One Year as a Catholic: A Reflection

Our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ

October 1st, 2024, the Feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, marks my one year anniversary as a Catholic. It’s a bit surreal how much has changed in that time. Going from graduating college to working a full-time job, from serving the altar in the Byzantine rite to serving in the Roman rite, the past twelve months have been some of the most volatile in my entire life. So I thought it’d be fruitful to write a reflection on my time in the Church thus far.

Becoming Catholic was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made. Unlike some other people’s conversion stories, mine didn’t involve any personal problems with where I was at. On the contrary, I loved my time in the Eastern Orthodox Church. I had a wonderful parish community, holy and intelligent friends, excellent pastors, a rich liturgical life, beautiful music—just about everything a Christian could ask for. However, there was one thing I was missing, and that was peace.

Since my earliest days as a Christian, the question of which Church to associate with had plagued my conscience. Through my study of Church history, I quickly learned that this is a matter that every Christian sect (until five minutes ago) has always believed is a salvation issue,¹ and so I didn’t (and still don’t) take it lightly. For me, this issue of ecclesiology is bound up with the very credibility of Christianity itself. After all, how much of a failure would God’s revelation to mankind have been if the recipients of that revelation didn’t even understand their own identity until the late medieval or early modern era? That would be absurd, in my mind at least. Ecclesial affiliation has thus always been something I’ve been determined to get right. And unfortunately, while I was in the Eastern Orthodox Church, this just happened to be the one issue I never felt at peace with.

At times it certainly did feel like I was in the unam sanctam. This was especially true during Holy Week and Pascha when my liturgical life reached its peak. However, when those “liturgical highs” were over, and I was left with just the substance of the Eastern Orthodox faith, I was never satisfied. In my mind and in my heart, I always knew that I wasn’t where I needed to be. This is largely because every time I seriously looked into the major theological issues that divided the East and the West, namely, the Filioque, the papacy, and divine simplicity, I always found the Catholic position more compelling. I distinctly remember watching Brian Duong’s video, “The Church Fathers Taught the Filioque,” and honestly being quite jealous of how elegant Catholic theology was on this matter compared to Orthodox theology.

The Catholic Trinitarian theologian could draw from both the Greek and Latin fathers, engage in truly creative (faithful) interpretations of the Old and New Testaments, and come out with a very compelling case for the Filioque. The Orthodox theologian, on the other hand, had to not only dismiss all of the Latin fathers as (material) heretics on this matter, but a large number of Greek fathers as well (i.e. Ss. Athanasius, Cyril, and Gregory of Nyssa). The Orthodox theologian also had to ignore the obvious implication of texts like John 16:14, “[The Spirit] will glorify [the Son], for he will receive from what is mine and declare it to you.” As St. Hilary of Poitiers taught,² this clearly indicates that the Spirit eternally receives His divinity from both the Father and the Son, as it’s absurd to speak of the Spirit receiving anything from the Son temporally! There’s a reason why Photius of Constantinople refused to read John 16:14 as, “the Spirit receives from the Son,” because he understood this implication.³ Yet, unfortunately for him, this reading was so ubiquitous among the fathers that it even made its way into St. Epiphanius’ second version of the Creed.⁴ But I digress.

The point is, I was never theologically comfortable within Eastern Orthodoxy. And as someone who truly believed the dictum of Ss. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, “none can love what he does not know,”⁵ this deeply troubled me. It wasn’t just the Orthodox position on the Filioque I had problems with, but also, for reasons explained elsewhere, Orthodoxy’s position on the papal dogmas,⁶ created grace,⁷ the use of unleavened bread in the Mass,⁸ predestination and grace,⁹ and distinctly Catholic miracles.¹⁰ Every time I investigated these issues, hoping to be convinced of the Orthodox perspective, I ended up ever-more convinced that Catholicism was the truth.

I recount all of this simply to underscore how much peace I’ve felt now having become Catholic. Ever since I professed the Creed of Pope Pius IV before the altar of the Lord with a Catholic priest as my witness, I’ve known that I’m exactly where I need to be. My mind and my heart are finally united together in the truth of the holy Catholic faith. Although being Catholic certainly isn’t without its difficulties (have you seen the pope lately?), this is the only place where I feel confident and at peace in the midst of those difficulties.¹¹ The Catholic Church alone is where I can say with St. Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).

When I first converted to Catholicism, I’ll admit that it was initially quite lonely. I lost a liturgy and a community that had both been fundamental parts of my life for several years, and that vacuum wasn’t just filled overnight. Thankfully, I did find a beautiful Roman rite parish in Chicago (St. Mary of Perpetual Help) that was able to sustain my liturgical life, and I was even able to receive my first communion in the Catholic Church at the altar, fully vested in a cassock and surplus. However, this change has certainly taken some getting used to.

The community aspect was also difficult. Although St. Mary’s does have a wonderful parish culture and community, people just aren’t replaceable. No community I find in the Catholic Church will ever be the community I had in the Orthodox Church, and that’s just something I’ve had to accept, however painful that process has been. The Catholic Church is so vast (compared to the Orthodox Church at least) that it was a bit daunting to try and “find my place.” I suppose it was like being a freshman at a large university—there’s so many people and so much to do, it’s overwhelming and difficult to find an actual entry point. I tried going to a few Catholic young adults events not long after my conversion, but I didn’t immediately find “my crowd.” People were nice, to be sure, but there’s a very specific kind of connection I seek out with not just individuals, but even whole communities, that I just wasn’t finding at first. But that was okay. Unlike if this had happened in the Orthodox Church, because of how firm I was (and still am) in the truth of Catholicism, my initial inability to find a good community to fellowship with didn’t trouble me. It never once made me doubt my decision to become Catholic. Instead, it humbled me, and made me really accept the fact that the only reason I became Catholic is because I believe it’s the truth, not because I thought I’d get earthly “perks” from it.

However, the Lord, in His infinite kindness and mercy, this past year decided to remove even this burden from me. After going to enough events for Catholic young adults, and also just getting to know people at my parish better, I ended up meeting many Catholics who, in just a short amount of time, have become dear friends. I even somehow stumbled my way into leading a men’s Bible study, serving and (soon) singing at Holy Hours at a parish near my house, praying vespers every week, joining a Catholic Sports league, going on hikes and planning on mountaineering with fellow Catholics, and so much more. The Lord has blessed me so abundantly, in both my spiritual and material desires, I often don’t know how to thank Him. I truly don’t deserve any of this, least of all the gift of divine faith itself, yet our Lord Jesus has chosen to give these to me anyways. As St. Paul teaches, “For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7). I certainly can’t boast in anything, except the Cross of my Savior, which alone redeemed me from sin and brought me to a new life in Him (cf. Gal 6:14).

This past year has also taught me that, as Catholics, we have a lot of work to do. Just because I believe the Catholic Church infallibly teaches the true faith, doesn’t mean I therefore believe that every discipline or practice sanctioned by the Church is the most perfect expression of that true faith. On the contrary, my experience in the Church so far has left me finding contemporary Catholic culture to be deficient in many respects, both liturgical and theological. Even among young Catholics like myself who are trying to live out their faith, there’s a severe lack of catechesis and liturgical formation.

I can’t tell you how many Catholics I’ve met who think Protestants are wrong because they care too much about what the Bible teaches. What utter nonsense! Protestants are wrong because they ignore the teachings of Scripture,¹² not because they faithfully exegete Scripture but then refuse to twist it via magisterial fiat. Likewise, many Catholics snub their noses at Eastern Orthodox Christians who take the Church fathers seriously on matters like the age of the earth and creationism, not realizing that they’re undermining the whole edifice of sacred theology by doing so.¹³ We are forbidden from interpreting Scripture contrary to the consensus of the fathers, even if they interpret it against our modern sensibilities. And don’t even get me started on the “hyper-papalists” who think that all dogmas are up for grabs if the pope doesn’t mention them in his Sunday homily.

While we’re on the subject, let me briefly say something about the so-called “popesplainers.” For those who aren’t aware, a popesplainer is a Catholic apologist who bends over backwards, often into the realm of absurdity, to try and justify everything Pope Francis says and does. I won’t name any names, but if you’ve seen these kinds of people before you know what I’m talking about. As a convert to the Catholic faith, and one who used to actively watch the “Francis scandals” from the outside, I can tell the popesplainers with near certainty: you’re often doing more harm than good. To be sure, I do think there are many “difficult” teachings from the post-Vatican II era that are well worth defending. The council’s teaching on the relationship of non-Catholics to the Church is a prime example, and Christopher Malloy’s book, False Mercy: Recent Heresies Distorting Catholic Truth, does an excellent job treating that issue among several others. However, this idea that absolutely everything Pope Francis says must be defended as orthodox is just silly.

Either we believe Vatican I’s teaching on the limits of papal infallibility or we don’t. If the pope can teach error in his non-infallible magisterium, then why are so many Catholics hesitant to call out such error when it’s blatantly obvious? I understand that there are many who believe in this false idea that the pope’s non-infallible teachings are somehow “infallibly safe,” and so we can still be unconditionally bound to accept them, but this is absurd. As I explain at length in my discussion with Erick Ybarra entitled, “The Logic of Papal Infallibility,” the entire theological justification for papal infallibility, going back (explicitly) to Pope St. Gelasius in the 5th century,¹⁴ is that the pope cannot absolutely bind the faithful to theological error of any kind. This is because, if God’s Word objectively teaches X, but the pope absolutely bound the faithful to believe not X, Catholics would be in a morally impossible scenario.

In order to see why, consider the issue of the death penalty. For the sake of argument, let’s say that in Dignitas Infinita, Cardinal Fernández and Pope Francis taught that the death penalty is an intrinsic evil, comparable to both abortion and transgender surgeries. Now, pretty much everyone agrees that this is a “non-infallible” teaching, however, there are some who hold that all Catholics are nonetheless absolutely bound to accept it (i.e. submit their intellects and wills to it). The problem with this is that, as Edward Feser and Joseph Bessette have demonstrated in their book, By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed: A Catholic Defense of Capital Punishment, the moral licity of the death penalty has been infallibly taught by divine revelation. Genesis 9:6 and Romans 13:4 alone reveal that, according to God’s Word, it is lawful for civil rulers to execute evildoers. Not to mention the fact that God commands His people to carry out the death penalty throughout the Torah, and God cannot command moral evil.

Thus, for those who believe that Pope Francis’ teaching on the death penalty is “infallibly safe,” they’re in quite a pickle. How could it ever be “safe” for me to reject the teachings of Scripture? At most, one could have a reduced culpability for the sin of rejecting God’s Word if he truly didn’t know any better, but for people like myself who do know what Scripture teaches about the death penalty, what are we to do? If we’re absolutely bound by divine law to accept even non-infallible teachings of the pope, then we have to pick our poison: disobey God by rejecting His Word, or disobey God by rejecting His vicar. However, this is the very scenario that Pope St. Gelasius taught is impossible. This is the scenario that inspired Vatican I to develop its teaching on the infallibility of ex cathedra papal decrees in the first place!

If we are, by divine law, unconditionally bound to accept a teaching, then God cannot possibly allow that teaching to contradict His Word. This is precisely why Vatican I limited papal infallibility to definitive teachings of the pope, since a definitive teaching, by definition, cannot be resisted. However, if the pope teaches non-definitively, as Pope Francis always has throughout his entire Pontificate, then, by definition, he’s allowing you to dissent from his teaching if, in fact, it contradicts divine revelation.¹⁵ All of this to say: popesplainers, from one Catholic to another, please stop. Admit that it’s possible for the pope to teach error in his non-definitive magisterium, acknowledge that Pope Francis has, in fact, done just this, and move on with your lives. That kind of honesty will be a lot more appealing to non-Catholic inquirers than another five hour video on the apostolic origin of gay blessings.

Moving on, let’s briefly talk about liturgical problems in the Catholic Church. I’ll try not to belabor this point too much because of how often it’s already discussed, but I will say my piece. First, there’s a serious problem among Catholics of not knowing how to do anything liturgical except the Mass. Morning Prayer? Vespers? Compline? So many Catholics have never even heard of these terms, much less attended these services. All they know is Mass and Holy Hour—that’s it, and even those they don’t do very well. Why are elderly women with buzzcuts handing out communion while actual clerics sit by and watch? Why is every lector and cantor a woman who reads and sings like she’s performing for preschoolers? Why are most people receiving our Lord in their hand and then picking Him up like any other piece of food? Why are there female altar boys who don’t even wear veils? Why are incense and traditional hymns used so sparingly? These are all questions that don’t have good answers.

And don’t think for a second that liturgical problems are found only among us “Novus Ordites.” Vatican II’s liturgical reforms happened for a reason, and it’s largely because the “trads” aren’t the best at liturgy either. They’re often so worried about making sure that worship “isn’t about us” that they forget a crucial fact: God doesn’t need our worship, we’re the ones who need to worship God. If I go to Mass and just sit there praying my rosary while the priest says everything silently in a language I don’t understand, in what meaningful way have I worshiped God? By letting someone else worship God on my behalf? Give me a break. Everyone, both those who attend the Novus Ordo and those who prefer the Tridentine Mass, need to sit down and read Sacrosanctum Concilium, and actually interiorize its teachings.

Trads need to realize that this post-Vatican II liturgical game of, “how much can we remove from the Mass while still retaining its validity and licity,” started with them. The Traditional Latin Mass is where the chalice was officially removed from the laity, Masses could be said “privately,” the laity weren’t encouraged to sing, homilies were sometimes removed, and so on. Sure, you can do all of this and still have a valid and even licit Mass, but why? Why are we doing the bare minimum we can technically get away with? These are among the imperfections Vatican II sought to correct, and while the Missal of Pope St. Paul VI certainly isn’t the definitive solution, the solution also isn’t going back to the “TLM” that caused many of these issues to begin with. Instead, the way forward will be some kind of “reform of the reform,” and I personally think we should take our clues from the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter for that.

All of these issues, among several others, have indeed troubled me during my first year in the Catholic Church. However, they haven’t disturbed my peace. It’s not as if I was unaware of these problems before deciding to become Catholic. In fact, the issues I’ve described above were some of my biggest hesitations to entering into full communion with Rome in the first place, and so I made sure I could come to terms with them before jumping on board the Barque of Peter.

Now, perhaps there are some non-Catholic Christians reading this and scoffing at me. How could I not only become Catholic, but also choose to remain Catholic while believing that the Church has all of these problems?! To such people I would simply reply, no matter where you go in the Christian world, you’ll have “difficulties” to deal with. It’s just a matter of what your conscience can or cannot bear. For me, with respect to the Protestants, my conscience cannot bear their rejection of the Petrine office established by our Lord Jesus,¹⁶ their repudiation of Ss. Paul and James’ teaching on justification,¹⁷ their ridiculous doctrine of Sola Scriptura,¹⁸ their lack of a true mission to preach the gospel and administer the sacraments,¹⁹ the disrespect they show to our Immaculate Mother,²⁰ and their (general) disavowal of the biblical and patristic doctrines of purgatory,²¹ sacramental confession,²² clerical continence,²³ apostolic succession,²⁴ and the sacrifice of the Mass.²⁵ With respect to the Eastern Orthodox, my conscience likewise cannot bear their repudiation of the first millennium Church’s papal teachings,²⁶ their condemnation of the church fathers’ (nearly) unanimous acceptance of the Filioque,²⁷ their inability to come up with criteria for ecumenical councils even in principle,²⁸ and their (general) rejection of divine simplicity,²⁹ predestination,³⁰ purgatory,³¹ and theological development.³²

Given my convictions, there’s only one ecclesial home for me: the Catholic Church. I truly believe everything the Church proposes to me as necessary for my salvation, and so that’s why I became Catholic and remain Catholic. After all, if there was no difficulty involved, how would we be the Body of Christ? We’re not living in the eschaton, the Church hasn’t fully matured (cf. Eph 4:11-16), so of course she’s going to do things imperfectly, and her members aren’t always and everywhere going to have a perfect comprehension of the faith. My complaints given above don’t make me doubt the truthfulness of Catholicism, God forbid! Nor are they merely frustrations. Instead, I believe God allowed me to receive the unique Christian formation I did precisely for the purpose of helping His Church move “from glory to glory” here on earth (2 Cor 3:18). I’m not sure how much change I can actually affect, perhaps very little, but the Catholic Church alone is where I can stand on the solid rock of faith, and truly use my gifts to help build up the Body of Christ. That’s why I won’t shy away from talking about these problems that I think contemporary Catholic culture needs to address, but I will also never leave the Church that God Himself has established.

It’s my desire to help educate Catholics about the beauty of our faith. To show them that we don’t need to run away from Scripture, we don’t need to run away from the fathers, we have to embrace them! We don’t need to be afraid of the “difficult” teachings of God’s Word concerning things like the age of the earth (Gen 11:10-26), the death penalty (Gen 9:6; Rom 13:4), predestination and grace (Rom 9:10-15), the absolute exclusivity of salvation in Jesus Christ (Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12; Rom 10:14),³³ and so on. Catholicism is true, guys, the Bible is our book, so let’s own it! Similarly, let’s stop throwing our traditional teachings on things like the Filioque and the papacy under the bus just to play nice with non-Catholic ecumenists. Embrace the Filioquist teachings of Ss. Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, Epiphanius, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril, and Athanasius! Embrace the papalist teachings of Ss. Damasus, Leo, Gelasius, Hormisdas, Maximus, Agatho, Theodore the Studite, and the Third, Sixth, and Seventh Ecumenical Councils! All of Christendom (both the East and the West, including the English) fully consented to all of these Catholic teachings just six centuries ago at the Council of Florence,³⁴ so why abandon them now?

Likewise with our liturgical life, let’s stop settling for the absolute bare minimum of validity and licity. Our tradition has so much more to offer. Advocate for your local parish to start praying Morning Prayer before Mass, and maybe have Vespers instead of Holy Hour every now and then. Get rid of “extraordinary eucharistic ministers,” bring back the chalice for the laity, replace contemporary songs with sacred hymns, learn how to sing, make incense commonplace. If you’re a man, serve the altar, if you’re a woman, wear a proper veil (one that actually conceals your hair). True “eucharistic revival” will require all of this to happen, and more, so let’s be the change we want to see.

Although I’ve discovered many problems within the Catholic Church these past twelve months, there’s also been a lot that’s made me genuinely hopeful about the future. As many have noticed, there’s a definite trend among young Catholics of preferring more traditional aspects of the faith. It turns out that self-deprecating priests and nuns talking about how wrong Catholicism is about every modern issue doesn’t excite the new generations, who would’ve thought? The parishes that will survive into the next century will be those that embrace the tradition, no doubt. However, it’s not as if the upcoming generation of Catholic laity and clergy are simply wishing to return to the pre-Vatican II era, and pretend like the past century hasn’t happened. Some desire this, but they don’t seem to be a majority. Rather, in my experience, it seems many young Catholics are really trying to integrate the true vision of the council fathers with a more traditional approach to the faith,³⁵ they just need some solid guidance.

Most young Catholics I’ve talked to about my problems with the contemporary Catholic Church, once these matters have been adequately explained to them, end up agreeing with me or at least being sympathetic. I’ve found many allies in places I would have never expected, and I see concrete, positive change happening in several parishes near me everyday, which is just beautiful. I’ve seen firsthand how strong Catholic young adult communities are becoming (at least in my area), and so I believe there are legitimate reasons to be hopeful about the future. Faithful members of the younger generation are meeting each other, becoming friends, growing in fellowship, and sometimes even starting families. We’re making real plans about our vision for the future of the Church, and slowly starting to implement them. The best part is that most of the hierarchs today who oppose us likely won’t be around long enough to put a stop to it. The day is coming when 1970s cringe-Catholicism will be a distant memory, and the Church will be even stronger because of the hardships she’s endured.

I’d like to end this reflection by giving a word of consolation and encouragement to my fellow Catholics who are struggling with their faith during this difficult time in the Church. One of the main reasons why I didn’t become Catholic five years ago was because, as a new Christian looking at the modern state of the Church for the first time, I was scandalized. With irreverent Masses, unfaithful bishops, poorly catechized laity, Pope Francis, and so on, I allowed myself to become so scandalized that even though I truly believed that Jesus Christ Himself established the Catholic Church, I didn’t actually trust in His promise to protect her from the gates of Hell. Just like the Ephesian Church in the book of Revelation, I had forgotten my first love (Rev 2:4), and that’s the true reason why I joined the Eastern schism.

Reflecting on this eventually convicted me in the same way that our Lord convicted St. Peter: “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matt 14:31). It made me feel like one of the disciples who abandoned Jesus during the three day scandal of the cross. When it came time to actually walk by faith in Christ’s promises to His Church and not by the sight of those currently in power, I gave up, I didn’t follow the example of the faithful disciples who, in the midst of Jesus’ claims seemingly being falsified at Calvary, clung to the past and hoped for vindication in the future. But it was precisely of these that our Lord said: “Blessed are those who do not see and yet whose faith is firm in me” (Jn 20:29). I beg you, do not imitate my former self.

Given the extent of corruption in the modern Catholic Church, if she was merely a human institution, there would be absolutely no hope for her. Just as, if our Lord truly was a mere man, there would’ve been no hope for Him after His death. But thanks be to God that neither of those things are true. Our Lord is not merely a man, but rather God-become-man. Likewise I truly came to believe, and still believe, that the Catholic Church is no mere human institution, subject to the same political and sociological trends of all man-made societies. Rather, she is the spotless Bride of Christ, the Light of the World, the Joy of the Nations, the City on a Hill that cannot be hid, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and so much more! Our Lord is the wise man who built His house on the rock of St. Peter, and so no matter how hard the winds of impiety and false doctrine blow against it, “that house will not fall because it has been founded on the rock” (Matt 7:25). This would be easy to believe if the Church wasn’t in a state of crisis, as she most certainly is, yet our Lord’s claims also would’ve been easy to believe if He didn’t suffer and die. The Passion of our Lord and His Mystical Body is truly “a folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18 cf. 1:23-25).  

Like the disciple whom Jesus loved, St. John the Apostle, the only way I was able to recognize our Lord’s Body in the midst of this suffering was by staying close to our Blessed Mother (Jn 19:26-27). In addition to my theological inquiries, developing true devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Most Holy Rosary was instrumental in my spiritual journey to the Catholic Church. Entering into the depths of Mary’s heart, where the life of our Lord Jesus has been pondered most deeply (Lk 2:19), I was finally able to see what St. Francis de Sales did: “In the interior of the Church and in her heart is all the chief of her glory.”³⁶ So I encourage you: stay close to our Lady.

Truthfully, my intellectual conversion to Catholicism happened long before I ended up joining the Church, what was lacking was my spiritual conversion, which by the grace of God was finally accomplished one year ago today. Having beheld the great interior glory of the Catholic faith, from the wisdom of Ss. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and Francis de Sales, to the holiness of Ss. Francis of Assisi, Louis IX, and Thérèse of Lisieux, to the beauty of the devotions to Mary’s Immaculate Heart and our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart, to even the profundity of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Second Council of the Vatican, I absolutely cannot deny that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead, I’m compelled to embrace the words of St. Thomas Aquinas in his beautiful hymn, Adoro Te Devote, “I believe what God’s own Son has said, the word of truth that ever shall endure.” I pray, and I ask your prayers, that I’m able to hold fast to the Catholic faith, and keep it inviolate until my last breath of life, so help me God.

As a final word, I would like to extend a special thank you to all of the Catholics I’ve met in the past year who have made my time in the Church so incredibly full of joy and peace (you know who you are). Although I would remain Catholic even if the entire world turned against me, I thank God that He has given me so many brothers, sisters, fathers, and mentors in the Church who support me in ways I didn’t even know I needed. While it’s true I’ve only known many of you for a short time, I can confidently say that my life would not be the same without you all, and I hope the Lord blesses you as much as you have blessed me. I also hope that everyone can forgive me of all my shortcomings and mistakes, of which there are many, and realize that anything good I do, say, or write comes from God and not from me. Pax Christi. <3

1. How else would one think 4th-16th century Christians understood this clause of the Nicene Creed, “I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church”?

2. “That which [the Spirit] will receive — whether it will be power, or excellence, or teaching — the Son has said must be received from Him, and again He indicates that this same thing must [also] be received from the Father.” (St. Hilary, De Trinitate, 8.9, 20).

3. “What other persons from whom the Spirit is said to receive [in John 16:14], could be meant other than the Father? Because it cannot be, as has been recently contended against God, that He receives from the Son.” (Photius, Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit, 22).

4. See my article, “The Filioque in the Original Greek?”

5. St. Augustine, De Trinitate, Book X, 1; St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q. 27, a. 3.

6. See my articles, “St. Peter: The Rock of the Church,” and, “Papal Infallibility in the First Millennium,” and my video with Erick Ybarra, “The Logic of Papal Infallibility.”

7. See my article, “The Beauty of Created Grace.”

8. See my article, “Unleavened Bread in the Eucharist.”

9. I don’t have an article explaining my views on this matter, but John Salza’s book, The Mystery of Predestination: According to Scripture, the Church and St. Thomas Aquinas, about summarizes my thoughts.

10. See my articles, “Our Lady of Fatima,” and, “The Virgin Mary Against Protestantism.”

11. For more on this, see the interview I did with the Catholic Brothers, “Orthodox Christian Blogger Converts to Catholicism!”

12. See my articles, “The Resurrection and the Sacraments,” “Apostolic Succession in the Early Church,” “St. Peter: The Rock of the Church,” “Why Believe in Purgatory?,” and, “St. James and Justification by the Law.”

13. See Erick Ybarra and Gideon Lasar’s discussion for more on this, “Traditional Reading of Moses & Young Earth Creationism.”

14. “This is just what the Apostolic See takes great care against—that because its pure roots are in the Apostle’s glorious confession, that it be marred by no crack of wickedness, no contagion. For if, God forbid, something we trust could not happen, such a thing were to result, how could we dare resist any error? Whence would we seek correction for those in error? … What are we to do about the entire world, if, God forbid, it were misled by us? … If we [Rome] lose them [faithfulness to the truth and communion], God forbid, how could anything ever be restored again, especially if in its summit, the Apostolic See, it became attainted, something God would never allow to happen… If I, God forbid, were to become an accomplice in the evil, then I would be in need of remedy myself, rather than being able to offer one; and the See of Blessed Peter, would be seeking a remedy from elsewhere rather than itself offering a remedy to others.” (Pope St. Gelasius, Thiel, ed. Epistolae Romanorum, t.1., 353, 302, 306, qtd. in Erick Ybarra, The Papacy, p. 389).

15. For more on papal infallibility and its limits, see John Joy’s book, Disputed Questions on Papal Infallibility.

16. See my article, “St. Peter: The Rock of the Church.”

17. See my article, “St. James and Justification by the Law,” and Erick Ybarra’s book, The Just Shall Live By Faith: Resolving the Catholic-Protestant Debate on Justification from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. Also see St. Thomas Aquinas’, Commentary on Romans.

18. See my article, “The Authority of Tradition,” as well as Christian Wagner’s video, Catholicism: IRREFUTABLE Proof.”

19. See St. Francis de Sales, The Catholic Controversy: A Defense of the Faith, Part I: Mission.

20. See my articles, “The Virgin Mary Against Protestantism,” “The Hail Mary Prayer,” “The Immaculate Conception of Mary,” and, “The Assumption of Mary.”

21. See my article, “Why Believe in Purgatory?.”

22. See my article, “The Sacrament of Confession,” and the Catholic Encyclopedia’s article, “The Sacrament of Penance.”

23. See my article, “Clerical Celibacy in Scripture and Tradition.”

24. See my article, “Apostolic Succession in the Early Church.” Yes, Anglicans, I’m aware you exist, see my article, “Why I Cannot be Protestant or Anglo-Catholic.”

25. See Erick Ybarra’s book, Melchizedek and the Last Supper: Biblical and Patristic Evidence for the Sacrifice of the Mass.

26. See my article, “Papal Infallibility in the First Millennium.”

27. See Brian Duong’s book, The Filioque: Answering the Eastern Orthodox, Erick Ybarra’s book, The Filioque: Revisiting the Doctrinal Debate Between Catholics and Orthodox, and Fr. Thomas Crean’s book, Vindicating the Filioque: The Church Fathers at the Council of Florence. See also Christian Wagner’s videos, “On the Filioque.”

28. See my article, “The Ecumenical Authority of the Council of Florence.”

29. For an excellent defense of “absolute” divine simplicity, which would rule out the Eastern Orthodox understanding of a real distinction between God’s essence and attributes, see Patrick Flynn’s book, The Best Argument for God. Also see David Bentley Hart’s book, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss.

30. Once again, see John Salza’s book, The Mystery of Predestination: According to Scripture, the Church and St. Thomas Aquinas.

31. Once again, see my article, “Why Believe in Purgatory?.”

32. I understand that the more sophisticated Eastern Orthodox don’t reject doctrinal development in toto, however, they have no principles by which it can be coherently done, much less an actual tradition of doing it properly.

33. For more on the traditional Catholic teaching on salvation in Christ alone, especially as it relates to Vatican II, see Fr. Thomas Crean, John Joy, and Alan Fimister’s article, “Can a Person Be Justified by ‘Implicit Faith in Christ’?.” For a slightly different, though still faithful, perspective, see also Christian Wagner’s video, “St. Thomas Aquinas, Implicit Faith, Invincible Ignorance, and the Salvation of Non-Catholics,” and Daniel J. Castellano’s article, “Commentary on Lumen Gentium,” II, 2.3.

34. Once again, see my article, “The Ecumenical Authority of the Council of Florence.”

35. See Stephen White’s article, “Young U.S. Catholics want more orthodoxy. That doesn’t mean they reject Vatican II.”

36. St. Francis de Sales, The Catholic Controversy: A Defense of the Faith, Part I, Chapter VI.