Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1295

Took a walk, cooled off, said the Rosary

...was reminded of Mark 11:25: "And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."

So: I hereby forgive John Corapi for abandoning his vows. I am a sinner no less than he and we both need Christ's mercy. I likewise ask your forgiveness for losing my temper with him or (if you shared my anger) for encouraging that anger in you. If I wounded you with my temper, please forgive me. If you shared my anger, please forgive me for me for encouraging it. Mea culpa.

Corapi sets world record...

for most passive-aggressive manipulative self-aggrandizement ever squeezed into 8 and a half minutes:



Sorry, but that's it. That was worse then Nixon's Checkers speech. I'm done extending the guy the benefit of the doubt. He protests his innocence, slimes his accuser and investigators, urges you to buy his stuff in celebration of his 20th Anniversary as a priest, while simultaneously abandoning his fatherly vows on Father's day , covering himself in self-pity for his choice and ditching all the people who trusted him, all apparently to transmogrify himself into some sort of Talk Radio/Internet superhero called "The Black Sheepdog" so he can reincorporate, start bringing in the bucks again, and convince the suckers who follow him into his new incarnation as guru to blame the Church for his troubles.

I predict a mob of pitchfork wavers fanning out across the internet to yell at the woman (about whom they know nothing except what The Black Sheepdog has told them to think) and the bishops and investigators. I wonder how many will stick with this guy? He just lost me.

Prayer Requests

A reader writes:

I have to trouble you and your readers with another prayer request, this one for my family. We are going through an extraordinarily difficult time now - financially, emotionally, and spiritually. My parents are barely speaking to each other; their marriage is in a very bad state. Our house is literally falling apart and the money is not there to fix it. My siblings and I (all in our late teens/early 20s) are trying to cope with our own issues - college, relationships, jobs, money - in addition to all of this, and it's just so hard. I know things could be worse, and I know many are suffering far more than we are, but I feel like our family is slowly disintegrating. It breaks my heart, and I don't know what to do any more.

I'm sure Jesus, the Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, and St. Jude are all a bit tired of hearing from me, so I'm hoping that you and some other kind folks out there could add their voices to the chorus. May God bless you and your readers. Thank you.

Father, hear our prayer for healing in this family through Jesus Christ. Grant them your actual graces, both internal and external, so that they can find life in you and give glory to your Name. Help them hear the fresh word of God and obey it and find hope. Mother Mary, St. Joseph and St. Jude, pray for them!

Can't Let the Sun Set without Saying....

Gawrsh! Thanks Pat! Bloggerdom is a swimming pool of infinite size, so I'm glad you jumped in and made a splash! Keep up the good work!

I owe it all to Amy Welborn, Eve Tushnet and Kathy Shaidle, who inspired me to jump into the pool in 2002! Thanks, ladies!

Good for Cardinal Burke!

In which Cardinal Burke wisely backs away from speaking for some group in England, and the group promptly illustrates why he was wise to do so.

Obama! Five wars...

and counting!

"The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." - Senator Barack Obama, 2007

Meanwhile, the Guardian suggests they rescind Obama's transparency award. You remember: the one they gave him in secret?

The Great Thing About Being Catholic...

... is that you can simultaneously be Nazi and a Communist.

Over on the Left, you have Progressive nutjobs denouncing Benedict as a closet standard bearer for the Third Reich while in Minnesota, some GOP fool bucking for a promotion from the Right Wing Noise Machine hears the Pavlovian stimuli "social justice" and "common good" and (as he was taught to do by Glenn Beck, perhaps the greatest genius of our age), promptly starts barking about the Komminiss' under the episcopal mitre. As a reader writes:

MN State Senator David Hann (R-Eden Prairie) accused Archbishop Nienstedt of supporting "socialist fiction", in a letter Nienstedt wrote to Governor Mark Dayton (DFL), and posted both Nienstedt's letter to Dayton and his letter to Nienstedt responding to Nienstedt's letter to Dayton on his Twitter account on June 13.
Nienstedt's letter and Hann's response to it are included at the bottom of the MPR article as well.

Senator Hann has supported pro-life legislation and stood for traditional marriage, and I agree with R.R. Reno that the crisis in our culture is rooted in morality. And, there can be legitimate disagreement on budgeting matters, but to launch unfounded ad hominem attacks on Archbishop Nienstedt is uncalled for. Archbishop Nienstedt was merely articulating and drawing on Catholic teachings in his remarks, just as he did in his column on budgeting in the Catholic Spirit,which lays out principles of Catholic social teaching that should guide the budgeting process.

My reader forgets that in the world of the Thing that Used to be Conservatism as it exists today, opposition to abortion takes away the sin of the world. A Republican is free to slander somebody as a Marxist for the sin of talking about the common good and solidarity (hey! Wudn't that word used by somebody in one of them Komminiss countries?) just so long as he wears those Precious Feet. When you are dealing with the perfidious Nazi Communist bishops and their insidious notions of the common good, you must fight by any means necessary. It's only dissent when a Lefty dissents on the condom he keeps in his front pocket, not when a "conservative" rides roughshod over even the most basic principles of Catholic teaching about the wallet in his back pocket. Just spit on it as socialism and wealth redistribution and don't give it another thought.

Prayer request

A reader writes:

I don't know if you knew Fr.John Randall, pastor emeritus of St.Charles Borromeo , Providence,RI. He's gone to be with Christ .He was a leading figure in the Charismatic renewal. Mostly,though,he was a faithful servant of Christ,an authentic human being,a priest who loved being a priest. I've known him almost all of my life,and it seems odd to picture a world with him no longer in it,even though I haven't seen him in a while. But anyway,I thought you may have come to St.Charles once a while ago; I could be wrong. I thought I'd let you know,in any case.

I never knew him, but may his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death! We ask all this through Christ our Lord! Amen!

Memo to Luke the Nordic Giant

...who is studying animation and rocking the house with his digital sculpting skilz:

Dear Luke:

If you graduate and go on to make anything like this:



I will write you out of my will.

And have you killed just to make sure you die before me.

Then I will kill myself just to get that music out of my head.

Love you,

Dad

Please pray for Fr. Carmine Sacco

He hasn't been well and he had to have emergency gall bladder surgery.

Father, hear our prayer for the complete recovery of your servant through Christ our Lord! Amen!