2022 End of Year Review for The WM Review
“We have been hard at work, striving to publish the most relevant, useful and interesting material, week in and week out.”
Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash
Dear Readers and Friends of The WM Review,
It seems that the end of the year is the time for donations in the USA.
As the year has gone on, the importance of our work – providing sober, properly-referenced material on the crisis in the Church – has become more obvious than ever.
Single Gifts
It is always tragic to see Catholics losing the Faith because of their inability to make sense of the current situation.
This year, we have published 358,195 words across 119 posts.
Below you will find a review of some of the highlights of 2022.
Please read to the end, so that you can see how YOU can help The WM Review to keep things going in 2023 and beyond.
Highlights
In January, we published S.D. Wright’s trilogy “Learning Sacred Theology“, which included an extensive reading list and programme.
This is for anyone wishing to move beyond the theology-lite of online and YouTube apologetics and devotional material.
Part I: Preliminaries, Catechism, Latin, Philosophy and the Magisterium
Part II: Ecclesiology, Apologetics and Dogmatic Theology.
Part III: Holy Scripture, Moral Theology, History, Patristics and Canon Law
Theology Manuals – Why are they so important in the post-conciliar crisis?
What are the duties of laymen in studying and spreading the Faith? – Pope Leo XIII
Should converts set themselves up as teachers? Newman’s answer
Theology and History – Part II: Why understanding this relationship is crucial for avoiding shipwreck
Theology and the Interior Life – How do they help each other? Fr R. Garrigou-Lagrange, 1943
In March ran a “Week of St Thomas Aquinas”, which featured an extensive study of the status of St Thomas in the Church, as well as a trilogy on his life based on his process of canonisation:
St Thomas Aquinas
St Thomas, Universal Doctor – Fr Edward Leen CSSP The Holy Wrath of St Thomas Aquinas – G.K. Chesterton On the Five Qualities of Prayer – St Thomas Aquinas True Law – According to the Teaching of St Thomas Aquinas What is Thomism? The Twenty-Four Thomistic Theses St Thomas Aquinas and the Church – His Intrinsic Authority St Thomas Aquinas and the Church – His Extrinsic Authority The “Angelic Warfare Confraternity” of the Cord of St Thomas – Translation of an 1863 pamphlet “The Angelic Warfare Confraternity” – Robinson OP, 1941 The Fioretti of St Thomas: – Part I: His Life – Part II: His Death – Part III: The Miracles after his Death
In May, M.J. McCusker published the first part of his series on the life of Pope St Gregory the Great, with an initial focus on the historical context of his life.
Portrait of a Pope: The Life of St Gregory the Great
Part I: Introduction – The Historical Context
The End of Imperial Rome
The Reign of Odovacer in Italy
Introducing the Ostrogoths
Barbarian and Roman: The Early Life of Theodoric the Great
The Greatest City on Earth: Theodoric in Constantinople 461-71
More on St Gregory the Great:
The Apostle of the English
Following the announcement that Francis would be consecrating Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we published a series on the relationship between private revelations and Catholic theology – including our controversial essay on the Fatima message and references to the King of France.
Those who say that our current crisis was not predicted by heaven are advised to read this brief article!
Apparitions and Theology
1. The King of France, Fatima and the Crisis in the Church
2. How should Catholics treat private revelations when studying theology?
3. Initial Thoughts on the Consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart
4. An “Ottaviani Intervention” on Signs and Wonders
5. Possible Miracles, Possible Deception: How credulity can lead us to ruin
6. Fatima, Theology and the Crisis: What should be their relationship?
Why the Rosary and the Immaculate Heart are Fatima’s Two Last Remedies (M.J. McCusker)
As the year progressed, we published a long-awaited series on the Tradivox Catechism series.
We used this series as the basis for explaining Louis Cardinal Billot’s theology of the Church, heresy and membership.
Tradivox Catechism Review
Part I: How can we find the teaching of the universal ordinary magisterium?
Part II: What do the catechisms tell us about heretics and the Church?
Part III: How is the Church “visibly united in faith,” according to Cardinal Billot?
Part IV: Why is it essential that the Church is visibly united in faith?
Part V: What sort of heresy results in being outside the Church?
Part VI: What is the difference between an excommunicate and an open heretic?
Objections
Obj. I: Are we obliged to believe every person who calls himself a Catholic?
Obj. II: Should mistaken Catholics be called “material heretics”?
Obj. III: What is the state of a Catholic who submits to a false magisterium?
We have also been publishing hitherto unknown or under-appreciated texts about John Henry Cardinal Newman, vindicating him against the claims of the “Rethinkers“.
John Henry Cardinal Newman
Cathedra Sempiterna – Newman on “The Eternal See”
The Newmanic Credo – Did Cardinal Newman want to “rethink” the papacy?
Bishop Ullathorne’s vindication of Newman’s writings on Our Lady
Should converts set themselves up as teachers? Newman’s answer
We also published many classic texts from great Catholic writers, including Fr Kearney, Fr Ambruzzi, and Mgr Robert Hugh Benson.
In the last quarter of 2022, we began our ongoing popularisation of the great nineteenth century Jesuit, Fr Henry James Coleridge SJ:
Fr Henry James Coleridge SJ
What are the warnings that the final storm approaches?
The Church in the Last Days – Part I: How will we see her?
The Church in the Last Days – Part II: How will we know her?
One of the greatest pains of Purgatory and how to avoid it
What might Jairus’s Daughter tell us about the pains of Purgatory?
Our Lady, the Rosary and the Holy Souls
The Cleansing of the Temple – How Our Lord will come and purge our souls
The price of delay in relieving the souls in Purgatory
Our Lord’s expectation of his Nativity – Part I
Our Lord’s expectation of his Nativity – Part II
The Presentation of Christ – Candlemas, Passover and the buying-back of the firstborn
Persecution – What are its effects?
St Joseph – do the Gospels tell us more about him than we realise?
Finally, we found time to engage in contemporary controversy about a variety of matters, including the consecration of Russia and Ukraine (see above), the death Queen Elizabeth II, Michael Lofton’s attacks on those who reject the claims of Francis, and Mr Kennedy Hall’s “sedevacantist wager.”
And this is to say nothing of the various other projects which we cannot detail here – all of which are available in our archive.
As you can see, we have been hard at work throughout 2022, striving to bring the most relevant, useful and interesting material to our readers, week in and week out.
As the year has gone on, we have also tried to increase the frequency of publication.
It is inevitable that running a website such as this comes with various costs, not least our precious and valuable time. Going into 2023, we want to increase the frequency and range of our published output even further.
For these reasons, we ask those who wish to support us to do so.
Single Gifts
With increasing commitments, increasing cost of living, and increasing family size, maintaining the WM Review may become increasingly difficult.
If you have benefitted from our work in 2022, and would like us to continue in 2023, please consider giving now.
We are not tax-deductible, but if you like material which we publish, then a monthly gift is especially helpful to us. This allows us to plan in advance and ensures a steady stream of high-quality work.
Monthly Gifts
Whether you give or don’t give, thank you for reading the WM Review – and all the best for 2023!
Yours sincerely,
S.D. Wright and M.J. McCusker
The Editors
P.S. There is so much low-quality and misleading material circulating online, especially in video format, that it is more vital than ever that our level-headed Catholic essays and resources are available for free.
But, as the saying goes, this material is not free to create.
Furthermore, we need to get these ideas out to those who need them if they are to keep the Catholic faith.
We are all aware of the tragic stories of those who find themselves unable to continue as Catholics, because they are unconvinced by the more simplistic explanations of our current situation.
For this reason, we will be making an effort to go outside our own comfort zones in 2023, and begin producing video and audio materials.
Our distaste for video theology is well-known – but if that is what The WM Review has to do, then we will do it.
This too will take time and resources to achieve – so please consider giving generously.
Thanks again!
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Monthly Gifts
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