CCR Blog
Donald P. Goodman III
08 Nov 2025
Age
viriliter—act manfully, is the motto of the CCR for a very good reason. The roots
of this phrase go deep in the Sacred Scriptures, appearing
no less than eleven times, and ten of those in the
Old Testament. We go over all of these appearances,
discussing what they are referring to—including the one
which actually states that a woman has acted
manfully! We then discuss the uses of the word viriliter in a non-Christian context,
particularly in reference to Cicero, who used it in
reference to barbarians and how they were unable to act
manfully in the applicable sense. Finally, we go over St.
Thomas's application of the phrase to 1 Corinthians 13:7, on
acting in charity, and how this applies to our own
lives. The goal is always to show why the CCR chose this, among all the other
powerful phrases of Scripture and Tradition, for its motto,
and what lessons we should draw from it for our daily lives.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
27 Oct 2025
Latin is the
language of the Church, no matter how neglected it is
in these sad times; and even in its present state of
neglect, there is a decent among of Latin prose being
written. But Latin poetry and hymnody is still very sparse.
This little work is an attempt to contribute to rectifying
that situation. This is a hymn to Christ the King, written
in the rhythm and rhyme scheme of the legendary Dies
iræ. An informal English translation is offered
underneath it.
Like all translations, the English here is inexact; it is
necessary to refer to the Latin to get the true import of
the hymn. But it's possible to get pretty close,
especially with two languages from the same broad family
(western Indo-European), like Latin and English.
Furthermore, the translation is not in verse,
allowing us to mangle the rhythm at will to come closer to
the original's meaning. In this way, we have produced a
credible approximation.
Of course, if you read Latin, that's best; and by singing
or even merely saying the Latin, even if you don't
understand it, the aesthetics of the sound and rhythm are
still present.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
25 Oct 2025
The Novel Rite
puts the feast of Christ the King (renamed the feast of
Christ, “King of All Things”) on the last Sunday per annum, or what is rather
ridiculously translated as “Ordinary Time”. But this was an
innovation of 1970; originally the feast was on the last Sunday of October, as
placed there by the originator of the feast, Pope Pius XI.
Why didn't he pick the last Sunday of the liturgical year?
Let's have a look.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
18 Jul 2024
Fasting has
fallen out of fashion among Christians; indeed, we
have had the phenomenon of Catholics, even Catholic priests,
practicing fasting for Ramadan with no apparent awareness of
their own ancient practices! Furthermore, what very little
“fasting” we do retain is all too often so reduced in rigor
as to be practically nothing. However, the
tradition of fasting in Christianity goes back to the very
beginning, and was enjoined by Christ Himself. St. Paul
commanded it; the Church fathers commanded it; and the
CCR asks
all its members to fast at least once a week, on
Fridays. But why? And how in the world does fasting relate
to the service of the poor?
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
5 Jul 2024
Giving honor to
the Blessed Virgin Mary is controversial among
Protestant Christians (Catholics and even Orthodox have, of
course, always done it); this article does not attempt to
justify it exhaustively, though a little discussion of it is
unavoidable. More pertinently, though, the Confraternity of
Christ the King specifically honors the Blessed Virgin Mary
as Queen, just as it honors Christ as King. So
what is the justification for this? Why is Mary our
Queen? Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
18 Jun 2024
Why is the CCR producing new translations of
certain papal documents when translations are already
available at the Vatican website? How important are
accurate translations, and are the translations on the
Vatican website accurate and good? What about the quality
of the Latin texts that are posted there? All your
questions are answered, and a few concerning problems about
the available translation of Immortale Dei are identified.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
26 May 2024
When is the
feast of Christ the King? This should be a
relatively easy question to answer. Unfortunately, some bad
theology has made it much tougher than it has to be. The
short answer, though, is this: the feast of Christ the King
is the last Sunday of October. Let's explain.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
13 November 2023
Who is Christ
the King? This is not a superficial question. The
answer may seem obvious, but far too many Christians in our
day see Christ as merely a great teacher, or a wonderworker,
or a loving brother. He is, of course, all of those things;
indeed, the greatest possible of all of them. But who is
Christ the King?
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
19 May 2023
The Feast of
Christ the King is in one way the culmination of the
liturgical year, the summation and completion of all the
other mysteries we have celebrated. So what readings should
we have on that day? In the Traditional Rite, each year has
the same readings for each feast; in the Novel Rite, there
are three readings for any given day, depending on
whether we are in Year A, Year B, or Year C in the cycle.
To begin with, then, let's look at the traditional readings
for the feast, as well as the new readings for Year A, and
see what we can learn from them.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
19 May 2023
The Feast of
Christ the King is in one way the culmination of the
liturgical year, the summation and completion of all the
other mysteries we have celebrated. So what readings should
we have on that day? In the Traditional Rite, each year has
the same readings for each feast; in the Novel Rite, there
are three readings for any given day, depending on
whether we are in Year A, Year B, or Year C in the cycle.
To begin with, then, let's look at the traditional readings
for the feast, as well as the new readings for Year B, and
see what we can learn from them.
Read more
Donald P. Goodman III
19 May 2023
The Feast of
Christ the King is in one way the culmination of the
liturgical year, the summation and completion of all the
other mysteries we have celebrated. So what readings should
we have on that day? In the Traditional Rite, each year has
the same readings for each feast; in the Novel Rite, there
are three readings for any given day, depending on
whether we are in Year A, Year B, or Year C in the cycle.
To begin with, then, let's look at the traditional readings
for the feast, as well as the new readings for Year C, and
see what we can learn from them.
Read more
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