I actually meant to write this post a week or so ago, but with so many things going on, I’m only posting this now. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m attempting to ease myself out of the apologetics sphere a bit and try to look ahead, in part because there are plenty of good apologists out there.

You can add one more to that list because Scott Eric Alt, one of my favorite apologists (from even before WPI got started) has gotten back to blogging recently, after a year’s hiatus, and I encourage you to follow him and read his work. He’s been a defender of the office of the papacy generally and of Pope Francis  specifically.

He’s picked back up on a series on papal infallibility, which can serve as a good overview for understanding what the Church teaches. He also writes up primers on a variety of topics.

He also has a pretty good sense of humor and can write a biting commentary article, such as in a recent critique of a “Catholic Thing” article on Ultramontanism.

Excerpt:

I have very frequently been accused of being an Ultramontanist, for no other reason than that I defend the pope and believe the Holy Spirit safeguards the Church from ever teaching error. Thus whenever I see an article like this one, the first thing I do is check whether the author defines what an Ultramontanist is. Not everyone who uses the term does; it’s a disservice to the reader. Describe this bogeyman for me, so I’ll know him if he creeps out from under my bed at night, or pulls up beside me on the freeway to offer a ride. If an Ultramontanist knocks on my door and says he wants to cut my grass on the pretext that he’s doing a corporal work of mercy, I want to know that I’m being deceived by another one of these shiftless Catholics who are on the rise.

Fortunately, Fr. Kirby defines his terms. According to him, Ultramontanism

is the false belief that everything a pope says is without error. Everything a pope decides must be right. Everything a pope speaks or does is paramount and cannot be questioned. The shocking rhetoric of the ultramontanists is found in such slogans as, “If you don’t believe everything the pope teaches, then you’re not Catholic.”

The problem is, not only does this not describe me, it does not describe anyone I know or have read. And Fr. Kirby is no help in figuring out who these Ultramontanists are: You will read his article in vain to find the name of a single one. You will find no link to any article or book that advances the views he describes as Ultramontanist. I’ve seen pictures purporting to be Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster, but Fr. Kirby gives us no photograph of an Ultramontanist. He assures us they exist, but we have to take him at his word—ipse dixit, Pater locutus est.

Read it all.

Once again, the name is Scott Eric Alt, and the website is To Give a Defense.

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Mike Lewis

Mike Lewis is the founding managing editor of Where Peter Is. He and Jeannie Gaffigan co-host Field Hospital, a U.S. Catholic podcast.