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430 AD. The Roman Empire is beginning to crumble. The Vandals and other marauding tribes spill through the gaps in Roman defenses. And one of the greatest saints of the Christian church stands between his flock and the barbarian invaders. As he attempts to negotiate between the proud Roman authorities and the implacable Vandal king, Bishop Augustine recalls his own life before Christianity...

From Reformation 21, Carl Truman writes: A friend brought my attention to the following trailer and promotional website this morning.  It is hard to imagine how a film of Augustine's life could fail to be interesting.  And with Franco Nero in the cast, we can assume it will be excellent.  We can only hope that he plays his character as a reprise of Django, the coffin-dragging hero in Sergio Corbucci's great spaghetti Western.

St. Monica  Patron Saint of Married Women and Model for Christian Mothers   Born: 333                           Died: 387   Children: Augustine, Navigius, Perpetua Feast Days: May 4, August 27 Patroness of Married Women        Our knowledge of Monica comes almost entirely from the writings of her much-loved son, the great Doctor of the Church, St. Augustine of Hippo. His relationship with his mother was a close one, especially during Monica's last years. In Book IX of St. Augustine's Confessions he gives us many details of...

It is nice to make connections which show us how the Church was always alive throughout the centuries before our own time. Today is the feast of St. Pope Sixtus III, whom you will remember as having been involved with the “Liberian Basilica”, more commonly known as St. Mary Major in Rome.Pope Sixtus has an entry in the Roman Martyrology: 6. Romae via Tiburtina iuxta Sanctum Laurentium, depositio sancti Xysti papae Tertii, qui inter Antiochenum patriarchatum et Alexandrinum dissensiones composuit atque in Urbe beatae Mariae basilicam plebi Dei dedit in Exquiliis. … At Rome in the Via Tiburtina near (the...

Former APS deputy superintendent's new job in doubtUpdated: Jul 25, 2011 8:51 AM EDT By Christopher King ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) - The former deputy superintendent of Atlanta's public schools will find out Monday whether she gets to keep her new job. The Desoto Independent School District, in a suburb of Dallas, TX, is scheduled to vote on whether to keep Kathy Augustine as its new school chief. The board selected Augustine as superintendent last spring. Her job is now in doubt following revelations that she is a key figure in the investigation stemming from allegations of widespread cheating in Atlanta...

Let us see then what Manichæus teaches me; and particularly let us examine that treatise which he calls the Fundamental Epistle, in which almost all that you believe is contained. For in that unhappy time when we read it we were in your opinion enlightened. The epistle begins thus "Manichæus, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the providence of God the Father. These are wholesome words from the perennial and living fountain." Now, if you please, patiently give heed to my inquiry. I do not believe Manichæus to be an apostle of Christ. Do not, I beg of you, be...

In this post I take Physicist Stephen Barr to task for his misquoting Saint Augustine's position on the dating of God's creation -- e.g., old or young earth" The problem with Dr. Barr’s summation is that he has failed to take into account that people’s views on matters change over time. For instance, R.C. Sproul (evangelical scholar, professor, and President of Ligonier Ministries) mentioned that through most of his teaching career he accepted the old-age position. However, late in his career he changed his position to that of the young earth creationists. For most of my teaching career, I considered...

Twice a year (Labor Day and Memorial Day) I enjoy a picnic provided by one of my former seminary professors, along with many of his former students, mostly from classes that came years after me. During that last one, I toasted my old teacher in gratitude for the fact that he had always maintained, in my defense, that one can still believe in the Bound Powers theory, in spite of the language used in Vatican II. He smirked, and asked the younger priests there if they had ever heard of the Bound Powers theory; and no one raised his hand....

Augustine: young earth creationist--theistic evolutionists take Church Father out of context --snip-- Augustine was not vague about the age of the earth, the historicity of Adam and Eve as our first ancestors, or the events in the Garden of Eden and the worldwide flood later in Genesis. However, his doctrine of creation was complex...

St. Augustine of Hippo Rome, Italy, Sep 4, 2009 / 10:08 am (CNA).- In a letter he sent Thursday to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity,  Pope Benedict XVI has underscored that the teachings of St. Augustine are a path seeking unity with the Orthodox. The message from the Pope was sent to Cardinal Kasper as the 11th Inter-Christian Symposium gathered in Rome. The meeting was organized by the Franciscan Institute of Spirituality of the Pontifical University Antonianum and the Aristotle Orthodox Theological Faculty of Thessalonica.In his message, the Holy Father expressed his gratitude...

Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Aug 30, 2009 / 11:14 am (CNA).- At Sunday’s Angelus prayer in the courtyard of Castel Gandolfo’s apostolic palace, Pope Benedict XVI recalled the previous week’s liturgical memorial of St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine of Hippo and model and patron of Christian mothers. “Much is recounted about her in her son’s autobiography ‘The Confessions,’ a masterpiece among the most read works of all time,” Pope Benedict said. “There, we understand that St. Augustine imbibed the name of Jesus with maternal milk and was educated in the Christian religion by his mother, the principles of which...

Just War According to Catholic Teaching Written by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo    Thursday, April 10 2003 The Church teaches that military action is justified as a means of re-establishing order. After the brutal September 11 attacks, the United States must once again wage a war in a foreign land.As always, the problem of the legitimacy of using military action for revenge as a means of re-establishing justice comes to the fore. Thus, it is in the interest of our readers to bring to their attention the traditional Catholic doctrine on the subject.Saint Augustine (354-430)The great Saint Augustine provided the...

From the Bishop of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, in the most recent issue (Sept. 5, 2008) of The Catholic Sentinel: I certainly commend the public official for going to Saint Augustine, a great theologian and philosopher, for views on morality but Augustine’s views need to be read and adopted in context. It is highly disingenuous, deceptive and intellectually dishonest to take this ecclesial sound bite from 1,500 years ago and treat it as if it is the last definitive word on the subject. This is particularly true since Augustine himself “vigorously condemned the practice of induced abortion” despite the...

Now that Nancy Pelosi's spokesman issues a statement in response to the slew of statements about her misrepresenting Church teaching on abortion.Father Z posts the statement and responds Madame Speaker, you can't reduce the Church's teaching to a 1500 year old sound bite which you don't understand. Maureen at Aliens in This World takes a look at the Latin of what St. Augustine said and gives us a translation and some analysis. Democrats constantly complain about what they say being taken out of context, but that is what is done with the passage Pelosi's spokesman gave.With St. Augustine's feast day...

Speaker Pelosi is deep in it now. I am still looking for a link, but Amy reports that Brendan Daly, Nancy Pelosi’s spokesman issued a statement about her remarks on Meet The Press: “The Speaker is the mother of five children and seven grandchildren and fully appreciates the sanctity of family. She was raised in a devout Catholic family who often disagreed with her pro-choice views. “After she was elected to Congress, and the choice issue became more public as she would have to vote on it, she studied the matter more closely. Her views on when life begins were...

Hello and welcome to another broadcast of the White Horse Inn as we are continuing our series "Christless Christianity," and at the heart of Christless Christianity throughout the centuries has been a heresy known as Pelagianism. I know we've talked about it on the program, sort of assuming that people were familiar with it. In this program we want to actually focus on the historical heresy that is identified with a fifth century monk who came from somewhere in Britain, probably Ireland, a lay monk arriving in Rome and he attracted a following for his austere and ascetic piety. At...

The Harmony of the Gospels, Book I Chapter 26. Of the Fact that Idolatry Has Been Subverted by the Name of Christ, and by the Faith of Christians According to the Prophecies. 40. For truly what is thus effected by Christians is not a thing which belongs only to Christian times, but one which was predicted very long ago. Those very Jews who have remained enemies to the name of Christ, and regarding whose destined perfidy these prophetic writings have not been silent, do themselves possess and peruse the prophet who says: "O Lord my God, and my refuge in...

I’ve been following with great interest the texts of Pope Benedict’s reflections during his Wednesday morning General Audiences; and it has led to some reflections which many might consider erudite, if not downright snobbish. Nevertheless . . . Popes have routinely used the weekly General Audience to focus on some kind of thematic series. John Paul II, having been pope some twenty years, ran through several themes: the Epistles of St. Paul, the theology of the body, etc. Pope Benedict’s first “flight” of General Audience themes has been a series on the Fathers of the Church, which is still ongoing....

If you happened to be in a crowded room at The Beacon Drive-In one Wednesday in late August, you would have heard a man in a suit reference Genesis Chapter 50, the book of Isaiah, and using two fish and five loaves of bread to feed thousands of people. It wasn't a sermon. It was former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a 2008 presidential contender, during a stump speech in front of a room full of Republicans. Using biblical references on the campaign trail isn't unusual, especially in the conservative core of South Carolina. Often, they can be heard when candidates...

Limbo as a concept is exiting Catholic theology. But as a word, limbo will never leave our everyday language. We and our ancestors have been using the word in a variety of ways for almost 700 years. The present position of limbo in Catholic theology is of much interest not only to Catholics, but also to the national press.Limbo was the subject of a major article in The New York Times (Dec. 28, 2005) by Ian Fisher. It was discussed in a full-page essay in Time magazine (Jan. 9, 2006). And really we should not wonder why Time’s essayist, David...