Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1252

American Needs Fatima writes

The latest blow to the Catholic identity of Catholic education comes from the Jesuit Seattle University School of Law, where a professional assisted-suicide lobbyist teaches a course called "Law, Medicine, and Ethics at the End of Life."


  Katherine Tudor adjunct professor of law at Seattle University School of Law, does more than just teach.

  In fact, she works as a professional advocate for Compassion and Choices, formerly known as The Hemlock Society. The admitted mission of Compassion and Choices is to uphold the "right to seek aid in dying to avoid intolerable suffering."

  To give a platform to someone who openly opposes Church teaching flies in the face of Seattle University's Catholic identity and duty.

  In light of the recent United States Conference of Catholic Bishops document, "To Live Each Day With Dignity," this failure on the part of the university is even more blatant.

  The document states: "People who request death are vulnerable… To offer them lethal drugs is a victory not for freedom but for the worst form of neglect."

  Seattle University's decision to employ a person who openly opposes and professionally undermines Catholic teaching is a disgrace that cannot go unanswered.

  That's why I urge you to contact the university in peaceful protest.

Seattle University: The Jesuit's thumb in the eye of the Archdiocese of Seattle. These are the people, after all, who hired a Muslim-Episcopalian priestess to teach the New Testament.

I would sooner send my kids to Bob Jones University--where they at least know that their faith is regarded with contempt--than to Seattle U, where they might make the mistake of thinking they were going to a Catholic school.

Not good

The names and pictures of falsely accused priests are plastered on the Internet as "publicly accused" child molesters, even in cases where accusers have fully recanted their claims of abuse.

My Lord of the Rings

An artist stakes out his independent vision of LOTR and tries to shake off Jacksonian visual domination. Lovely stuff.

(Not that I'm not grateful for Jackson's fine adaptation, but it is nice to have some alternative mental grist.)

Have the films affected the way you read that novel?

In Memoriam

O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths
and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.
We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here —
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and
Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.

We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives
with courage and hope.

We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in
Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.
God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.

--Pope Benedict XVI
Prayer at Ground Zero
New York
20 April 2008

h/t: Rocco Palmo

Hey Chicago! I'm coming your way in early January!

So here's the deal: The Militia Immaculata folks at Marytown (that's in Libertyville) are having me out to do a retreat for them December 29-Jan 2. I'm thinking, "While I'm out there, maybe somebody else would like me to come speak for them?"

So I'm asking you: if you live in Chicago and would like me to come speak for you, let me know. I can stay till the 4th at Marytown. Take a look at the speaking topics here and let me know if there's some way I can be of service to your parish. You could split the cost of the airfare with the Militia Immaculate folks and save money too!

Hope we can work something out with a parish or two in the Chicago area!

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

There are perhaps too many of these stories to single out one in this way, yet for some reason this one of 3-year-old Kienan Hebert from Sparwood B.C. caught my attention.

One reason aside from all the usual ones makes prayer especially worthwhile: the man who is thought to be the abductor does not seem to have killed before. Perhaps he can be moved to mercy by prayer. So would you post this and ask your readers to pray for the child and for all abused children?

Father, hear our prayer for the safe return of this child and for the apprehension and redemption of the person responsible, through Christ our Lord. Grant your protection, healing, and safety of all abused children through the same Christ our Lord. Mother Mary, pray for us and for all children.

People of Earth!

Give me one milllllion dollars or I will continue to post this Lawrence Welk video everyday! Don't try to trace this blog post or figure out who I am. I mean business!

Sweet Music

Two videos from two different sources, demonstrating once again how the Internet is making possible the Chestertonian vision of ordinary people and small independent producers being able to create art without the interposing colossus of some parasitic corporation turning it all into prefab junk for mass consumption.





Small is beautiful.

The People's Democratic National Security State of Heaven...

taking that shiny tyrannical Executive Power that is supposed to protect us all from terrorists and--quelle surprise!--using it to beat up on peaceful pro-life protestors. Golly, who could possibly have foreseen that making a Faustian Bargain like that would lead to trouble for decent law-abiding citizens? Next thing you know, we'll find out that the state might decide to use torture and murder on its own citizens and not just on swarthy foreigners with funny names. We might even discover, to our amazement, that those who fought torture throughout the past decade had in mind, not a tender regard for coddling butchers and kissing them on the nose every night at bedtime, but this scene all along:

The New Civility

Video game lets you slaughter Tea Party Zombies.

The Lefty fascination with fantasizing about murder is a more or less constant current throughout its history. When you know what's best for people, you also know who needs killin'.