Monthly Archives: October 2019

Patrick Coffin Show, Videos

#152: Hauntings, Possessions, and Exorcisms—Adam Blai (Free Version)

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#152: Hauntings, Possessions, and Exorcisms—Adam Blai (Free Version)

Perhaps because of movies like The Exorcist and TV shows like Ghost Hunters, one wonders if more people believe in demons than in angels. Demonologist Adam Blai has devoted his life to training exorcist priests and lecturing on the different levels of demonic activity: temptation, oppression, infestation, and (the much rarer) possession. His sometimes harrowing experiences are found in his book, Hauntings, Possessions, and Exorcisms, which is part autobiography and part field manual.

The devil and his angels are real, but they are on a strong leash held by Jesus Christ. We need the grace of Christ to ask for more virtue, and greater faith, so we can live daily in victory over our common enemy.

In this episode you will learn

  • The distinction between the appearance of a ghost, a spirit, and a hallucination
  • How Blai got into this important but difficult work
  • The criteria used by the Church to rule in, or rule out, the influence of the demonic
  • Why mental illness can co-exist with demonic activity in a person
  • Why the Catholic Church exercises very healthy skepticism when examining a claim of possession
  • Things and activities people must avoid unless they want to be vulnerable to diabolical influence
  • Why regular prayer and living a sacramental life are the best antidote to the work of the devil

Resources mentioned in this episode

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What am I doing to more effectively protect my children from the devastating effects of literary propaganda?

 

Apologetics, Videos

In Defense of Spooky Halloween

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In Defense of Spooky Halloween

In the days leading up to Halloween, I thought I would put a good word in for old school Halloween with spooky outfits and characters.

But first, a few tidbits about the origins of Halloween.

There is one diehard myth out there that says Halloween was the Church’s attempt to counter the evil effects of Samhaim, the Celtic pagan festival.

While Samhaim was the pre-Christian day marking the start of winter in ancient Ireland, it’s just not true that Catholics felt the need to “baptize” the paganism with something holy.

The resistance to the idea of spooky costumes, including zombies and ghosts, is more rooted in the Protestant uncomfortability with the realm of the dead.

Let’s call it the Dead Zone.

For Protestant Christians, there’s hell and there’s heaven — there is no pre-heaven experience of purgation Catholics call purgatory. Didn’t God command us not to “communicate with the dead”? Yes, in Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:5-8, and Deuteronomy 18:9-14.

Yes, it’s bad. Don’t do it.

But praying to the saints is our right and duty as Christians. And this is where we come to the origins of Halloween.

In the early Church, there were so many martyrs giving their lives for Christ—often groups of them suffering on the same day—that joint commemorations were held to honor them.

During the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great (way more than 365) that a separate day could not be assigned to each. So the Church appointed a common day for all saints, the known and the unknown.

Pope Gregory IV then set the feast for the universal Church and made it into a holy day of obligation for all Catholics.

Hallows is an old form of saints. We still say hallowed ground, or holy ground. All Hallow’s Eve, or the Eve before the feast commemorating “all the saints.”

So here are three reasons why it’s okay to dress up not just as actual saints, like St. Francis or St. Therese of Lisieux (which is more than cool as well):

1. Dressing up in scary costumes can mock or at least neutralize evil by exaggerating the qualities that stir up fear. (Not advocating for a blood-soaked costume of an actual serial killer or a card-carrying Satanist, or a truly gory get-up that will make people upchuck. Nor am I saying it’s just dandy for girls to dress like prostitutes or “naughty” French maids.”) 

2. Movies, plays, and works of literature sometimes present evil themes to reflect the darker part of the fallen creation. In a similar way, one can dress up and point to these realities in a safe way the dangers of this creation.

This is somewhat analogous to a scary roller-coaster: you get in, you sit down and you take a ride you KNOW might make you scream but can’t actually harm you.

3. Halloween can be framed as a reflection of the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell. By deliberately conjuring images that ordinarily evoke fear, we can laugh at the basic FACT that Jesus Christ killed death by His death. 

We reap the benefits in two ways: we do not suffer eternal death in hell and are invited to the glorious happiness of heaven, AND we participate in the divine nature. We gloss over this truth but it is life changing and mind-blowing. It’s right there in 2 Peter 1:4.

We live in a culture that denies death. We say “he passed away” or “she passed,” we dress up our dead in their Sunday best and put make-up on them and we visit them in a corporate parlor room full of flowers.

We look away from it, avert our eyes, keep it far away from our thoughts.

But like the monks of old who would place a human skull on their desk, it’s wise to memento mori, to remember death. In the case of Halloween, we don’t stop there. We remember the victory over death as manifest in the victors whose feast day we celebrate the very next day.

Happy and safe Halloween!

 

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Patrick Coffin Show, Videos

#151: Just How Corrupt Are Kids’ Books?—Deborah DeGroff (Free Version)

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#151: Just How Corrupt Are Kids’ Books?—Deborah DeGroff (Free Version)

 

Were you raised on Dr. Seuss? P.D. Eastman? The Hardy Boys? Maybe Anne of Green Gables? If the answer is yes to this genre and quality, then this interview will shock you. Author and educator Debbie DeGroff has put together a painfully brilliant collection of evidence showing the drip-by-drip degradation of books aimed at high schoolers, and younger.

I’m talking hardcore pornographic images and story lines. Liberal use of f***, s***, m*****f*****, b****, and the rest, graphic references to sexual deviancy of every imaginable sort. I frankly didn’t believe how bad it was until I read DeGroff’s important new book, Between the Covers: What’s Inside a Children’s Book?, which is part overview of popular books for children and young adults since the 19th century, part expose of diabolic designs of major publishers, and part alarm bell for parents who have no idea what is in their school library—and yes, that Catholic school library down the street as well.

In this episode you will learn

  • The historical roots of the corruption of kids’ literature beginning after World War II
  • What Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), John Dewey, and sex criminal Alfred Kinsey, all have in common
  • The urgent need to parents, pastors, and youth ministers to get educated on the sheer level of evil peddled in popular books foisted on teens and children
  • The underlying context for the current Drag Queen Story Hours in public libraries
  • How the American Library Association became a fierce defender of porn and genuinely ultra violence in youth literature
  • The difference between censorship and banning illegal obscenity
  • The importance of reading your kids’ books before they do

Resources mentioned in this episode

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Commentary, Videos

Who is running the Pachamama Synod?

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Who is running the Pachamama Synod?

Who are the main players in the Germanzonian Synod? Who heads the committees?

What are their backgrounds?

In this video, I summarize the roles of the main players, and a bit about their attitudes and past priorities:

Card. Lorenzo Baldisseri serves as secretary general for the Amazon Synod.

Card. Cláudio Hummes, archbishop emeritus of Sao Paulo and president of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM), will serve as relator general.

Card. Pietro Parolin, secretary of state for the Holy See, was a chief architect of the September 2018 Vatican accord with China (helped by Uncle Ted McCarrick, the disgraces laicized cardinal  in which the Holy See recognized seven “bishops” of the Communist-backed “patriotic” Catholic Church.

Card. Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.

Card. Reinhard Marx, head of the German Bishops’ Conference. Oh, he recently announced a local Synod, quite against the express wishes of Rome. Otherwise known as…Protestantism.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Academy for Life Oh, and his naked body in a sheet appears embraced by another naked man in the huge painting in the cathedral in Terni-Narni-Amelia. Painted by an openly homosexual Argentine artist named Ricardo Cinalli.

Austrian-born Bishop Emeritus Erwin Kräutler of Xingu, Brazil, big fan of the ordination of women.

Also included as voting influencers at the Germanzonian Synod are the notably pro-LGBT Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, and the president of the Vatican’s Do Nothing Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, Card. Sean O’Malley of Boston,

Remember, the “Instrumentum Laboris,” or working document for this colossal waste of their time and the faithful’s money, has 42,750 words — and only 17 mentions of Jesus.  Or…0.04% of the whole document.

THAT is the best metric of all, the one that says the most about the priorities of this month-long festival of globalist bromides, fake science, virtue-signalling, and a not so subtle attack on celibacy.

 

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Patrick Coffin Show, Videos

#150: Is Psychiatry Crazy?—Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD

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#150: Is Psychiatry Crazy?—Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD

Does the practice of psychiatry bring answers to suffering people or just more questions? How scientific is what we call psychiatry (as opposed to psychology), and how can it be integrated into the Christian faith? Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, MD has written about and pondered these questions deeply as a professor of psychiatry at the University of California Irvine and in private practice. This exchange of ideas and historical perspectives sheds a lot of light on questions Catholics and other Christians have about the world of psychiatry.

In this episode you will learn

  • How the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is used, and what are its limits and biases
  • The clinical benefits of the Sacrament of Confession as opposed to talk therapy or medication
  • Whether the rise of medication-based methods have been a net gain for patients overall
  • How psychiatry and a Catholic anthropology can work in tandem to help people
  • The impact of secularism and materialism on contemporary psychiatry
  • How depressed people react to news media accounts of celebrity suicide
  • How the Papagino Effect can provide inspiration and hope for suffering souls

Resources mentioned in this episode

Our Sponsors 

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What is one thing good psychiatrists and orthodox Catholic priests have in common?

 

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Commentary, Videos

The NOT TO DO List : 20 Bad Habits You Can Stop Today

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The NOT TO DO List : 20 Bad Habits You Can Stop Today

Everyone’s into making a To Do List. Here are twenty bad habits you can stop today, or at least over time. I propose a Not To Do List. Here are the first ten…

 

1. Speaking more than listening

2. Twitter/Facebook/Instagram more than twice a day

3. Not praising your spouse in public

4. Being concerned about what people think of you

5. Being concerned about human respect rather than God’s law

6. Gossiping

7. Not writing important things down

8. Praying only when you feel “holy feelings” or when the wheels of life have fallen off instead of praying every day, on purpose. Why? Because you wrote it down!

9. Watching hours and hours of sports every week

10. Forgetting to say “thank you” and “please”

If you halt these in their tracks, your peace and happiness levels will rise almost at once. Try it, and leave your comments below!

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Patrick Coffin Show, Videos

#149: First Euphemize, Then Euthanize—Wesley J. Smith

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#149: First Euphemize, Then Euthanize—Wesley J. Smith

When people in an otherwise civilized society want to die or want to kill other people, they must first come up with legit sounding euphemisms. “Death with dignity.” “Medical aid in dying.” “Clump of cells.” “Products of conception.” Same with racial hatred. First dehumanize, then act. 

Or, first euphemize, then euthanize.

There has been one euthanasia or trans surgery story after another in the last few weeks. I found the right man in Wesley J. Smith to talk about them. He is a lawyer and award winning author of 13 books (see some gems below), and a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Human Exceptionalism. Smith is also a consultant to the Patients Rights Council.

In this episode you will learn

  • What is next in logical line after the demand for “transgender” surgical mutilation (this will have you thinking)
  • How legislators hide real intentions and aims behind legalese language designed to obfuscate the truth
  • Why the pro-death protocols of The Netherlands, Belgium, and Canada, and also advancing toward America
  • The irony of the pagan Hippocrates being the superior medico-moral teacher to a post-Christian medical profession
  • Proof that the killing imperative of the euthanasia movement is eclipsing the duty of care

Resources mentioned in this episode

Our Sponsors

  • MyPillow.com:  MyPillow’s patented interlocking fill adjusts to your individual sleep needs regardless of sleeping position. Allowing your pillow to hold that position all night, helping you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Use code “Patrick” at checkout and save more. 10 year warranty/guaranteed not to go flat. 60 day money back guarantee. Or call: 800-794-9652 and mention coupon Patrick to get a deal.
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Join the Conversation

How can we on the culture of life side craft better language to describe our worldview on specific moral issues?

 

Connect with me on social media:

Tweet to Patrick HERE

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Commentary, Videos

Papal Support for Fr. James Martin, SJ

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Papal Support for Fr. James Martin

The world’s second most famous Jesuit, Father James Martin, was in the news recently. He was enthused to tweet:

“Dear friends: Today Pope Francis received me for a private 30-minute audience in the Apostolic Palace, where I shared with him the joys and hopes, and the griefs and anxieties, of LGBT Catholics and LGBT people worldwide…I was so grateful to meet with this wonderful pastor, The only other person in the room during our meeting was his translator.”

30 minutes is a good long time to spend with the Sovereign Pontiff, who could easily answer the five dubia questions in 30 seconds or less.

The photos show the two grinning Jesuits in a meeting room of the Apostolic Palace usually reserved for heads of state, presidents, monarchs, and high ranking cardinals.

Cameras snapped away.

Again according to America, Martin had met Pope Francis twice before. In 2017 Martin was appointed a consultant to the Holy See’s Dicastery for Communications. 

When Archbishop Chaput rebuked Father James Martin’s errors in a gentle but direct way last month, only two US bishops, Bishop Rick Stika of Knoxville and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield backed him up.

 There are 433 active and retired (arch)bishops in the United States. Why would only ONE speak out against James Martin, and TWO provide public backup? 

Has Pope Francis isolated the behavioral heart of the scandal and taught clearly on it?

What is the real scandal here, anyway? 

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