Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1335

This pretty much makes my point for me...

A reader writes:

I really canot see why you are so aggressive against Voris when you have far worse enemies to contend with like those fellows at the non catholic NCR.

I don't consider Voris or the average writer for the Reporter "enemies". I consider them members of the Catholic Church, brothers and sisters in Christ with whom I have sundry disagreements. My reader's choice to label them "enemies" illustrates everything I am trying to point out concerning the fleshly sin of sectarianism Voris (and, frankly, the Reporter) encourages and how poisonous it is.

Apparently, it has gone entirely unnoticed, but when I argue with a fellow Catholic, I am arguing against their ideas and actions. I think it is safe to say (when appropriate) that an idea or action is wrong (or, more typically, not fully right). But I have a decided scruple against saying that a brother or sister Catholic is "not really a Catholic" and talking as though somebody died and made me competent to excommunicate anybody.

That means that everybody I argue with--from torture defenders to pro-choice Catholics--is somebody I regard as a Catholic (assuming, of course, that they claim to be Catholic). They may be, as I think they sometimes are, Catholics in grave error. But they are Catholics nonetheless--sinners who are, like me the chief of sinners, stumbling along and seeking grace in our frequently stygian intellectual, spiritual, and moral darkness. If a bishop excommunicates somebody (that rare event) I will go with the mind of the Church. But I ain't excommunicating anybody. Still less am I inclined to regard anybody in the Church as my enemy (though I know there are numerous folk who regard me as theirs). I may tell somebody that they are Protestant *in their thinking*. But I will never tell somebody they ought to leave the Church for the same reason I won't tell a sick person to get out of the hospital. That's the bishop's job, not mine.

Bottom line: I draw a sharp distinction between saying an idea is unCatholic and declaring persons to be "not really Catholic". Why? Uncle Screwtape explains it all for you:

I have been writing hitherto on the assumption that the people in the next pew afford no rational ground for disappointment. Of course if they do—if the patient knows that the woman with the absurd hat is a fanatical bridge-player or the man with squeaky boots a miser and an extortioner—then your task is so much the easier. All you then have to do is to keep out of his mind the question "If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?" You may ask whether it is possible to keep such an obvious thought from occurring even to a human mind. It is, Wormwood, it is! Handle him properly and it simply won't come into his head. He has not been anything like long enough with the Enemy to have any real humility yet. What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favourable credit-balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these "smug", commonplace neighbours at all. Keep him in that state of mind as long as you can.

That's why I regard it as so sinister that Voris sends the message (and his followers in my comboxes receive it loud and clear) that the bulk of their fellow Catholics are, as my reader makes clear above, "enemies". I don't think we are called by Christ to regard the members of the Church, including "the bishops" (that indiscriminate faceless mass) as "enemies". I think we are called to regard our brother and sister Catholics as brother and sister Catholics, even when they read the Reporter and despise us, and even when they hold much of the Church's teaching in contempt. You pick your friends. You are stuck with your family. Doesn't mean you have to agree with them. (Indeed, one of the things I love about the freedom of the Catholic intellectual tradition is that you really can disagree strongly with fellow Catholics about all sorts of stuff.) It just means you face the fact that if Christ calls them his brothers and sisters in baptism, then they are your brother and sister too.

So, unless a Catholic is a) excommunicated or b) specifically declares that he no longer wishes to be considered a Catholic, I will assume he is one. He may be a very bad Catholic either morally, intellectually, or spiritually. But then so am I, so it would hardly do for me to show him the door unless I want to show myself the door at the same time, which I don't since I need Jesus. So I will content me with arguing with ideas and not kicking anybody out (as if I have any power or right to do that).

"Experimental Bombing"

David Warren on our latest stab at building the Great Society on barren Islamic soil.

Want to balance the budget? Bring our troops home from our Imperial Projects and nation-building-through-bombing experiments.

They're giddy in Conspiracyville Today!

JFK requested UFO files ten days before Dallas.

The implications are obvious. I don't think we need to muddy the waters with a lot of thought or reason.

From our Humor for Young Adolescents Dept.

Q: How do you make holy water?
A: Boil the hell out of it!

Ah me. I am so funny!

The great thing about having children is that you can dazzle a whole new generation with your utterly original wit! Currently, I am wowing Lucy with "peekaboo" and "Look! I made the penny disappear behind my back!"

I am a GENIUS!

A reader writes

I'm passing this along because you guys are either priests, deacons, and seminarians from California or the Northwest or you know such folk and can pass the word along. The Franciscan Summer Conferences held out here in Steubenville every summer have a special grant program to help cover the costs of any priests, deacons, or seminarians who want to attend any one of the conferences . Also, any priest who agrees to hear confessions while at a conference gets the registration fee waived . Married couples are also eligible for discounts, though not for the Northwest grant.

I'd recommend the St. John Bosco Religious Educators Conference, the Applied Biblical Studies Conference, or the Defending the Faith Conference for everyone who's not interested in being at the more Charismatic Catholic type conferences. If you're open to the experience, the other conferences are great as well whether or not you're charismatic (I have yet to speak in tongues or do anything along those lines--probably never will; I tend to be much more the middle of the road type Catholic--and I still found the experience of reporting on the conferences tremendously enriching).

For those of you who are scholars in some of the fields being covered--some of the conferences might just be tremendously refreshing anyway, even though there may be little to no new information. Treat it as a retreat, a chance to be with people in love with Jesus, excited about their faith, in love with the Church, and enthusiastic about spreading the word. The personal accounts of conversion and God's grace working in the world are hugely encouraging, and these are wonderful opportunities to network with people from all over the world engaged in the apostolate.

Also, I'd love to see folks from the Northwest out here over the summer! If anyone does come, be sure you or they try to say hi to me!

The form to apply for the grant is attached. More information for registration and info on the conferences is at the conference website.

Spread the word!

Now you know!

In the Country that Used to Be England...

the abortionocracy doesn't like daylight shining on what they do.

Luke the Nordic Giant sends this along

Thanks to Technology, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and Flautist/Astronaut Cady Coleman just recorded the first ever duet performed by two people who were not on the same planet at the time.

Doncha just love the human race?

Indeed! Very cool.

For all your spiritual conspiracy theory needs

A reader writes:

Here's a couple of out-there sister sites from The Vigilant Citizen, that Spirit Daily and other "vigilant" Catholic websites have linked to in the past.

http://secretarcana.com/

http://knowledgefiles.com/

Who has time to compile stuff like this? People who don't have families, homes and kids to take care of, I'm fairly certain.

Maybe, though paranoia is not confined only to the childless. However, I suspect you are right. The pressures of earning a living tend to force us toward certain behaviors and away from this time-wasting fretting over shadowy forces of evil. The irony is that Satan is quite as happy with those who neglect obedience to God in order to sup on the fear of devils as he is with those who dabble in the occult. In the end, it comes down to the same thing: prioritizing the amount of time you spend focusing on the devil over the amount you spend focusing on God. The point is to distract you from God. If that is accomplished by devil-fearing rather than devil-worshiping, Old Scratch doesn't care, just as long as it's not God-loving.

The Anchoress responds with fitting revulsion

...to the deeply sociopathic narcissism of Belgium's forcibly retired Bishop Roger Vangheluwe, who saw fit to display his radical narcissism in an interview recently where he described his creepy abuse of his own nephews in a way that made it clear he sees nothing particularly wrong. I'm glad he's been kicked down the stairs, but I hope they can actually find some way to punish him with jail too. His clear inability to grasp that he has done anything wrong seems to me to make him an ongoing danger.

She also has some choice words for the situation in Philly, which I confess I have not followed carefully due to crazy busyness. It's a bleak time when you have to console yourself that, "Well, at least it seem to be limited to Philadelphia this time and not be breaking out everywhere." Of course, then you have to wonder "Is that merely because they are lousy at coverup in Philly?" But I *think* things have improved. I recall some statistic recently that there were only a few reports of abuse last year and they were all dealt with swiftly, but I can't recall the details.

This is a job for Mike Flynn, Professional Statistician!

Data Point 1: 45% of US households pay no income tax.


Data Point 2: 5% of households paying no income tax think their taxes are too high.


Extra credit: According to these results from Pew Research...



...21% of self-identified atheists believe in God. Elsewhere in the poll, we discover that 12% of atheists believe in Heaven and 10% pray once a week (and that's pray, not meditate, by the way).

I think one preliminary conclusion we can reach is that the Triumphal March of Secularism Over Religion boils down, in large measure, to the Triumphal March of People Who Have No Idea What They are Talking About.