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Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

In the ninth century, the Church's first-ever Eucharistic controversy arose between two French monks in the same monastery. It wasn't as controversial as it has later been painted, because it was really a "word war," each of them using the same words but assigning the words different meanings.

They had each written a book on the subject, with the Emperor Charles the Bald being the impetus because he wanted to better understand the Church's teaching. When the men had each died, the controversy died with them. Ah, but their books remained, and when we fast-forward to the 11th century, now the fun begins.

Another French monk/priest, Berengarius of Tours, who was well respected for his intellect as well as his simple piety, essentially held the position that Our Lord is really present in the Eucharist, just not fully. It was the theory that the Protestant reformers, especially John Calvin, would seize on 500 years later to deny transubstantiation.

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Berengarius' stubbornness is not so much the important part here, but rather, that in seeking to have him admit his error, various councils and ecclesiastical gatherings were forced to clearly lay out, in short form, what the Church had actually believed for the first 1,000 years.

In fact, so clear had these various compositions been regarding what the Church holds and teaches about the Eucharist and the Real Presence (body, blood, soul and divinity), that a thousand years later, Pope Paul VI referred back to them and used them as sources in his own Eucharistic encyclical.

The Church has always believed in the Real Presence, even if it took some controversies and historical clashes to ink it down in precise theological language.

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Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

A fearless Catholic man submits to legitimate authority.

Michael gives a speech to Catholic men at Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Detroit, urging them to submit to the Church when it's exercising its God-given authority.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The Church has authority over you.

Michael Voris gives his second talk about "staying on board the ship" at the 2023 Church Militant Strength and Honor Conference.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

There are better options for learning the Faith.

In case you haven't heard, the U.S. bishops launched a national Eucharistic revival campaign, which will culminate next summer (July, specifically) in Indianapolis. They are concerned now, not decades ago, with a decided lack of belief in the real presence of Our Blessed Lord in the Eucharist. Recent polls continue to show most Catholics either don't know that teaching or do know it and reject it.

That's what 60 years of talking about social justice and moving the tabernacle out of the center and having old ladies in their finest jeans and T-shirts distribute Holy Communion accomplishes. It's also what allowing hundreds and, over the years, thousands of supposedly Catholic politicians who support killing children to receive does. Why believe something when practically everyone, including the leaders, doesn't?

Let's get into the plan of the bishops a little bit here for perspective, a plan being billed as the reigniting of belief in the Eucharist. Remember, this whole thing came up because faithful Catholics were demanding the bishops do something and take a stand and stop allowing Joe Biden, as well as many others, to receive Holy Communion.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Coming out of the grave.

As you might imagine, given the work we do here at Church Militant (thanks to your continuing support for it), we come across lots of people of goodwill who simply haven't heard the glory of Catholicism expounded in any meaningful way.

Every now and then, we run into spurts, if you will, where we are heavily engaged in multiple offline conversations with poorly catechized Catholics or goodwill Protestants. We are in one of those spurts right now, as I and others here are spending an unusual amount of time, compared to normal, speaking with such folks over private dinners, emails, phone calls and even "DMing" on Twitter.

And blessed be God for the opportunity to be engaged like this.

It's evangelization in the trenches — much like we imagine would have been the case in the early days of the Church and various periods throughout the past 2,000 years. We're sharing these behind-the-scenes, away-from-the-cameras scenarios with you for one reason: to help you with such activity in your own lives.

And here is a major tip: Get straight to the Eucharist first, closely followed by Scripture. All the other stuff — statues, "worshiping" Mary, confessing to a priest — while certainly worthy of discussion, can easily become distractions to the major, central theme of the Church, the Holy Eucharist, because every single other thing or topic in the Church rises or falls on this single truth. Either that it's actually the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, or it is not.

As the teaching goes, the Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus Christ, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine, is both the source and summit of the Faith.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

The Mass for dummies.

Today's Vortex features a look back to January 2013, following the Vatican's efforts to recoup the losses inflicted upon the Church by secularists and cultural Marxists. Today, the Church's failure to promote Catholic identity has come to a head — proving its damage-control efforts have, unfortunately, failed.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Needed more than ever.

The Catholic identity has been so watered down throughout the West that, with rare exceptions, virtually no Catholics have any sense of duty to the Church, to Christ. In fact, the very opposite is often encouraged by the clergy. And at the very least, there's no other message Catholics could reasonably conclude other than, there's no big deal about being Catholic.

This is best demonstrated by looking at what's called the walkaway ratio. The walkway ratio measures the number of people who leave a religion compared to the number of people who convert to it. To their everlasting shame, the U.S. bishops own the highest walkaway ratio of any religion in America. No one else is even close.

When this apostolate began in 2006, the walkaway ratio was 4-to-1, meaning for every convert to the Church, four were leaving. In 2018 — five years ago — the ratio jumped to 6.5-to-1. In raw numbers across the population,13% of the U.S. population are former Catholics; only 2% have come into the Church.

But those numbers, as we said, are five years old, and some early estimates for more recent years put the number even higher at eight walkaways for every convert. The percentage of Catholics relative to the overall population has fallen from its traditional level of 25% to barely over 20%. One out of four used to be Catholic; now it's one out of five — and falling. So, a little examination of conscience is necessary here.

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In fact, there is hardly ever a peep from Catholics of any sort in the world of the culture wars, certainly compared to Protestants of a more conservative stripe. Given that, it's hardly surprising that the half of Catholics who walk away, walk to socially conservative Protestant congregations. But regardless of what may be attractive socially and culturally, or even emotionally or psychologically, one thing is absolutely certain: Theologically, it's a shipwreck.

No one who understands Who the Catholic Church is could ever walk away from Her. In fact, to do so would be to ensure damnation, as plainly stated in the catechism:

"He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it." (CCC ¶ 846)

No Church, no salvation — for those who know. But, there's more: For Catholics who "stay" in the Church, but not with the sincerity of charity, it's hellfire for them, as well. From the same document:

"All the Church's children should remember that their exalted status is to be attributed not to their own merits but to the special grace of Christ. If they fail moreover to respond to that grace in thought, word and deed, not only shall they not be saved but they will be the more severely judged."

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Calvin Robinson speaks to Church Militant.

Back in February, Anglican Dcn. Calvin Robinson shook the elites and their established order at a speech he gave in Oxford, England, where he promoted adherence to gospel morality. Church Militant sat down with Dcn. Robinson to get his reactions to the blowback.

Please consider Church Militant Evening News for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.

Church Militant (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary. If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a Church Militant Premium account or simply make a donation. Feel free to contact Church Militant with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's Vortex...

Embrace them.

The Catholic Church is in possession of the sacraments, given to Her by Her Bridegroom and Lord as the guaranteed means of making Him "present" to a soul — a transmission, as it were, an infusion, a flooding of grace into the soul when received with the proper disposition. Sacraments as sacraments have always been something of a stumbling block for many of the 40,000 Protestant denominations, to one degree or another, depending on which denomination you're talking about.

Christ instituted seven sacraments, and when Luther felt the need to correct Christ, he cut the list down to five — well, maybe three, then — wait a minute — four seems right, and so on. What Protestantism and even among many malformed Catholics don't get is this: Nature, even fallen, has a certain sacredness to it, and God elevates the underlying nature of that sacredness to its fullness. And therefore, a created thing becomes the instrument, the vehicle, for an even fuller measure of holiness.

Water bears within itself the grace of washing the soul clean from Original Sin. The hand of the priest raised in blessing, accompanied by his voice, bears within it the restoration of that baptized soul — a resurrection from death-dealing sin. The hands of a bishop over the head of a man bring about an ontological change in the man's soul and conform his soul to Christ to perpetuate the Sacrifice of Calvary — one sacrifice for all.

The sacraments take earthly things and make them instruments of holiness in and of themselves. This requires — demands — a Church to ensure the passing on of this for centuries, the making new of all things, generation after generation. Protestantism is organized around the notion of a "personal Jesus," a personal relationship with Christ that doesn't really need a Church. A church or congregation is cool and all, maybe even fun and emotionally supportive, but, in the end, it is not required. Why would it be?

After all, you can read the Bible by yourself. You can pray by yourself. The Holy Spirit can talk to you by yourself and place things in your heart without any need for the Church (an authority) and its "tradition." Or, do you actually stand in need of a church? Aside from your own interior thoughts, how do you know your thoughts about a given Scripture passage are actually true? Is not the very concept of prayer derived from the lived experience of the Church — the community of believers of one mind and heart? "Master, teach us how to pray." (Luke 11:1)

How do you know the "spirit" talking to you "personally" is not the unholy spirit? In short, the idea of a "personal" experience with religion where you essentially make it up as you go along with an occasional vague reference to some quasi-church should make you wonder: Does this idea have it completely backward? There is nothing that goes beyond the subjective, personal opinion, normally based on some emotional stimulation or psychological disposition. It's why St. Paul tells us directly to "discern the spirits" (1 Corinthians 12:10) — because they aren't all good spirits.

The sacraments keep objective truth squarely before our eyes. It's all very much a yes-or-no proposition and therefore easy to grasp and then build from. That water really does wash away Original Sin because of the grace present in it, making visible to our senses the invisible reality. That bread and wine really are changed in substance into Our Lord's Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. That couple really is now joined in an inseparable bond as Christ is to His Church. "I saw a New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven, adorned as a bride for Her Groom." (Revelation 21:2)

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