The headlines tell it all: “Pope agrees to set up commission to study women deacons,” “Pope thanks nuns for telling him there’s a ‘disconnect,” “Pope says church should study ordaining women as deacons.”

The folks at America, National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal are probably on cloud nine.

To counter this madness, I suggest watching this elegant portrayal of The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Kansas City

I never understood the #NeverTrump phenomenon. I also don’t get why Catholics are still resisting supporting him. Matt Archbold of Creative Minority Report.com sent out a tweet not long ago saying there is no difference between Trump and Clinton. Today, I responded.

Tomorrow, Friday, I’ll spend the first fifteen minutes of Church & State talking about Traditionalists and their support/opposition to the Donald. Listen live here at 11am, 2pm, 6pm or 9pm EST.

The “dignity of the human person” is one of the most overused, and wrongly used, terms in modern society.

According to the Catholic Church, man is a fallen creature, scarred by original sin, who must be baptized, taught the doctrines of the faith and, if necessary, coerced. He is redeemed by Christ and must submit himself to His will in order to be saved. Man has an ontological dignity due to being made in the image and likeness of God, but he also possesses an operative dignity that can be lost if he acts contrary to God’s commands. John 8:34: “whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin.” Sanctifying grace, confession and communion help man retain this operative dignity.

Freemasonry says that man is not in need of baptism, and that he becomes a good person by learning the principles of Masonry. What religion a man follows doesn’t matter all that much, so long as he believes in a higher power. Masonry posits that “all men of good will” are members of a naturalistic, universal brotherhood. Man’s dignity is unassailable, and no one may coerce or impinge upon his freedom. There is no need for confession, communion or sanctifying grace to retain one’s dignity.

The Catholic Church used to understand these distinctions.

No longer.

After hearing that the Pope gave a sermon about how “no one can take our dignity,” the Minnesota Catholic Conference sent out a tweet echoing his words.

That’s not necessarily true. So, in an effort to remind the MCC that dignity can in fact be lost, I responded to them with a quote from Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Immortale DeiPray they do some research and come to understand the Church’s true teaching on the dignity of the human person.

Rome recently had its March for Life. LifeSiteNews.com has a video and an article about it. Watch if you have the time.