Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1244

The Sacred Page Radio Show with Michael Barber

has undergone a metamorphosis and is now the Sacred Page Podcast with Michael Barber. Check thou it out! Guys like Barber, Brant Pitre, Tim Gray and Ted Sri are part of a new breed of biblical theologians in the Ratzinger mold who are pouring fresh, fascinating and completely faithful life into Catholic biblical studies.

Bp. Cupich issues clarification that does not clarify

Sorry, but this does not help much:

When visiting with the presbyterate, the Bishop asked the priests to approach respect life issues as teachers, for that is what they are. Teachers create new openings for learning and reduce obstacles. Their intense passion to share the truth leads them to greater patience and prudence and not frustration with and disdain for students who fail to respond appropriately. Their witness to the faith through teaching becomes all the more powerful when the presbyterate works together in unity and solidarity. …

As for the specific question of the priests' participation in the 40 Days for Life vigils, the Bishop recognizes that a given priest in good conscience may feel the need to participate in the vigils and he should never be forced to go against a good and informed conscience. The Bishop only asked that all priests prayerfully reflect on what he has told them, commit themselves to making teaching effectively their first priority and keep in mind the irreplaceable power of the witness of their unity with each other.

Forgive me, but this sounds an awful lot like, "If a priest really thinks he *has* to then he can do 40 Days for Life, I suppose. Though I don't like it and will be taking notice of those who do, since they are causing disunity with those who don't participate." It looks just like making an appearance of backing down under public outrage and scrutiny, while still trying to throw a spanner in the works of support for 40 Days for Life and sending a clear message to priests to knuckle under, or else.

John Weingarten of Spokane 40 DFL notices the same thing, and the response he gets back from the diocese is not one that goes down in history as a ringing endorsement of 40 DFL.

"We need a clear statement from [Bishop Cupich] that priests and seminarians are free to pray at abortion facilities at any time without being disobedient and there will be no repercussions," Weingarten said. "If he told them they are not to be at these places, but then says they may follow their well-formed consciences, they would be scared to pray at Planned Parenthood."

A clarifying email from the Diocese of Spokane's director of communications stated that yes, priests in Spokane may in good conscience participate in 40 Days for Life vigils without being considered disobedient to their ordinary.

Wow. If priests support 40 DFL (which is endorsed by the USCCB) they are not "considered disobedient to their ordinary". Feel the enthusiasm!

Meanwhile, left unaddressed by all these reluctant "clarifications" is this point from a reader in the combox:

In Spokane, there was a group of Seminiarians that led a group of Gonzaga University students parying outside of Planned Parenthood for years. The seminarians are now forbidden from doing this. Notice the clarification does not mention seminarians at all. The priests were told in person at a meeting to not pariticipate "in or out of clerics". Regardless of what this clarification says we will be able to judge the bishop's actual communicated attitude towards priests' participation by what they will now they do. Priests used to pray outside Planned Parenthood. After this I really doubt a single one will.

I remain mystified by Bp. Cupich's behavior. What is wrong with 40 DFL? I wish to add my name to this petition urging him to rethink this inexplicable attitude toward this fine organization and to *support* (not merely reluctantly and coldly tolerate) priests *and* seminarians as they bear public witness to life. I urge you to do so as well.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

Please ask your kind readers to pray for little Sammy. 2 1/2 years old, desparately sick from e-coli. He is in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. Needs a miracle. Thanks.

Father, hear our prayer that Sammy be completely healed in body, mind, soul, and spirit. Grant skill and compassion to his caregivers and grace, peace, strength and consolation to all who love him. We ask all this through Christ our Lord, to the glory of your Name. Mother Mary and St. Luke, pray for him and his family.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

If you could include my family in your prayer requests, I would be grateful. We've suffered for two-and-half years from what the government likes to call "underemployment," and we have finally reached our limits. We've made a payment on our mortgage every month, but it hasn't been enough and the house is teetering on the edge of foreclosure. Other financial problems are coming at us full speed. We pay for our own health insurance, and cannot do without it due to medication costs and various health problems. We need paying work and some way to recover from our ruined finances. Please deploy the mighty mighty powers of the CAEI readership to pray for my wife and me to find work and get out from under these crushing debts.

Father, we ask in the name of your Son Jesus Christ that you would swiftly send a good-paying job to your servant so that they can do good work and pay off their debts and rebuild his finances for the sake of their family and your poor. We also ask that you would turn the hearts of those to whom he owes money so that they will be merciful. Give grace, peace, and consolation to your servant in this trial and help him and his family trust in you. Do all this for the glory of your Name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Mother Mary and St. Joseph, pray for this struggling family. Amen!

Day 2 of the Tin Cup Rattle

This is one of the moments where I ask for some small remuneration for my efforts to provide you with the sort of Catholic content, newsiness, fun, and so forth that is this blog. We Sheas live in narrow financial straits. For those who have joined the blog since last quarter, I am a writer (and sole breadwinner) trying to keep two and a half boys (or two boys and one large male who is about to leave the nest) on a steady income of what I can earn from writing and speaking (without dental or health insurance), plus what I can make from donations here. My wife is the chief homeschooler and bottle washer of this here enterprise, as well as a human dynamo in a dozen other tasks.

This month, like all months, is tight (and we live *very* frugally). So, I'm here to say that I hope you'll agree the worker is worth his keep. So I'm askin' ya, if everybody who has gotten something good from this blog will kick in some bucks on the PayPal button on the left rail below my picture. I'm not shy, be as generous as you can. You'd be supporting what I think is an eminently worthy cause and saving our financial bacon as we struggle through another month. If you like what you get here, then please be as generous as you can and help out with the care and feeding of a unique news, opinion, and information source that you just can't find anyplace else. Thanks!

Oh, and remember, you can buy my books and tapes! And if you'd don't trust PayPal (though they are extremely reliable), feel free to email me and ask for my snailmail address. I'll happily take a check instead.

Also, has it not occurred to you how badly you need me to come and speak for your parish, conference or organization? Oh yes! Badly indeed do you need me!

And, if you are an editor, you need me to write for you. It's critical. Your mag will just wither away and die without my prose. As for my poetry, I happen to have the distinction of having prompted the only letter of complaint ever sent to First Things about the poetry they publish. Fear me, or I will publish my poetry here!

Thoughts on Fr. Pavone

Combox Warriors are applying all their ingenuity to smoking out the *real* reason that the Bp. of Amarillo has asked Fr. Pavone to curtail his fundraising and travel and take some time for prayer and reflection. It is not, of course, because it's possible the bishop actually thinks that Fr. Pavone has let social activism has taken priority over his priesthood and he needs to dial back and take a look at his priorities. No. That's far too reasonable. Ed Peters is barking nuts (or a covert enemy of the prolife movement who thirsts for the blood of babies) to say:

This petulant 'tweet' from Fr. Pavone confirms, I suggest, the concerns many have expressed regarding the adversative stance that Pavone is publicly showing toward lawful ecclesiastical authority. I'll just say (at the risk of pointing out the obvious) that Congress' interpretation of the rules of military conduct as they apply to soldiers under heavy enemy fire sheds little light on the degree of compliance expected of diocesan priests when they receive lawful episcopal directives.

No. Here's the *real* lowdown from a combox whose mystic arts enable him to read hearts and minds, as distinct from words:

I suspect that this is politically driven--any pro-life cause is an embarrassment to the president--and many bishops support his immigration policies. In fact, I think this is an attempt to discredit pro-life priests to further the cause of illegal immigration.

Yeah. That's it. The nefarious Obama, in league with a shadowy cabal of bishops is working behind the scenes with Bp. Zurek to enact illegal immigration policies and Fr. Pavone is, um, standing in the way of that by, er, doing something or other that threatens illegal immigration.

Anyway, it's a plot. It's all a plot and Bp. Zurek is evil because paranoids know that everything is a plot and reasonable explanations for things are never sufficient particularly when it involves a favorite folk hero.

Me: I think Fr. Pavone is one of those full throttle dedicated Type A guys who has poured heart and soul into his great and worthy project with every good will and all sincerity and is now faced with the possibility that he has created an idol when he set out to do a good work. I can empathize, but I think the bishop is right that he needs to dial back and trust God to carry on the fight while he rethinks his priorities. I pray he can pass this hard test. People like Steve Kellmeyer who are treating Fr. Pavone with contempt over this are being cruel and heartless, I think. (Kellmeyer: "I firmly believe Fr. Pavone is money grubbing worm.") That is stunningly ungrateful for Fr. Pavone's long years of sincere service (years in sharp contrast to the BS Dawg's years of self-aggrandizing lies and fraud). God help such nasty folk as Kellmeyer when they need a little sympathy and support at the hour they have to die to something beautiful, good, and precious as a sacrifice to God. May God grant Kellmeyer a heart capable of feeling pity for somebody besides himself. Fr. Pavone's in a real struggle to do something that is not done in a moment and seldom done perfectly by any of us. Fr. Pavone has, albeit reluctantly and imperfectly, obeyed his bishop thus far while watching in fear as a genuinely good work he has labored to build for years is threatened with disaster. I give him serious points for that obedience in the face of such fear. At this stage, the BS Dawg was ditching his vows and spitting on his ordination with a "20th Anniversary of My Priesthood Fire Sale" trying to sell as much junk as he could to as many suckers as possible before attempting to re-invent himself as a Protestant Pastor for the Talk Radio Right, all while slandering his bishop as a blackmailer.

I think that contrast is pretty stark. Fr. Corapi is a bad man in crisis and looking out for Numero Uno, even if it means betraying his vows, his flock, and his God. Fr. Pavone is a good man in crisis and trying, with stumbling steps like the rest of us, to be faithful in difficult circumstances. Right now, he sound for all the world like somebody going through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance--the five stages of dying. You try to do it gracefully and see how you do. Give him credit for that and be grateful for his hard work. Don't bayonet him for failing to be perfect.

So, I continue to pray for Fr. Pavone and Bp. Zurek, good men in a hard trial. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpeneth another. - Proverbs 27:17

On the Universal Destination of Goods

a niftily providential follow-up to my Register piece of yesterday from reader Jason Hall.

Prayer Request

I had asked your readers, in the past, to pray for me to find a job. God came through and answered those prayers spectacularly. However, I now pray that your readers may ask God to make me good at my job. I am a lawyer, and I am terrible at it. I make tiny mistakes - clerical errors - spelling errors, etc, that just kill me. I don't know how this happens. I try to look over everything I do 2 to 3 times. But it happens all the time, and I just don't know what to do. I am so demoralized over it.

Please have your readers pray. I don't know what else to do.

Father, hear our prayer for your servant that he would be able to catch those little mistakes and correct them, and that he would have peace through Christ our Lord. Mother Mary, pray for him. Amen.

Michael Flynn...

on SCIENCE![TM]

The God King Spits on Religious Liberty

"Indeed, the Administration takes a position more hostile to religious freedom than the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State..."

Look the the EEOC wants to reignite the Investiture Controversy or something.  The Lord thy President is a jealous god.