all speak the same thing, there be no schisms among you. All right. And from Ephesians, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. Now, speaking about this with Father Dominic Legge, it is quite remarkable that a large, you know, swath portion of the world's population

essentially believe the same thing. This is one of the reasons we need divine revelation. So even though Aquinas says that we can know certain things apart from revelation, look, you know, bring five philosophers in a room and ask their opinion on a particular topic, and you might get five different answers, even though we're all using human reason. topic and you might get five different answers, even though we're all using human reason. And so, it is quite remarkable and something of a miracle that there are many people throughout the world who essentially believe the same thing, right? That there is a God, that this God is three persons, that he sent his son to die for us, that this son rose from the dead, that we'll be judged, that we'll go to heaven or hell,

that we'll get our bodies back. It's pretty crazy. This is something philosophy, reason unaided by revelation wouldn't be able to do because we might come to know certain things, but it would be be mixed in with a bunch of errors. The second source from which our unity arises is the unity of hope, says Aquinas. He says, all are strengthened in one hope of arriving at eternal life. Hence, the apostle says, one body and one spirit as you are called in one hope of your calling. Ephesians 4. And finally, the unity of charity. All are joined together in the love of God, and to each other is mutual love. And the glory, and this is a quote here from John, and the glory which you hast given me, I have given them, that they may be one, as we also are one. Aquinas says that it's clear that this is a true love when the members are solicitous for one another and sympathetic towards each other.

And then he quotes Ephesians in which it says, we should in every way grow up in him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body being joined and fit together by every joint with which it is That's from Ephesians chapter 4. Aquinas says, So the early church fathers saw the Ark of Noah as a type of the church, just as those who were within the Ark were saved and that no one outside of it was. So, the church is the new ark, and if we are to be saved, we have to be part of the church. Now, obviously, this has to be said with some nuance, and we're not going to get into it right here, so let me just sort of give you the basic, the bottom line. The church teaches that you can be saved outside of the church, but you'll still be saved through the church. Okay. So, if somebody through no fault of their own does not believe in Christ or is not a

participant, you know, of the church, hasn't been baptized, that this person still has the possibility of salvation, right? If they have what's called invincible ignorance. The difference between invincible ignorance and ignorance is to be invincibly ignorant is to not be culpable for the ignorance, for your ignorance. So, you could imagine, right, someone being raised in a weird cult, right? Where they supposedly believed in Jesus and read the Bible, and maybe a lot of abuse and brainwashing goes on in this particular cult. This person finally, you know, escapes from this cult and tries to start a new life on her own, you know?

She may want nothing to do with Jesus because the Jesus that she came to know wasn't at all like the Jesus the church, the Catholic church proclaims. And so you could imagine why she would want to reject any missionary that came to her door, any evangelization effort that was sort of directed to her. And if she were to die in that state, she still has the possibility of salvation, right? Because she may be invincibly ignorant. Anyway, this is a big topic and I want to do a whole show devoted just to that topic. But the church does teach this. If one willingly and rejects what he knows God has revealed, he cannot be saved. God has revealed, He cannot be saved. So, if you or I know that Christ has revealed something for us to believe and we reject it, then we cannot be saved. I mean, that doesn't matter if you're

a Catholic, it doesn't matter if you're evangelical, it doesn't matter if you're Muslim, right? If God has revealed something for you to believe, and you know that, and you reject it, you will not be saved. So, the church does teach that. All right. So, let's move on to this next point. The church is holy. Now, that might just seem ridiculous right now. Holy? Are you kidding me? Did you hear about those two priests in a car found in Florida by that policeman recently? Holy, right? Uncle Ted's beach house, all that was going holy, right? These predator priests, right?

The cover-up that's been taking place, it is taking place, and you're saying the church is holy. Okay. Well, if one of the marks of the church is holiness, then it isn't the Catholic church, someone might say. We'll address that, but let's look what Aquinas says. He says, concerning the second mark, holiness, it must be known that there is indeed another assembly, but it consists of the wicked. I hate the assembly of the wicked, Psalm 25, 5. But such a one is evil. The church of Christ, however, is holy. In 1 Corinthians, we read,

for the temple of God is holy, which you are. Hence, it is said, the holy church. Now, the faithful of this church are made holy because of four things okay number one just as a church is cleansed materially when it's consecrated so also the faithful are washed in the blood of christ we read in revelation jesus christ who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Revelation 1.5. We also read in Hebrews that he might sanctify the people by his blood. He suffered outside the gate. Just a side note here, when Aquinas was taken under house arrest, essentially,

after he joined the Dominicans by his, well, his mother, his father had died at the time, and his mom sent his brother and a couple of other soldiers to capture Aquinas and to bring him back to their castle in Rocaseca. He was there for about a year or two. Now, don't get the idea that he was imprisoned in a dungeon. It was more like a house arrest. He could go and come as he pleased. He could receive visitors and so on. But it's said that during that one or two years, I forget which off the top of my head, that he read the Bible, you know, like a couple of times. It's crazy. Like, you know, he didn't have Google. He didn't think to himself, oh, what's that line where it says he suffered outside the gate? Google, he suffered outside the gate, comma, Bible. Oh, here it is on Bible Hub, right? He just knew the scripture so well. It's incredible how much Aquinas quotes sacred scripture. It's beautiful. I think it just goes to show us that a true son of St. Thomas is someone who immerses himself in the word of God, you know?

So, all right, the second reason the church is holy, says Aquinas, is just as there is the anointing of the church, so also the faithful are anointed with a spiritual unction in order to be sanctified. Otherwise, they wouldn't be Christians. For Christ is the same as anointed. This anointing is the grace of the Holy Spirit. He who confirms us with you in Christ and who has anointed us in God, 2 Corinthians. And you are sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians. Here's the third reason the church is holy. The faithful are made holy because of the Trinity who dwells in the church. For wherever God dwells, that place is holy. The place where you stand is holy and holiness

befits your house, O Lord. Lastly, the faithful, right, the church, the faithful are sanctified because God is invoked in the church. From Jeremiah we read, But you, Lord, are among us, and your name is called upon by us, forsake us not. Let us therefore be aware, seeing that we are thus sanctified, lest by sin we defile our soul, which is the temple of God. We read in 1 Corinthians. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? But if any man violates the temple of God, him shall God destroy. All right, in just a second, I want to give you five examples of really bad popes throughout the history of the church, just to kind of make clear what it means when we say the church is holy and what it doesn't mean.

But here's something to keep in mind. The holiness of the church, of which the creed is speaking about, is in reference to her divine founder and to what the church was founded by him to do, to make saints. It doesn't have to do with the individual condition of the church's members. All right. So, I mean, when you think, I mean, it's like, yeah, there are sinners in the church. When the creed says that the church is holy, what that doesn't mean is that everyone is a saint. On the contrary, the church from the beginning, right, from her human perspective has been made up of sinners. That's why we read in 1 Timothy, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And the church was founded, remember, for no other reason than to continue

Christ's redemptive and sanctifying work, which it does through the sacraments. All right. So, when we say that the church is holy, we're saying that she has God as her author, right? And that she has the power to sanctify her members. Okay. So that said, I think it is important just to keep some things in perspective. All right. Like there have always been sinners in the church. I like to say, I think I heard it from Tim Staples once who said, you don't leave Peter because of Judas. You don't leave the church because of a sinner within the church. You don't even leave Peter because of Peter, right? There's a book called The Bad Popes by E.R. Chamberlain. And he documents the lives of eight of the most controversial popes. And I

just want to go through just to kind of give you an idea of how wicked some popes have been. Now, I could give examples of individual members within the church, right? Priests or nuns or laymen, I get that. But we as Catholics shouldn't be afraid to admit that we've had some really awful popes. If you are afraid to admit that, then what you're probably doing is misunderstanding papal infallibility. Papal infallibility does not mean papal impeccability. To be infallible doesn't mean to be impeccable. The gift of infallibility just means the ability of the church to interpret the revelation which God has entrusted to her and to do that correctly, without error. It doesn't mean the Pope isn't a sinner.

So here's eight examples. Pope Stephen VI, he lived from 896 to 897, or at least reigned during that time, I should say. He probably didn't live for one year. It'd be difficult to be elected Pope. He had his predecessor, Pope Formosus, dug up, exhumed, and he tried his dead body. And then he was briefly reburied and then thrown into the Tiber. That's not cool, right? Pope John XII gave land to a mistress. He murdered several was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife. What? Killed by a man who caught...

So someone comes home from work, and there's the Pope in bed with the missus, and he kills the Pope. Pope John XII from 955 to 964. And in this one, you got Pope Benedict IX. He sold the papacy. Sold the papacy. Can you imagine if that happened today? If Pope Francis sold the papacy? Like the scandal. I mean, any of these are scandalous, but it's just like, I mean, this is kind of one of the least scandalous ones,

perhaps, that we've just read. Pope Boniface VIII is spoken about in Dante's Inferno. So he puts him squarely in hell. Pope Urban VI complained that he did not hear enough screaming when cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured. Not cool, Pope Urban VI. Imagine if Twitter was around back then. You imagine? Imagine getting like tweets from cardinals or tweets from the Michael Voris of the time, you know, that this stuff is happening, you know, golly. And then finally,

Pope Alexander VI was guilty of nepotism. That's when you kind of give preferential treatment to your family by putting them in positions of power, at least in this case. You know, he had several mistresses, he had several children. So the reason I just share this is, and I don't mean to make light of it, but the point is there've been really wicked members within the church, at the head of the church. So, if you're looking at the state of the church right now, and you're scandalized by its wickedness, I think you're right to be scandalized by the wickedness of some of its members. But keep in mind that this is something that's existed in the church

since the beginning. Like Judas was one of the 12 bishops, right? Appointed by Christ himself. And he betrayed the son of man to death. So let's go to that third point. The church is Catholic. What does Catholic mean? Catholic comes from the Greek word or words, kata, yeah, two words, I think, kataholicus, which means according to the whole or more broadly universal. The term, incidentally, or more broadly, universal. The term, incidentally, was first used in AD 110 by Saint Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Smyrnans. So, excuse me, and what's interesting is that historians and scholars of early church history look at this document by Saint Ignatius, and they say he didn't invent the word. And the reason we know that is he doesn't pause to explain it. He uses

the word Catholic like everyone should already understand it. And so the word Catholic from the very earliest days of the church was being used. Why? It was being used to distinguish the church Christ established from the splinter groups that were arising. All right, so let's see what Aquinas has to say here. He says, the church is Catholic. That is universal. Firstly, it is universal in place because it's worldwide. This is contrary to the era of the Donatists. We've talked about the era of Donatism. They were like a fourth century, I think. Oh, don't quote me. Look that up yourself. But they, among other things, would argue that the clergy had to be without sin in order to celebrate the sacraments and for their prayers for the flock

and for themselves to be effective, among other things, which just goes back. And there's a reason that's a heresy, right? It's because the church, even though she's holy, there's sinners there too, and even within the clergy. So that's another point for the last one, I suppose. It says, for the church, it's a congregation of the faithful. And since the faithful are in every part of the world, so also is the church. We read in Romans 1.8, your faith is spoken of in the whole world. And also we read in Mark 16.15, go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature.

You know, just an interesting anecdote. It is pretty amazing that the Catholic Church is by far the largest church. And technically, the Catholic Church wouldn't look upon the evangelical churches as churches. Pope Benedict referred to them as ecclesial communions because they don't have authority or priests or sacraments. So whereas we refer to the Orthodox Church as a church in a state of schism, we wouldn't refer to Protestant churches as churches. But anyway, my point is, it's pretty crazy that, by the way, I know that we have Protestant listeners, so let me just say, I have no doubt that individual Protestants can be holier

than Catholics and have a lot to teach us. So please don't think I'm bashing Protestants when I say that. I'm just giving you the church's take on this, okay? You know, it would make sense if you were, say, in Africa leading a mission trip to invite people to become part of the Catholic church, right? It doesn't sound right though to be like, hey, do you want to become a Southern Baptist? Right? Like the church is universal, right? Not located to one particular geographical area. Aquinas continues, long ago, indeed, God was known only in Judea. Now, however, he is known throughout the entire world. The church has three parts, The church has three parts, one in earth, one in heaven, and one in purgatory. Secondly, the church is universal in regard to all the conditions of mankind,

for no exceptions are made. Neither master nor servant, neither man nor woman, neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, Galatians 3.28. Thirdly, it is universal in time. And so here Aquinas points out an error that some have committed. He says, some have said that the church will exist only up to a certain time, but this is false. For the church began to exist in the time of Abel and will endure up to the end of the world. Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world, Matthew 28, 20. Moreover, even after the end of the world, it will continue to exist in heaven. Now, let me just be really honest with you. I have no idea why he would say that the church

existed from the time of Abel. So I need to look into that. And if you know, feel free to tell me. I suspect he's obviously using the word church in a looser sense to refer to God's people. Yeah. But generally speaking, we don't refer to, you know, Isaiah as being part of the church. So we would say that they are saints in heaven, you know. Okay. Finally, the church is apostolic. The church is firm. Now, this is really great. This section here, I think, really will speak to you and me today, all right? As we are being assailed by all of these scandals, right? By our sins and the sins of others, the church is firm. Listen to this. A house is said to be firm if it has a solid foundation. Well, the principal foundation of the church is Christ.

We read in 1 Corinthians, The secondary foundation, however, is the apostles and their teaching. Therefore, the church is firm. It is said in the apocalypse that the city has 12 foundations and therein were written the names of the 12 apostles, Revelation 21. From this, the church is called apostolic. Likewise, to indicate the firmness of the church, St. Peter is called the crowning head. The firmness of a house is evident if when it is violently struck, it does not fall. The church similarly can never be destroyed,

neither by persecution nor by error. Indeed, the church grew during the persecutions of both those who persecuted her and those against whom she threatened completely failed. And then a quote here from 2 Timothy. And whoever falls upon this stone shall be broken, but on whomever it falls, it shall grind him to powder. Beg your pardon, that's from Matthew. He says, as regards errors, indeed, the more errors arise, the more surely truth is made to appear.

And from 2 Timothy, men corrupt in mind, reprobate in faith, but they shall proceed no further. You know, this is an interesting point. I like that line there. The more error arises, the more surely truth is made to appear. The more errors arise, the more surely truth is made to appear. So, maybe 50 years ago, you were living, or people were living in a society which felt basically Christian. Certain things were frowned upon, like fornicating was frowned upon. Being involved in homosexual lifestyles was frowned upon, right? The good of the family was something that was promoted. Prayer wasn't seen as this weird thing, you know? But that said, when you live in a kind of quote-unquote Christian era like that, it can be difficult maybe to realize that you're being called to be something much more,

much different, that you're supposed to be different from the world, which was true 50 years ago. Like as a Christian, you were being called to a level of virtue and sanctity that was greater than what the world was found acceptable, let's say. Okay. But when errors arise, right, truth stands out all the more. And so, when you live in a society that denigrates marriage, that proclaims and endorses abortion and calls it women's rights, such a freaking disgusting thing to say, right? This has to do with women's healthcare. Yeah. The slaughtering of innocent children is women's healthcare. Absolute frigging despicable, right? Like, when you live in a time like this, it's like, okay, the line in the sand is drawn and it is clear. And that's why I think, you know, like our Lord told us, you know, if you want to follow me,

you will be hated. Do you understand? The world will be against you. Now, that's always been true. me, you will be hated. Do you understand? The world will be against you. Now that's always been true. And it's true today as well. So think of it this way. If you are not looked upon as weird, as whatever, strange, if you're not kind of hated or despised by some of your family members, that might be weird. Like unless all of your family members are practicing Catholics and love Christ, you know, but I know for a fact that I have people that I love, family members, right? Who I just know, they haven't said anything to me, but I know they see the sorts of things I talk about. And they probably think I'm really narrow-minded and bigoted and hate-filled. And maybe they even say behind closed doors, they feel sorry for me. That wouldn't surprise me. All right. I think they're wrong. I don't

think I'm bigoted. I don't think I'm hate-filled, right? But as a Christian, you should seem weird to people. Like if your life and my life, if your family and my family looks exactly the way families in the world look, that's a problem. You know, look, as somebody who speaks about pornography a lot, right? When I go and speak to college students or parents, I say to parents, like, you're supposed to look different. The idea that you would give your child an iPad, why would you do that? And if you're going to do it, okay, you didn't lock it down? Like, you don't have covenant eyes? like you don't have covenant eyes, that's a stupid thing to do. And you might say, well, that's just really kind of hyper, you know, you're too much, Matt. I mean, you have to understand this is the real world we live in, you know, like you can't hide under a rock. You can't just like have this bunker mentality. That's what people say to me. And I'm like, are you kidding? All I'm saying is your kids shouldn't be exposed to hardcore porn, but that makes me the radical, right? Because the thing is, if you give your kid

an iPad, iPhone, Wii, whatever, Nintendo Switch, and you're not locking these down, they're going to see porn. That should concern you. And if your first response to me is, oh, wow, bunker mentality rad trad, then yeah, okay. So the point is, we should look different. The church should look different. And as he says, the more errors arise, the more surely truth is made to appear. Now we don't hold to the truth in an arrogant way. If anything, we ought to be more repentant than those in the world because the truth has been made known to us. And like our Lord says, why do you see the speck in your brother's eye and not see the log in your own? So the whole point of this isn't to say, wow, yeah, I'm on the side of truth and look at all these sinners around me. No, the fact that you know the truth should lead you to look at yourself as wretched and to look at the crucifix and say,

oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner, you know. Aquinas continues, nor shall the church be destroyed by the temptations of demons. For she is like a tower towards which all flee who war against the devil. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. Proverbs 18.10. The devil, therefore, is chiefly intent on destroying the church, but he will not succeed, for the Lord has said, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Look around at the church right now. I am telling you that over the next 10 years, we are going to have grand jury

report after grand jury report after grand jury report. We haven't even begun to shed light on the filth that's been taking place in our church. Hasn't even begun. It's about to, and it's going to be long and it's going to be arduous. And I suspect that many Catholics won't make it, right? They'll leave. They don't want to be associated with a church like this. And I get the temptation to leave the church, but like Peter, we should look at our Lord and say, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. you alone have the words of eternal life. But let that line from Aquinas come for you. The devil, therefore, is chiefly intent on destroying the church,

but he will not succeed. For the Lord has said, the gates of the underworld shall not prevail against it. This is if he said, They shall make war against you, but they shall not overcome you. And thus it is that only the church of Peter, to whom it was given to evangelize Italy when the disciples were sent to preach, was always firm in faith.

On the contrary, in other parts of the world, there is either no faith at all or faced faith mixed with many errors the church of peter that's the catholic church flourishes in faith and is free from error this however is not to be wondered at for the lord has said to peter but i have prayed for you that your faith fail not and and thou being once converted, confirm your brethren. All right. Again, this doesn't mean that popes and cardinals and priests cannot believe and teach false things. But what it means is the church won't define something infallibly and that be an error, you know? And so, the church, I mean, there's so much more, right, than just human sexuality. But I mean, human sexuality is such a big thing right now. In the first Vatican Council, it said something to the, it was the first or second Vatican Council, I forget which, it said, when the creator is forgotten, the creature becomes

unintelligible. All right, now look at the whole transgender, five billion different genders you can choose from thing. When the creature is forgotten, the creature becomes unintelligible. We don't know whose we are. We don't know what we are. We're just trying to create reality on our own. And that is not the path to enlightenment, right? Fighting against our nature is not the way to freedom. So, the church is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. And I want to suggest, let me see here. I want to suggest that you take some time to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church in regards to these four characteristics, because it's really terrific and even more thorough than what Aquinas laid out there in his commentary

on the Creed. So, it begins in paragraph 811, and it goes through to like, I don't know, 856 or no, no, further than that, 860. But check that out. I'll try and remember to throw that up in the show notes and just take some time to read that. During this time of craziness, I've said it in a previous video of mine on YouTube, look to our Lord. Look, it's exciting all that's going on right now, just like the waves were exciting that were crashing about Peter's feet as he walked upon the waters. But when we take our eyes off the Lord and onto the commotion, onto the excitement and forget the Lord, that's when we begin to sink. So let's make a renewed effort by God's grace to put our eyes on Christ and yeah, keep our eyes on him. That's how we weather the storm.

All right. Thanks very much for listening. Now, as I already said, it's time for some of your questions. All right. If you want to ask me your question, just become a supporter on Pints with Aquinas. I want to say a big thanks to all of you who are supporting me on Patreon and are allowing me to do the work that I'm doing. So let's take some of your questions here. Jimmy asks, what is the greatest treasure the Roman church can learn from the Byzantine church? That's a good question, Jimmy. Gosh. I would say the greatest treasure that the Roman church can learn from the Byzantine church is perhaps the Eastern fathers of the church. Like reading St. Gregory the Great or reading the Ladder of Divine

Ascent. There's a lot of emphasis placed on the heart in the East. And this is why the Jesus prayer is something so dear to my heart. In the Jesus prayer, this is, I think, something that there's no reason that you as a Western Catholic shouldn't pick this up and start praying it. One of the analogies the Eastern Fathers use is, all right, suppose you look down at a pond and there's a lot of commotion in this pond, right? The sand has been stirred up and the water has been unsettled. Can you see the bottom? No. All right, we'll wait quietly, patiently. Now can you see the bottom? Yeah. Okay. So we have to be attentive to our heart because our emotions can stir us up so that we don't see things clearly. You don't sort of hear things the

way you should hear them. You don't look upon people the way you ought to look at them. You don't assess situations the way you ought to assess them because there's a lot of disturbance within your heart, within my heart, and the Jesus prayer can still our hearts, right? By calling upon the name of Jesus Christ, being in a perpetual state of repentance, acknowledging who He is, Lord, and who I am, sinner, our hearts can come to rest. And in that state of rest, we can see things a lot more clearly. So, if you wanted to begin to read the Eastern Fathers, there's a series of books called the Philokalia, which means, what is that, Philokalia, the love of beauty, the love of the beautiful. You could get an edition online. And then I'd say also pick up the Jesus Prayer. I've done a video on this on YouTube.

Also, you might want to check out The Way of a Pilgrim, which is a beautiful book written by an anonymous author who is trying to learn how to pray always, like Paul says, pray at all times. And he learns the Jesus prayer. So that would maybe be my answer. Thanks very much, Jimmy. Paul Arias asks, what are your, the Fradd family's prayer requests? Oh, thanks, Paul. I think, you know, pray that we can be holy, pray that I can be serious about being a good dad. Cameron, my wife, just overcame a great deal of sickness. As many of you know, she's been really, really ill for the last couple of years, and so thank God she's doing much better.

So, you know, if you could just pray for us in general, that we would be a loving, faithful family, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks, Paul. Brian Damerick says, what are some good casual books you would recommend looking for something to read for fun but also get some meaning out of it that's a good question

I love reading short stories and Matt Walsh suggested to me to read The Death of Ivan Ilyich and I read it and it was a powerful book don't read that for fun it's not a fun book but it's a very insightful book but but it is short. So maybe that's what you mean, you know, in the sense of casual, like it's deep, but it's short. And so, you know,

it's not like one of these things, okay, this is gonna take me like seven months to read. So you might want to check that out. I also love reading graphic novels, especially kind of the older ones. One of my favorite things to do is to go into a comic book store and go to their kind of dollar bin and just buy some really old ones. Like I'm looking over on my bookshelf right now, Blackhawk looks like it was made in the 50s, you know, and it's just fun. Some of the newer comics have a lot of sexual content and stuff in it like that, which I don't appreciate, but that's a kind of cool way for me to unwind. You probably won't get any meaning out of that, but hey, thanks, Brian. Dan Foley says, any book recommendations, any non-Catholic Christian podcasts and authors you like? Well, I'm going to say The Brothers Karamazov, which I just read is a brilliant book,

which you all should read. Definitely, definitely do that. Non-Catholic Christian podcast. Yeah, I love William Lane Craig. He's an evangelical philosopher, and he has a podcast called Reasonable Faith. So I really like that. As far as authors that I like who are non-Catholic, the first thing that came to mind then was Wild at Heart. Who wrote Wild at Heart? I forget. John Eldredge. I thought that was an excellent book for men, and then he has, I think, Captivated or Captivating for Women. I'd recommend that one. So yeah, I love that. I also just went and saw Gary Habermas the other day. He's one of the foremost scholars on the resurrection of Christ. So it was kind of cool. I went to an evangelical church and listened to him talk, and it was excellent. And the stuff he's written is really good. Uh, so yeah, thanks very much for that. Um, let's see here. David Wallace says an Australian friend of mine is having a birthday today. How should I wish him happy birthday in Australian? I don't know. Uh, that's a good question. Yes. I don't know, man. I was going to say you could

send him Vegemite, but he lives in Australia, so he probably doesn't need you to send him Vegemite. Yeah, I don't know. Richard Pagel says, have you read much from Roger Penrose, specifically The Emperor's New Mind, or have you explored in general the different arguments and proofs of whether or not the human brain can be just a meat machine, Godel, Lucas,

etc. If so, what are your thoughts and do you have any recommendations on resources? Also, have you discovered Stephen Barr yet? If not, you need to seek him out and get him on a podcast. It's definitely veers from Thomistic Specific Philosophy, but I feel your followers would definitely appreciate the subject matter. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks. Give up the great work. It definitely is changing lives. Thanks, Richard. No, I'm going to punt on that first one. In regards to the brain and the soul and free will, I would point you to the Thomistic Institute. I know they have several excellent lectures on those topics, which you might find interesting. I don't know who Stephen Barr is, but I'm open to having him on my show. Why don't you put him in touch with me? My assistant,

her email, her name's Melanie. She's brilliant and awesome, is assistant at mattfradd.com, assistant at mattfradd.com. You can write to her, maybe give her Stephan Barr's contact information and she can get in touch with him and try and book him for an upcoming show. Jimmy Windle says, where do you see the church going in the next 15 to 20 years? Well, look, I'm not a prophet at all or a son of a prophet, but I guess I would say I agree with Pope Benedict, who in his excellent interview, if you haven't seen it, check out the interview he did with Raymond Arroyo as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He says that the church will become small and faithful. And I suspect that that's what's going to happen. Small and faithful.

unfaithful, and I suspect that that's what's going to happen, small and faithful. Alexis Papillon says, is it bad if I am afraid that God is calling me to religious life and I really don't want to? I want to be a wife and mom instead and also finish school and join law enforcement. I'm always afraid that running away from this possibility is like telling God I will not serve him like he wants, but how I want, and it's a terrible feeling. So, sorry if I'm a bit unclear. Have a great day. Yeah, so I don't think it's bad that you're afraid. Often fear is something that we can't control. One of the reasons I was afraid to date my wife was because I was afraid of marriage. And looking back, I can see that one of the reasons I wanted to be a priest is

so that, you know, I would be respected, you know, people wouldn't have to see my junk, you know. I was so afraid of being a bad father, a bad husband, a bad lover, a bad provider. That was before Patreon. Woo! No, but seriously, I was afraid of those things, you know. And fear shouldn't hold us back. Like we should act out of love, not refrain from acting out of fear. So I would say like, know that the Lord loves you and he wants you to come fully alive, right?

He wants you to be who he's created you to be. And if he's calling you to religious life, he's calling you to a freedom that you don't yet know. So I would say trust him and get a good spiritual director to talk through these things. And look, you maybe look into some religious orders and contact some of them and go and see them, go and visit them. Just by visiting them, you're not kind of signing on the dotted line in blood or something. It's not like they're going to have you forever, you know? So you can go even for a couple of years and then leave. I mean, that's not why you go, but that's a possibility. Also, just so you know,

guys, it's been really neat. I've had a couple of people quit Patreon recently and they went, hey, I'm joining the Sisters of Life. I can't afford this. I'm like, oh my gosh, that's awesome. I don't want your money, but I do want your prayers. Please pray for Pines of Aquinas. So it's been really neat to see different people who have joined seminary or joined the convent and who've told me they're stopping, they can't support me anymore because of that reason. It's like the best news I got all day. So, you know, if the Lord's calling you to religious life, I would happily have you cease to be a patron. So go and join the religious life if that's what the Lord's calling you to do, but don't be afraid and don't feel guilty. I would say get a good spiritual

director to help you with these things. Norman R. Sear, forgive me if I mispronounced that. He says, why do so many people focus on heaven without giving much thought to the kingdom of God at the return of the Lord? Currently doing an email study on Isaiah and the phrase in the day points out a lot of detail of what is to come. I'm not really sure what you're asking. That probably says more about me than you, so I apologize. But certainly the kingdom of God is something the Lord Jesus Christ speaks about a lot. And I think not enough emphasis is placed on that. We often think of the kingdom of God just in regards to the eschaton, near the last things, the future life awaiting us. I would recommend if you're interested in this topic, check out

Jesus of Nazareth, because Pope Benedict XVI addresses that in that book, in the first volume. Kevin Kennel says, what would you say to someone that is a friend of yours and has transitioned from female to male? I used to kind of just ignore it, but as I grew in my faith, I told them my true thoughts and they've essentially cut all contact with me. I've tried talking to them about it and both sides have been civil, but doesn't seem to have been really listening. So I'm wondering if you have any ideas. Yeah. So I think, um, I know there's been some cool stuff on chastityproject.com, which you might want to check out. Uh, here's my basic opinion. I'll call somebody by whatever name they want me to call them. So if I have, let's say a sister or a cousin, uh, who is a female and she, you know,

transitions, quote unquote, not that you can transition from female to male, but you can try and make your body look more masculine, I suppose. Um, says, okay, my name is Bob. Okay. I'm okay calling you Bob because I think it's, people can be called whatever they want to be called. But I'm not going to call you she or he, whatever the case may be. Like, I'm not going to lie to you because I think what you have is a mental illness and it doesn't help to lie to people with mental illnesses. I mean, if people are kind of sick, then maybe you need to tiptoe around certain issues because, you know, they're not in a good state. But that's different to lying to them. So, I think we should love people, love on people tremendously who have this affliction,

try to keep up contact with them. Even if that means something like sending them cards on their birthday or giving them a call from time to time, just say, Hey, thinking about you. I always think it's important to, to take a holistic approach in people's lives. So it's not enough just to be like, Hey, this is one thing that you're struggling with, which we should always talk about. It's like, no, I maybe, maybe your friend likes a certain band and maybe you see that that band's coming to town and you contact them and say, hey, you want to go with me? Like you take a holistic interest in their life, not just interested in this one little thing. Oh, you know, a book you got to read is When

Harry Became Sally. I haven't got that book yet, but I have heard him speak. He's brilliant. Ryan Anderson is absolutely brilliant. When Harry became Sally responding to transgender, the transgender movement, get that book. I think I'm going to get it too, actually. You can also see some of his talks on YouTube. He's really excellent. He does a great job at balancing love and truth, right? Speaking frankly, but also speaking with charity. So check that out. All right. Sam Rubenza says, Matt, in your opinion, what is the single greatest thing we can do as parents to help our children develop a personal interest with our Lord? Maybe different at different ages, right? So in your opinion, what's the best thing at the elementary level, at middle school, high school, at college? Sorry

if that's too long of a question. I think the best thing that we can do is model being a faithful Catholic to our children. Like if you are really pleasant at church and do lots of churchy things and put on a good face, but then when you're home, you're yelling at your kid, you know, hitting your kid, being a real awful, unjoyful person, you know, then your child's likely to rebel against that. One of the things I'm learning that I need to do more and more is to take interest in the things that my kids take interest in, right? That has nothing to do with Catholic stuff. So my son's really into comic books, you know, my daughters are into different things. And sometimes the temptation for us parents is to think you shouldn't be interested in those things. They're not cool

or sophisticated enough. You should be interested in this, damn it, you know? But I think like Christ, we should condescend, like God, right? We should condescend to their world and enjoy it with them. I remember as a kid, I used to watch, uh, documentaries on heavy metal bands, you know, Metallica in particular, a year and a half of the life was the documentary. I remember my dad coming in and sitting down and just, I felt so great that he was taking interest in it. You know, like even if he thought it was kind of stupid and he didn't really like the music, he was taking an interest in what I was taking interested in and I felt so loved by that So I think one of the ways we can be a good parent and pass on the faith

Other than praying with them and setting a good example Is also just loving them by kind of condescending into their world and letting them know that we think it's good that they exist Like by the way, we look at them by the way we speak to them like it's good that you're here Yeah, all right. Nicholas says how them, like, it's good that you're here. Yeah. All right. Nicholas says, how do you, I'm going to see when, Pyclony, my goodness, I'm so sorry. How do you respond to fellow Catholics who may look at you with negative feelings when it comes to learning and knowing so much about the faith?

How do you deal with family or friends who think your religious enthusiasm is weird when they themselves claim to be Catholic as well. I think I've kind of addressed that today, haven't I? Let them think you're weird. Love on them. Don't be arrogant, obviously. Be humble. But, you know, nothing wrong with wanting to know the faith more. Kathleen Corey says, best way to help someone overcome a porn addiction? Get them my book, The Porn Myth. Send them to fightthenewdrug.com and make sure they're seeing a good therapist. That's a start. If you go to my other podcast for people struggling with porn, Love People Use Things, the website is lovepeopleusethings.fm. And there you can find a sex addiction therapist in your area. But yeah, that's really important. Patrick Sorrell says, best points against pluralism it depends what you mean

uh if by pluralism you mean multiple different views well the best argument against that is the the law of self-contradiction i guess non-contradiction i mean james hayden says i have trouble allowing the holy spirit to guide me evangelization conversations and get too deep into the weeds do you have some advice of getting better at those conversations, especially with nuns? Yeah, I would say like take the lowest bar approach, you know, so if I'm kind of chatting with somebody who doesn't, you know, whatever, believe in God, but they're kind of open to it. I would talk about God and meaning and things like that, but I wouldn't talk about the church necessarily, or I wouldn't talk about trans instantiation necessarily. I wouldn't talk about scripture necessarily, because in order to get to those things, it helps for you to believe

in God. And so I kind of just stay kind of basic and vague and talk to them about what they think and ask them to defend their position and ask them what's the best arguments you've heard for the existence of God and why do you think they're wrong and those sorts of things. So I think, and then just trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide you in these areas and that if you're faithful to him in small things, you'll be placed in charge of larger things. No one likes someone coming off too strong. No one likes feeling like they're a project. So you don't want to do that. But I think just being gentle, you know, first Peter 3.15, right? Gentleness and reverence is how we need to approach people. Joshua says, what have you learned about yourself from parenting your children? I've learned that I'm extremely impatient and an unbeautiful person. That I'm a bloody wretch

who is real. I'm a wonderful human being when I get everything that I want and everything's going smoothly. But kids don't really care about that. They don't care if you've had enough sleep. They don't care if the house is a mess. They don't care about these things. So I've realized just how impatient I am. So that's what I've learned. I've also learned that I can love a lot more than I thought I would ever be capable of doing. Nicholas says, reverence during the liturgy. That's not a question, Nicholas. That's just a statement. Yeah, we should be reverent during the liturgy. Okay. Final question comes from Sam Rubinza. Do you ever sleep? He says between reading great books and not the easiest reads either and recording thoughts on your, on those books and travel and speaking and being a husband and a dad and assume you have some fun,

right? Seriously. Do you ever sleep? Uh, yeah, I sleep. I try my best to go off the internet from Friday to Sunday. Whenever I travel, I make sure I'm home on Sundays. I'm trying to travel less and less. And yeah, so I try to, try to, it's a hard balance,

but I'm doing my best. All right. Thank you to all of you who have sent me your questions. Thank you so much. I really appreciate all of you who listen week after week to pints with aquinas who support the show financially who pray for me and for my listeners big thanks if you want to leave us a review on itunes we most certainly appreciate it if you want to be part of an awesome conversation going on on patreon if you want to get signed books and beer steins and get to send me questions like this. And if you just believe

in the work that I'm doing, you want to support me financially, even for as little as a dollar a month, go to pintswithaquinas.com and click donate. And you can do that and I'd be super grateful. God bless you. Chat carry you. And I would give my whole life to carry you, to carry you, to carry you, to carry you, to carry you.