"Single Greatest Mistake ever made in the Entire History of Western Thought" that caused "the Abortion Industry’s Slaughter of Millions" & "the Judicial Murder of Terri Schiavo"
In my opinion, one of intellectual giants in the Church in the United States is philosopher Edward Feser. I have seen Feser totally destroy, with a devastating intellectual knock out Mark Shea (which is pretty easy), theologian Massimo Faggioli (a bit harder) and on YouTube win an impressive victory over a very intelligent modern philosopher.
Feser says in the bottom of page 52 of his book "The Last Superstition" that abandonment of the medieval Thomistic "developments" of "Aristotelian ideas" brought about the "civilizational crisis through which the West has been living for several centuries":
“How significant is Aristotle? Well, I wouldn't want to exaggerate, so let me put it this way: Abandoning
Aristotelianism, as the founders of modern philosophy did, was the
single greatest mistake ever made in the entire history of Western
thought. More than any other intellectual factor – there are other,
non-intellectual factors too, of course, and some are more important –
this abandonment has contributed to the civilizational crisis through
which the West has been living for several centuries, and which has
accelerated massively in the last century or so. It is implicated in the
disintegration of confidence in the rational justifiability or morality
and religious belief; in the widespread assumption that a scientific
picture of human nature entails that free will is an illusion; in the
belief that there is a “mind-body problem” and that the only
scientifically and philosophically respectable solution to it is some
version of materialism; in the proliferation of varieties of relativism
and irrationalism, and also of scientism and hyper-rationalism; in the
modern world’s corrosive skepticism about the legitimacy of any
authority, and the radical individualism and collectivism that have
followed in its wake; and intellectual and practical depersonalization
of man that all of this has entailed, and which in turn led to
mass-murder on a scaled unparalleled in human history. Its logical
implications can also be seen in today’s headlines: in the abortion
industry’s slaughter of millions upon millions of unborn human beings;
in the judicial murder of Terri Schiavo (as Nat Henthoff aptly labeled
it) and the push for euthanasia generally; in the mostly pointless and
certainly point-missing debate between Darwinians and “Intelligent
Design” advocates; in the movement for “same-sex marriage” and the
sexual revolution generally; and a thousand other things besides.” [ The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism. 51-52]
Independent scholar James Larson pointed to the fact that the Church since Vatican II helped to bring about this "civilizational crisis" by abandoning Thomism:
"Since Vatican Council II, it has been the overwhelmingly prevalent view, especially among the Catholic hierarchy, that the Church must seek a new philosophical and theological basis for its teaching – an approach which will somehow bypass what is alleged to be the “intellectualism” of St. Thomas Aquinas. It has been repeated ad nauseum that St. Thomas’ approach to the faith is static, rigid, rationalistic, and even Pelagian, and that a new approach (usually leading back to St. Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, St. Bonaventure, John Duns Scotus) is necessary in order to restore some sort of original, gospel-centered “heart” to Catholic thinking and spirituality." [https://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/09/thomism-is-remedy-for-mad.html]
Francis Notes:
- Doctor
of the Church St. Francis de Sales totally confirmed beyond any doubt
the possibility of a heretical pope and what must be done by the Church
in such a situation:
"[T]he Pope... WHEN he is EXPLICITLY a heretic, he falls ipso facto from his dignity and out of the Church, and the Church MUST either deprive him, or, as some say, declare him deprived, of his Apostolic See."
(The Catholic Controversy, by St. Francis de Sales, Pages 305-306)
Saint Robert Bellarmine, also, said "the Pope heretic is not deposed ipso facto, but must be declared deposed by the Church."
[https://archive.org/stream/SilveiraImplicationsOfNewMissaeAndHereticPopes/Silveira%20Implications%20of%20New%20Missae%20and%20Heretic%20Popes_djvu.txt]
- "If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
- "Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
- LifeSiteNews, "Confusion explodes as Pope Francis throws magisterial
weight behind communion for adulterers," December 4, 2017:
The AAS guidelines explicitly allows "sexually active adulterous couples
facing 'complex circumstances' to 'access the sacraments of
Reconciliation and the Eucharist.'"
- On February 2018, in Rorate Caeli, Catholic theologian Dr. John Lamont:
"The AAS statement... establishes that Pope Francis in Amoris Laetitia
has affirmed propositions that are heretical in the strict sense."
- On December 2, 2017, Bishop Rene Gracida:
"Francis' heterodoxy is now official. He has published his letter to the
Argentina bishops in Acta Apostlica Series making those letters
magisterial documents."
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church by the bishops by the grace of God.
Election Notes:
- Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: "212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted...Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden" [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times "Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003": http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2021/01/a-hour-which-will-live-in-infamy-1001pm.html?m=1
http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2021/01/epoch-times-show-crossroads-on-capital.html?m=1]