Christian Apologetics

09/05/2024

Bavaria has a Catholic majority, and the religious calendar plays an influential role in its folk traditions.

And today is Christi Himmelfahrt.

The 40th day of Easter, Ascension Day celebrates the Bible account of Jesus ascending to heaven. One of the most important dates on the Catholic calendar.

Tracht plays a huge role in Bavarian life, more than in any other German state, and here is a Christi Himmelfahrt pilgrimage with the pilgrims in their regional Tracht.

The "Trachtler Wallfahrt nach Raiten", to the Wallfahrtskirche Maria zu den sieben Linden, Pilgrimage Church Mary of the Seven Limes, in Raiten a village in Upper Bavaria, from Unterwössen a neighbouring village.

Many processions, and Christi Himmelfahrt traditions, take place throughout the region, and the Father's Day customs popular in other parts of Germany hold less importance here. Instead there is more emphasis on family.

Photo credit: www.bayernwelle.de/chiemgau und rupertiwinkel/trachtenwallfahrt von unterwössen nach raiten

04/04/2024

"Dark Ages"? The majority of European universities were founded during this time!

On 04 April 1460, the University of Basel, Switzerland's oldest university, was inaugurated. In November 1459 the City Council of Basel was able to obtain a deed of foundation for the new university by Pope Pius II . Just five months later, the solemn founding Mass was held on 4 April 1460 and the Bishop and the former Mayor jointly declared the university open.

Picture: Inauguration ceremony of the University of Basel, 1460 (Wikipedia)

19/02/2024

1933 Feb 19, New York Times magazine article on Fr. George Lamaitre.

//Lemaitre follows two paths to truth//

11/02/2024

HAIL MARY: Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker shares his faith as he preps for one of the biggest games of his career: The Super Bowl. https://trib.al/8Bd0skh

18/01/2024

The Accounting discipline was founded by a Franciscan friar.

Each day around the world every commercial transaction pays tribute to this Genius Catholic priest. “The Father of Accounting and Bookkeeping” - Fr. Luca Pacioli (1447–19 June 1517).He was an Italian mathematician, Franciscan friar,collaborator&close friend of Leonardo da Vinci.

14/01/2024

On 14 January 1978, Kurt Gödel died in Princeton (New Jersey). He was an American mathematician, originally from Moravia. In 1959, he won the Albert Einstein Award, and with his incompleteness theorem he contributed to superseding the self-referential logic of neo-positivism.
Stanley Jaky explains: “The intrinsic merits of the goal of devising an ultimate physical theory should also seem nil as long as the theory is sufficiently mathematical, which such a theory certainly has to be. Now Gödel’s incompleteness theorem states that the proof of consistency of any non-trivial set of mathematical axioms can be only found outside that set, and in that sense no mathematical system can be an ultimate system. In other words, whereas General Relativity forces us to admit the realistic character of the notion of consistently interacting things, as a valid object of scientific cosmology, the application of Gödel’s theorem to cosmology shows that a disproof of the contingency of the universe is impossible. The mental road to the extracosmic Absolute remains therefore fully open.” –Stanley Jaki, “The Absolute Beneath the Relative,” The Intercollegiate Review, 1985

Picture: Kurt Gödel (left) and Albert Einstein (right)

04/01/2024

Did you know that there are almost 50,000 churches in Germany?

And this is what "The Most Beautiful Village Church In The World" looks like during Advent "und die zwölf Tage der Weihnacht". Twelve days of Christmas.

Built between 1728 and 1731, Steinhausen's small church, Die Wallfahrtskirche Unserer Lieben Frau, has the Gothic icon of "Our Lady of Sorrows" at its centre. And, first erected in 1415 in the 13th century village chapel, it is one of the points for pilgrims travelling through Germany on an ancient pilgrimage route. The Jakobsweg.

'The Way Of St. James', made up of many routes that weave their way through Europe, and lead to the shrine of the apostle 'St. James the Great' in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, northwestern Spain, where medieval pilgrims sought indulgences.

Believing if they completed the pilgrimage they were guaranteed a place in heaven.

On the Upper Swabian Baroque Road in Baden-Württemburg. Steinhausen Church of Pilgrimage is masterpiece of Southern Germany's rococo period. The church was the first to have an oval outline and free-pillar construction, and was built and decorated by Johann Baptist Zimmermann, a German painter and a prime stucco plasterer in the Baroque period, with his brother Dominikus Zimmermann, a Rococo architect and stuccoist.

The brothers built and decorated this and many other churches in southern Germany.

Photo credit: Wallfahrtskirche St. Peter und Paul in Steinhausen at Christmas is via www.alb-tourismus.de

01/01/2024

The Galileo affair has often been used as an argument that the Catholic Church was hostile to science and that Galileo was a martyr for science, as it were. This timeline article is intended to set the historical record straight. Based on the scientific knowledge of the time, a heliocentric model was not obvious. While heliocentrism ultimately turned out to be right, Galileo could not present the scientific proofs for it, which came much later. Moreover, Galileo ventured into advising theologians how to interpret Scripture, going beyond his position as a scientist.

New on my blog: https://wp.me/p7mHnZ-33p

With a special thanks to Thony Christie and Michal Paszkiewicz !

26/12/2023

St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
_____________________________________________
After seeing the Christmas scene at Rockefeller Center, go to St Patrick’s Cathedral!
_______________________________________________
https://www.instagram.com/mingomatic/


__________________________________