Pius IX and Original Sin (1854) It was on this date, December 8, 1854 – that the same Pope Pius IX promulgated, in the bull Ineffabilis Deus, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Not to be confused with the "virgin birth" legend of Jesus, this equally absurd doctrine says that, at Mary's conception, she did […]

Church opposition to surgery, dissection and the study of anatomy slowed the development of medicine.

Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul Was Peter at Rome? It is on this day, June 29, that the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the feasts of Sts. Peter and Paul. According to tradition outside the church, and required by faith within the church, during the reign of Emperor Nero, Peter was arrested and executed […]

The bishops fiercely resisted for thirty years the grant of any national subsidy for education, and for forty further years obstructed the demand for a national system.

Andreas Vesalius died at age 49 in Zakinthos, Greece. He had reached Jerusalem, but never made it back home. You could say Vesalius died for the church that persecuted him.

What Pius IX condemned generally as "Liberalism" is today seen as general principles of modern civilization.