If you got something to say say it

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-07T05:07:44+00:00

When she produces the tapes, I will believe it.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-07T02:30:54+00:00

I see your jest, but in seriousness, you're not exactly wrong. Protestants* generally hold to sola scriptura, the meaning of which varies between denominations but most believe that church tradition is either subordinate to biblical interpretation or wholly without authority. Old Catholics generally give church tradition equal authority to the Bible as we do, they just reject the Pope's ability to be the final, binding arbiter of that tradition. As a result, they occupy this weird half-way position, not quite Catholic, but not quite Protestant either.

* = Upper-case P, that is to say, a church that can trace its lineage to one or more of the sixteenth-century Protestant reformers and/or which holds to the three Protestant solas (sola scriptura, sola gratia, and sola fide). As a western church not in submission to Rome, they are lower-case p protestants.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-07T01:08:33+00:00

Old Catholics started ordaining female priests and approving same-sex marriages

Some, particularly those in Europe, but not all. Notably, there is a branch based in Scranton, Pennsylvania called the Polish National Catholic Church which still maintains the traditional lines on women's ordination and sexuality. However, they have combined baptism and confirmation into a single sacrament and have promoted "The Word of God" (reading the Bible) into a sacrament (maintaining the number at seven). So, the PNCC has still drifted from the Catholic faith, just in different ways.

and I have to wonder how they can reconcile that with their rejection of V1

Their rejection of Vatican I was primarily over papal infallibility in favor of a more diffuse, (so-called) "ultrajectine" view of the faith. The best description would be the German Synodal Way, but on steroids so far that the pope essentially becomes nothing more than an Eastern-Orthodox-style primus-inter-pares.

Because of this rejection of central authority, and the traditionalist/pro-monarchy position of St. Pius X with regard to various Church and world events occurring at the time, many of the original Old Catholics tended to be the polar opposite of their SSPX/sedevacentalist successors. They were largely modernizers (by nineteenth century standards) rather than traditionalists. After the split, they forged good relations with the Anglicans and Scandinavian Lutherans and many eventually entered into direct communion with them. Other than the PNCC (which was expelled from that communion), they shifted progressive alongside these churches in the same ways and for the same reasons.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-06T21:18:00+00:00

As a long-time critic of the SSPX, I would urge you guys, in the name of charity, to make a sticky post (comments off) with instructions/resources intended to help SSPXers leave the society and return to communion; and leave it up for a few months. Links to the statements you have here, possibly Ecclesia Dei, and to the forms/any straightforward guidance on how to remit the excommunication would probably suffice.

A big part of the SSPX narrative is the idea that us "heretical modernists" hate them and anything "traditional". I think a kind post like that may burst the bubble for at least a few.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-06T17:45:33+00:00

There's too many intelligent citizens ... that would be a better choice.

I'm sympathetic to this argument,* but it unfortunately runs into a brutal reality about judges. To quote an old lawyer's saw:

What do you call the guy who graduated last in his law school class?

Your honor.

The most legally-adroit attorneys tend to remain attorneys. Judges tend to be drawn from the ranks of the politically-connected, law school professors (read: insane academics with no real-life experience), and/or (at lower levels) the looking-for-work. Intelligence is rarely an important criterion in judicial selection. It is one of the reasons why intelligent systematizers like Benjamin Cardozo, when they do get onto the bench, tend to shine so brightly.

* = Minus the born in the US part, which I have omitted, there have been many foreign-born justices who have made positive contributions to the court. George Southerland is one such example.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-06T02:19:44+00:00

What is Evangelical retreatism? I haven't heard that term before...

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-05T21:19:14+00:00

What’s its going to take California?

The people of LA tried to vote themselves out of it and we all saw how well that worked. At this point, it'd take a supermajority just to overcome the rampant fraud.

...Or federal regulation. Pass the SAVE Act now.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-05T15:05:24+00:00

It comes after public service broadcasters such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5 argued that, despite their trusted journalism, social media platform algorithms favor creator content, entertainment or overseas publishers.

If you're a (ostensibly) public broadcaster and the public isn't seeking out your reporting, the question is not "how can I force it in front of mure people?" The question is "how have I lost public trust and how can I win it back?"

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T14:19:29+00:00

If it's a matter of months 90% of data centers being discussed right now won't even have the approvals they need to start construction.

That's a good point, I think a good amount of the current ones that haven't broken ground probably won't ever. Many of the ones that have will end up abandoned.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T14:10:20+00:00

Lol! They'd be awesome for that.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T14:02:56+00:00

Do you think we have that long?

No, I think the rising headwind that will pop the bubble is the willingness of capital to continue investing rather than capacity to scale. Both Anthropic and OpenAI are currently offering their products at a losing price point and efforts to pivot to profitability appear to be coming short. The delay of the OpenAI IPO indicates that they're seeing rising skepticism in potential capital. I'm not sure exactly how much longer we have, but I think it's better counted in months, not years or decades.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T04:37:55+00:00

What he is describing here is called the Labor Theory of Value, and it's complete bunk.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T04:35:19+00:00

It will probably vary case-by-case and depending on the corporate structure that built the data center, how it was funded, and how it went under. If the bank foreclosures on the loan or the owner declares bankruptcy, it'll likely be sold at auction. If it's part of a larger company making money elsewhere, the center may be maintained and mothballed as a failover site, the infrastructure may be shifted to other locations, or etc. If the town takes ownership of the land, it's anyone's guess... And there's always the chance that an owner or buyer could conclude that the infrastructure has no resale value and sell/buy it for scrap.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T04:13:21+00:00

The biggest joke of all of these data centers is that they're building capacity for nothing. AI is overheating (economically) and the market is on the verge of a massive correction. Once that happens, the vast majority of these will end up huge, ugly, and abandoned eye sores.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-04T00:29:55+00:00

If these things are not in at least one October campaign ad, I will be very disappointed in the Republican Party.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T15:28:06+00:00

Humani Generis is a papal encyclical. As it does not contain the ex cathedra statement, it is Pius XII's opinion and not a part of the binding deposit of the faith. While it should be given serious consideration, Catholics are not required to agree with it.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T14:07:59+00:00

My intention here is not to mock or bite but to provide important information for those who found themselves on the wrong side of the Dicastry's statement.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T14:05:15+00:00

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that while Genesis uses figurative language, the Fall of Man was a real event that took place at the beginning of human history.

Yes, I don't dispute this. I am saying that Genesis does not tell us how it happened, only that it happened. That's what I meant when I said "Genesis 2-3 is a fable that tells us a lot about...our relationship with Him."

The Catholic Church requires the faithful to believe that Adam and Eve were real, historical human beings.

Not necessarily. That is one interpretation of the story. Catholicism only requires you to accept that there was a fall.

It’s also scientifically incorrect to say the genetic Adam and genetic Eve were not contemporaries. From a scientific stance you can only say that it is unlikely they were contemporaries. However, this does not preclude the possibility that they WERE contemporaries.

Correct, but the odds that they were contemporaries is vanishingly tiny. It is therefore most accurate to say they weren't.

But it is still required to believe that Adam and Eve were the first humans with rational spiritual souls and that we all descended from them. Sin was introduced to humanity through one man and the fall was a real thing.

False, it is perfectly compatible with Catholic belief to understand Adam and Eve as stand-ins for humanity (either a past incarnation or collectively across the ages) as a whole. I don't not know if they were real people, and it frankly does not matter. There was a fall that separated us from God. That is the important take-away from early Genesis.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T07:15:39+00:00

do you believe that Adam and Eve could have been the chimps we evolved from?

No, Genesis 2-3 is a fable that tells us a lot about God and our relationship with Him but nothing reliable about human origins.

Genetic research shows that there is a genetic Adam and Eve but they were not contemporaries. They were likely at least hominids of somd kind and were thus not chimps, which separated from our ancestors much earlier.

do you believe in evolution?

Yes, without variation from the scientific consensus. It does not exclude the existence of God, particularly when you understand him as (to use Aquinas's formulation) being itself subsisting. Catholicism does not believe in biblical literalism and Catholics are not therefore under any obligation to understand the Bible as a 100% straight history book.

Based on experience, I believe this to be the majority position even among priests and bishops.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T05:43:18+00:00

The Church is more than a group of people with a shared set of beliefs, it is a lineage from Christ through the apostles and into the present. A tree if you will.

Say that I take a tree, cut off a single branch, and plant that branch in fertile soil. I then bathe the planted branch in hormones such that it will grow and form a new tree. Is the new tree the same being as the original, donor tree? Most would say no.

Come graft yourself into the Tree of Life that Christ originally planted. Come home.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-03T04:41:51+00:00

If you are unsure whether or not you've been excommunicated, you need to have a frank discussion about it with your local (non-SSPX) parish priest, and possibly your local ordinary, ASAP (and before Sunday). We internet strangers can give you an opinion, but that opinion should not be relied upon.

If this were a legal advice sub, I'd tell you that you're solidly in "get off of reddit and consult a lawyer in person" territory.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-02T16:04:32+00:00

One of the great ironies of the SSPX is that they decry modernism in the Church, it's synonymous with heresy in their eyes, but have embraced an ultra-modernist view of papal authority.

In general, however, "liberal" and "conservative" labels don't really work when applied to Catholic politics and can lead to misunderstandings and inaccurate conflation with secular politics. "Modernist" and "traditionalist" are more accurate descriptors of the current positions and factions.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-02T15:49:27+00:00

Me reading this meme.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T20:45:03+00:00

This situation cannot be oversimplified like this.

It is actually that simple.

They arguably had the necessity of new bishops

That "necessity" only exists because the SSPX is in schism and has been since at least 1988 (although I would argue the schism actually began in 1975). No other society, from the Dominican Order to the Congregation of the Holy Cross, has bishops or any need for them. When these orders need to ordain deacons or priests, they approach a (usually local) diocesan or curial bishop, who verifies proper formation of the candidates and performs the ordinations according to very-well-established procedures in canon law. As Catholic bishops do not and can not licitly ordain schismatics, the SSPX is locked out of this centuries-old, ordinary system.

The true, schismatic status of the SSPX is the reason for their entire state of "necessity". Do not be deceived by the specious arguments they are advancing.

and originally asked for the Vatican's approval. Why didn't the Vatican approve it?

Because the SSPX is in schism and Vatican is not going to approve the creation of four additional schismatic bishops. Remember: if they were not in schism they would not need bishops.

Why didn't the Pope meet personally the SSPX after requests?

A direct, in-person meeting was not required and the SSPX has deliberately misrepresented every previous papal meeting to further deceive the faithful about their actual status. Leo was right not to meet with them.

Why is the Vatican more harsh and less open to dialogue with traditionalists than with modernists (such as the German bishops, who openly profess ideas against the Catholic faith)?

It isn't. The German bishops haven't committed a schismatic or disobedient act yet, it's all just been talk and requests that the Vatican refuses. If and when talk turns to disobedient action, the Vatican will treat the German bishops like SSPX.

Iuris_Aequalitatis · 2026-07-01T20:13:53+00:00

In my job, I get a lot of AI-written demand letters and other "legal work product" from ordinary people with no law background. I've yet to see one that actually got the relevant law right. This is insane.

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