Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1285

The Invaluable Tom Kreitzberg

...on standard tribalist hypocrisy in case of a fall:



Don't believe it? Just replace "Corapi" with, oh, say "Cutie" or "Fushek" or "Weakland"--or even "Sheehan" or "Mulvey". Or if you are Michael Voris and lack the stones to name names, just wave your hand and refer vaguely to some gay liberal conspirators somewhere.  One doesn't see the tribalists who are "storming heaven" for Corapi likewise twisting themselves into pretzels of compassionate credulity for these perceived enemies of the tribe.  Instead, we see exhortations in the Black Sheepdog's comboxes to "defeat these evil men" (meaning his duly authorized superiors who are doing exactly what should be done when there are credible charges). 

How's about those so over-inclined to "storm heaven" on behalf of a crooked millionaire who has played you for a sucker consider storming heaven on behalf of his accuser, his superior, and his bishop?  Particularly if you spent anytime badmouthing them in blind obedience to your tribal allegiances?

Corapi digs in

His latest transmission to his fans consists of a couple of lawyerly worded denials about some of the SOLT charges, pregnant silences about the rest, and a big fat "non serviam" to his superiors.

Even a huge percentage of the "fans" in his comboxes are starting to get it and kissing this manipulative fraud goodbye, while the remainder are battening down on the now-sugarless Kool Aid and urging him to fight on against the shadowy forces of liberalism they imagine are the authors of this debacle. Fascinating and sad to watch the human mind and heart in the grip of rationalization.

I'd hoped he would man up, obey his superiors, and humble himself. Instead, he is choosing to drag this pathetic little Gotterdammerung out to the edge of boredom. By the time it's over we will all be so sick of it we'll want to hurl.

This is why forgiveness is like quitting smoking. You have to do it thousands of times, particularly when the person you are working to forgive keeps doing something new every couple of days to remind you that he refuses to acknowledge he needs any forgiveness.

Thanks a lot, Nancy Grace

The Jackal Goddess and her ravening mob of Inquisitors and pitchfork wavers continue to screw up our culture. That this hoyden is regarded as "entertainment" is as black an indictment of our tattered civilization as you could ask for.

That's about right

I totally have not followed the Casey Anthony saga, but I do think that Limbaugh is right about the reactions of the media: if she'd done it all pre-natally, she'd be a hero to the press.

The coverage is all about selling beer and shampoo.

Right now, she's OJ. Someday, she will be a hero and poster girl for the people who think Peter Singer is a genius.

Of possible interest ...

...to watchers of the East-West dialogue on unity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches:

A new translation of the French 1997 Letter from Cardinals Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), Silvestrini and Cassidy to Melkite Greek Patriarchate with considerations on the Zoghby Initiative.

A reader notes...

that despite the reputation of people who use mass media for evangelization there are some positive examples too:

One of them is Fred Rogers, whom I had heard of as a children's program host, but found out more about in depth when I encountered a couple of articles about him on-line.

It made me sad to only really find out about Mr. Rogers so late, eight years after he died. He was far more than the lead character in a children's program. He actually was kind of a Presbyterian staretz (note that both words mean 'elder' - one in Greek, one in Russian).

The other is Fr. Robert Barron, with his Word on Fire gig. Don't need to tell you about him - Daniel Nichols linked to him regarding O.B.L.

These two men are quite different. They have very different audiences (mostly little children for Mr. Rogers and self-identified adult Catholics for Fr. Barron), but I find they have in common a calm confidence and simplicity, and exemplify the true voice of reason, reason which is inseparable from love. Listening to them is balm. Note even the simple, restful set-up of their shows - a low-tech set with cardigan and tie for Mr. Rogers; plain clerical attire and a book-case backdrop for Fr. Barron.

I have great admiration for both of these men.

Praise Report

The Arpins, whose children were in a serious accident recently and for whom you prayed, write:

Praised be Jesus Christ! Praise Him forever!
Dear friends,
We want to express our deepest gratitude to all of you for your loving support, prayers and generosity during this difficult time.You have prayed for us, visited us , clothed us, ministered to us.....Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
First of all the best news. Jacob is finally home! He was able to come home last night after considerable negotiation by Maureen because of his rising anxiety level, so now we have everybody together. He still needs lots of care, as his gut "wakes up" and has about 6 weeks of recovery from the surgery and the pelvic and tail bone fractures. We are grateful for the care of the medics, staff at Overlake and Harborview for the care all our kids and Cole received was nothing short of amazing. What a blessing to have this level of trauma care when you really need it close by . A special tip of the hat to all you wonderful RN's and doctors,and medics out there, you are angels!
We would like you to hear from the horses mouth the short version details of the accident just to put to rest the rumors we have heard regarding what happened: Andrew was heading home from soccer in Fall city , heading west on Redmond /Fall city road. A car heading eastbound was attempting to pass and had moved over into Andrew's lane, thus giving him two options, a head on collision or to veer off the road to the ditch. We are all very grateful that Andrew [through I'm sure the inspiration of his guardian angel ] chose the ditch. In short , he is our hero and the police and medics told him the same .The car was going the speed limit as it was set on cruise control and everyone was wearing a seatbelt.
Andrew sustained multiple fractures around his eyes and will be evaluated by a surgeon today. He also has stitches on his knee- he has to pray standing up for a while :-). Stephen suffered a laceration (or a "ding", to use the surgeon's technical jargon) on his kidney. Thankfully he did not require surgery, though it was touch and go for a couple days watching for any other internal damage to show up.He will be off any physical activity for 12 weeks Michaela has a couple of compression fractures in her spine, a fractured wrist and bruised ribs. She wears a back brace most of the time. Cole suffered a broken pelvis and lots of internal and external bumps and bruises. Everybody has a good 6 weeks of gradual recovery from all the injuries and have quite a bit of pain to deal with, but considering what it could have been , we are so grateful. As difficult as all of this may seem, both the Arpin and Schneider families are feeling very blessed to have all our children still with us and all moving toward complete recoveries. Given the severity of the impact and the damage the vehicle sustained, we believe we have seen a miracle of God's protection of our kids.Maureen and I have never experienced God's love and mercy more profoundly than through this time. Our God is an awesome God and we are so thankful.
So back to the THANK YOUs. Through this whole time we have been so blessed by such an outpouring of love from so many people, some of whom we have never even met. So many have stepped forward to provide meals, cards and letters of support, running errands and helping with everyday housecleaning, gifts for our kids and tremendous spiritual support. For all of our dear friends who kept vigil with each of our kids as Alan stayed at Overlake with Michaela and I ran from kid to kid at different parts of Harborview. The Staff at Harborview asked several times "just how big is this family of yours?" My quick response was , "just as big as the Catholic church." It was an amazing outpouring and example of the community of the body of Christ that we are so honored to be a part of. And quite a witness to the people at Harborview.
We have received so many Mass cards and have been told of Masses being offered all over, including in Rome. The online prayer vigil that was set up for our family, The Rosary vigils offered at Holy Family and St. Monica's were so appreciated and We continue to use the rosary meditations of the healing miracles of Our Lord that was put together by the angels at Holy Family parish in our family rosary.Thank you all so much.
A very special thank you to all the priests who came to the hospital to annoint and pray over the kids, and bring us Holy Communion; Fr. Rob of the Harborview chaplaincy staff, Fr. Raphael Mary, Fr. Jordan and Fr. Boniface from Blessed Sacrament and the Newman Center, Fr. Joseph and Deacon MIchael, from St. John Chrysostom, Fr. Nagel and Fr. Steve Szeman from Holy Family in KIrkland, Fr. Frank Schuster from Blessed Teresa, Fr. Dave Rogerson from St. Jude's and Fr. Ed White from St. Stephen's in Renton. Also, our favorite seminarian and former youth leader at Holy Family ,Cody Ross who was there to really help the older boys with their emotional healing......
So we thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and we humbly ask for your continued prayers for all of the children. We offer our prayers of thanksgiving for the amazing , faith filled people Our Lord has placed in our lives. May God bless you all a hundredfold.
With all of our love and thanks through the prayer of our Holy Mother,
Alan and Maureen and all the Arpins

Thanks and praise be to God our Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Thanks for your prayers, folks!

This is pretty cool!

Brandon Vogt's The Church and the New Media is coming out next month. Here's the cool new book trailer from OSV:



Yr. Obdt. Svt. contributed an essay, along with a bunch of much better writers whose collective efforts toward Increasing the Awesome of the book manage to Decrease the Suck of my particular contribution.

Check it out the moment it hits the bookstores!

O Washington My Home!

While the rest of you live in someplace normal, I live in the state where a coalition of homosexuals writes a letter rebuking the Republicans for criticizing a Democrat for not being enthusiastic enough for the Love that Dare not Speak Its Name. Meanwhile, our Republican Gov candidate (a Catholic, naturalische) is a gung ho pro-abort.

Makes your head spin. Washington Republicanism: coming soon to a country near you.[image error]

Your Chance to Do a Work of Mercy!

Dear Friends and Family,

Bryan and I want to give you an update on our fundraiser for Joshua for his camp.  Right now, we have been blessed with a total of $1875 in donations, including checks that have been sent in, 89% of our goal.  We only need $225 more to raise by Thursday, July 14th.  I need to pay Friday, July 15th, before camp starts on the 18th.  Here is the link for our blog which has the site for which you can get the latest on the ChipIn numbers:  www.raisingautisticchildren.com. 

Joshua will benefit so much from this DIR/Floortime camp as it will help him be more socially connected and aware.  I was playing "Steamroller" with him the other night, utilizing Floortime principals and he really responds well to this type of natural interaction.  It is a lot of fun and I get a bit of a workout at the same time!  This is important as I need to be in tip top shape with this guy.  If you care to learn more about DIR/Floortime, here are some youtube videos with Dr. Stanley Greenspan one of the developers:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXGh9bT0Sw.

If you have followed us in our blog, Journey with Joshua, (www.raisingautisticchildren.com), you will read about Joshua escaping from our fenced yard on Friday, June 17th.  One of our neighbors, who was just driving home, caught him when I was alerted by a kind lady who ran into our driveway.  Apparently he was found across the busy street, down by the skate park near our house, walking home.  We were all so relieved he was safe.  I didn't know how he escaped as I was in the kitchen, facing the driveway, making dinner, and he had been in the back yard.  I had alerted all the neighbors that Josh was autistic and if he ever escaped to grab him, which is what happened.  Well, apparently, one of the neighbors called me into CPS as I got a notice from them this past week.  The good news is that CPS determined that the information in the report was considered low risk, so they didn't contact me.  Instead, they had a Public Health Nurse contact me, through Early Family Support Services.  I spoke with the nurse and in order to have a rebuttal in "my new CPS file" she had to come out and complete an assessment for our family.  The determination is, basically, to fix the gate and fence, where he may have gotten out and the landlord took care of that this past weekend, thankfully, at no cost to us!

We appreciate you all, so much, for walking alongside us on this journey.  It isn't easy and some days are more challenging than others, but we do see progress and are hopeful he will continue to improve.  This camp is one of the building blocks to achieving that goal and we are so grateful for everyone's support, not only the prayers and donations, but the  encouragement and resources that are shared.  There is so much to learn on this path.  No one really knows the cause of autism, and there are many treatments that help.  We are hopeful that we can get him as healthy as possible and help him discover his gifts to contribute to this world of ours, for God's glory and our good.

--
Blessings,
Sheila Hughes
www.raisingautisticchildren.com

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