Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1268

Dutch Pioneer Religious Methadone Treatment

Religion for people who don't want to actually believe anything, or change their lives, or do anything, or even have to trouble themselves with hope. It sounds like hell to me. Reminds me of the apostate priest in That Hideous Strength.

Whenever the religion of antichrist appears, ruthlessly crushing all hope in the supernatural love of God and sealing us hermetically in a joyless world of dog eat dog ending in death, you can be certain that the press will call that "Free thinking".

Monstrous

Chinese pills made from Chinese babies.

Of course, Gizmodo also has four stories on Embryonic Stem Cell Research which warmly approve of cannibalism just so long as it is not done orally.

In other words, the horror about the Chinese pills is aesthetic, not moral. Just so long as you are not using the Dahmer Oral Method of Tissue Harvesting, it's okay.

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

I have been studying Catholicism for four years and almost was confirmed on Pentecost but got cold feet, because I am unbelievably terrified. I was raised Baptist, converted to Anglicanism, and received a Bachelors in Theology last year from a Protestant college. Since work as a theologian with just a Bachelors degree is pretty much nonexistent, I now work as a florist. I'm terrified of telling my boss to change my hours on Sundays so that I can attend Confirmation classes, I'm terrified of telling my Anglican friends, I'm terrified I might be wrong, and I'm terrified of going through with it and having my Anglican husband feel like there's a great divide between us. I know that part of this sounds silly ("Um, why can't you tell your boss?"), but it's a crippling fear that constricts my throat, makes my heart race and makes my palms sweaty. Spiritual warfare? Possibly. As the quintessential coward, I've gone to St. Perpetua repeatedly asking for a dose of saintlike bravery. I'm slated to begin Confirmation classes on September 4th and be confirmed on Christ the King Sunday. Please pray I don't get cold feet....again.

Father, we ask that you would give your servant supernatural peace, light, guidance and courage--the actual graces necessary, both internal and external, to follow where Jesus Christ leads her, confident that you who began a good work in her will carry it through to completion in Christ Jesus. Mother Mary and St. Perpetua, hear our prayers for this woman that her needs will be miraculously supplied as she seeks to obey Jesus Christ. We ask all this through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Praise Report and Prayer Request

A reader writes:

I wanted to follow up on my prayer request back in late June, as I underwent the back surgery a week ago today. Through the grace of God the surgery went extremely well and recovery, although admittedly difficult and painful, is going smoothly. Thanks be to God! And I am getting better every day. I wanted to thank you and all of your readers who so kindly sent up their prayers. Additional prayers would always be greatly appreciated that recovery continues to go well and that I will soon be pain-free in my lower back. :)

Father, thank you for help this person to heal and for taking away their pain. We ask that you would finish the job and bless them with complete health of body, soul and spirit through Christ our Lord. Amen! Mother Mary, pray for them!

It'ssss Our Birthhhhhhday

and we are celebrating it, precious!

I am celebrating it by going down to Tacoma and teaching a class on the Creed for the Archdiocese of Seattle. Because of that, I will be gone today and will see you on Monday!

Many thanks to the huge number of kind folk who have sent me birthday greetings!

After a day like today in US Financial History...

...the Onion is the only really sound source of news: Drunken Ben Bernanke Tells Everyone At Neighborhood Bar How Screwed U.S. Economy Really Is

We can all take comfort in the fact that our lawmakers and men like Bernanke will be untouched by harm.

A reader writes

I'm in kind of a desperate situation in that I, like so many people, am jobless and losing my mind. I tend to struggle with despair and anger anyhow, but being unemployed and now completely out of resources I am starting to give into that darkness. Trying to keep that at bay with prayer and Mass, but it is a struggle. I've spent so much time and energy into school and now it seems rather bleak out there. More than prayers to find a job, I really need some prayer to keep some hope up as I'm sure many out there do.

Father, hear our prayer and grant your son a job swiftly so that he may work to the glory of your Name. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Mother Mary and St. Joseph the Worker, pray for him!

The Reign of Homely Male Catholic Apologists is Ended!

Catholic Answers hires Leah Darrow.

Added bonus: she's actually related to Clarence Darrow.

That reminds me. An odd little meme that has been popping up in comboxes lately is the curious conceit that there is an elite super-squad of "Evangelical convert apologists" (your Obdt Svt finds himself numbered among them) who are jealously protective of their alleged elite super-squad status. Because of this (I am informed by readers who can read souls by their mystic arts), we members of the Justice League of Super Evangelical Apologists (it's not clear who these are) feel "threatened" when somebody who is not of the elite super squad "does apologetics".

It's a really odd meme. Particularly since people like Karl Keating and Patrick Madrid appear to be part of the Justice League of Evangelical Convert Apologists without ever having been, you know, Evangelical Converts. Indeed, I actually have no idea who this elite cabal is, nor how one becomes a member, nor how people are excluded from membership, nor who the outsiders are who must be excluded, nor why. Nor do I grasp how some stranger defending the Catholic faith should constitute a "threat" to me or any other member of the apocryphal Justice League. Seems to me that a Catholic who wants to defend the Church's teaching from attacks should be welcomed and encouraged, since many hands make light work. So, for instance, I take nothing but delight in the occasional forays John C. Wright makes into the arcane world of apologetics to the skiffy/fantasy community. I enjoy learning from Dale Ahlquist insightful commentary. I love that there has emerged a whole passel of blogs and websites devoted to explaining the faith to our fragmented culture.

Of course, all this presupposes that the apologist is actually doing apologetics and defending the Church from actual attackers or explaining it to reasonable inquirers. If the apologist is "defending the Church" from faithful Catholics who are obedient to Holy Church as though *they* are attackers, or "defending the Faith" from the idea that bishops are the proper legislators of the Faith, or defending a priest who spits on his vows by joining in and slandering that priest's bishop as somehow serving a shadowy gay cabal, then yeah, I do object to that since it is very very bad apologetics.

But good apologetics? The more the merrier! For my actual views on the apologetics subculture (including, surprise!, the fact that I don't consider myself an apologist much less part of some Justice League of Apologists) go here.

People really need to realize that the Internet creates an illusion of community that is false. I remember several years ago, when people kept writing me asking "Where is Amy Welborn?" when she went on vacation or something. As though because we referenced each other's blogs now and then, I was at her house every Friday night, knocking back brewskis and planning next week's blogging campaign and intimately familiar with her daily movements. Now the Justice League fantasizers are doing the same thing with me and Jimmy Akin and whoever else they imagine belongs to the elite cabal.

Bulletin: Jimmy's in San Diego. I'm in Seattle. Seattle is way far away from pretty much everywhere else in the US. I don't talk with Jimmy too often. I see Steve Ray every couple of years. Dittos with Scott Hahn. I had dinner with Karl over two years ago. I once sat in airport in Podunk Michigan with Fr. Mitch Pacwa. Tim Staples is a nice guy and we have chatted a couple of times a few years ago on a CA cruise. Pat Madrid cracks me up but we seldom have a chance to chat. I'm not sure if I was ever introduced to Ros Moss. Kris Franklin is terrific, but we hardly ever see each other. Beyond that, I'm not quite sure who might be a candidate for Justice League membership in the minds of readers afflicted with this meme. I think Brandon Vogt is a great guy (though we haven't met). There are lots of blogs out there doing great work, such as Eric Sammons, the Catholic Phoenix and others. I don't see why on earth any of them, or any new up and comers, should "threaten" me or anybody else.

Hey Western Washington! Dominican Rite Mass!

I am reliably informed by certain readers that I hate, hate, hate Traditional liturgies. This being the case, I am not posting this:



Blessed Sacrament parish, Seattle, WA! Be there! Aloha! (Click on the banner for contact info.)

This is good news!

Evangelization School Equips Students to be a Light on Campus