Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1347

Why are we in Libya?

Why, to support our allies, rebels who are acclaimed by Al Qaeda!

But don't worry. We know exactly what we are doing and when we are leaving. Don't ask for details, consistency, or precedent. It's an organic thing. You wouldn't understand. Just trust in the wisdom of the King and all will be well.

Hey Seattle!

Behold! Seattle's first prolife Bread Company!

Go Benedict!

The Pope of Christian Unity indeed!

My sentiments exactly

10 Things to Do While Fr. Corapi is on Leave

Permit me to add one thing: Those of us who believe in the Professor Digory Kirke Approach to Things about Which We have No Actual Knowledge also believe strongly in avoiding interested parties who hector us to side with them and who insist on larding our comboxes and the blogosphere with exhortations to trust them and despise their accusers.

So, for instance, when extremely interested parties such as the Vice President of Santa Cruz Media send out bulletins insisting, not that I mind my own business as I am wont to do, but that I take his/her(?) word for it (as a wholly secular, for-profit interest) that Fr. Corapi is the victim of an "unsubstantiated rant of a former employee, who, after losing her job with this office, physically assaulted me and another employee and promised to 'destroy' Father Corapi"--well, that makes it harder to mind my own business, because I find myself being badgered on what to think, not by some nasty accusatory woman, but by enthusiasts for Fr. Corapi who are not only trying to prejudice me against some woman I don't know, but are also telling me that "We have consulted with a number of canon lawyers. They have assured us that the actions of the Bishop of Corpus Christi, Texas are, on several points of canon law, illicit." So I'm being instructed to think that not only is Fr. Corapi's accuser bad, but the people investigating him are bad too. And how am I to know these things? Because somebody who stands to make a lot of money off Fr. Corapi says so and other people repeat this pseudoknowledge endlessly as though they know what they are talking about. Period.

My first question: why is this "don't trust this crazy liar and that mean unjust bishop" bulletin on Fr. Corapi's site and not on Santa Cruz Media's site?

My second question: why is some Veep writing this and not the CEO of Santa Cruz Media?

My third question: why, after making it extremely clear that I wish to mind my own business, are people sending me this stuff whose only purpose is to fill my head with prejudiced pseudoknowledge from extremely interested parties?

Then I look at the Anchoress' blog and find the answer to all my questions: Fr. Corapi is the CEO of Santa Cruz Media.

See, now that's the sort of thing that makes it hard to go on saying I know nothing about this particular altercation. To be sure, I still know nothing about the woman who made the accusation, nor about the merits of her claim, for the very good reason that after making her accusation and letting the Church go to work investigating it, she has kept quiet.

But I do know one thing now that I didn't know before: I know I get the awfully strong impression that one side involved in the dispute is doing whatever can be done to prejudice the public against both Fr. Corapi's accuser and his investigators. That does not, by a long shot, prove anything either way. You can be innocent and hector people about it.  You can be innocent and have some underling go off half-cocked and without your approval.  But it sure leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Like the Anchoress, I think the Santa Cruz Media memo was better off left unwritten. Indeed, to all who are busy accusing the woman for making a public stink, it is worth noting that you and I would know nothing of this whole affair had Father Corapi not written about it all in the first place (resulting in a tsunami of blogospheric condemnation of the alleged "she devil" from Corapi fans for so much as opening her mouth--a condemnation echoed by the Santa Cruz bulletin rhetoric about all this being solely the result of his being "hated by the devil"). If the good Father would like me to remain agnostic and just pray for him and his accuser as he initially said, then I would suggest that he ask his underling Veeps, secular for-profiteers and enthusiasts to stop clogging my comboxes and the blogosphere with links instructing me to regard his accuser and investigators as bad people and tools of Satan and inviting me in not-so-subtle ways to take his side and condemn his accusers and investigators.

Yuck.

"Conspiracyvideoaddict" writes...

I really like your blog "markshea" would you be willing to exchange blogroll links with me? I submit useful articles that are all hand written, and google has given me a really good page rank. Let me know if your interested by emailing me back. I will send the link to my site if you are interested. Thanks in advance.

As obvious as your careful research of my blog is, and as tempting as this offer is, I think I will pass.

R Rated Movies in Catholic Schools

What could possibly go wrong?

This is pretty funny

So a week or so ago, I wrote a little piece called "Despise not Prophesying" for the Register blog. The basic point of the piece was that, though I am leery of unapproved (let alone condemned) private revelation, I think the smart money is on approved ones since the Church is pretty careful about such matters, not wanting to look stupid by approving bogus private revelations. I also (it goes without saying) believe that private revelations are not binding on us, even if authentic, and that, since real private revelations always point us back to the Mass and obedience to Holy Church, that if you are doing that, you are in good shape. Basic message: Yay for approved apparations.

Well. Sad to say, I blasphemed the Most Sacred and Holy Name of Medjugorje in the course of the piece by daring to (and you may want to sit down for this) voice an opinion. The horror!

I wrote:

I spend a fair amount of time registering my disinterest in sundry conspiracy theories and scare-mongering and private revelation-chasing. I think Medjugorje has all the earmarks of a load of bushwah, I don't care about the bogus revelations in Conyers or Bayside, and I'm skeptical of the majority of nine-day wonders involving Our Lady on grilled cheese sandwiches or freeway underpasses. I think the alleged "apparation" of Mary in an Anglican parish in Yankalilla, Australia (which I have seen with my own eyes) is a water stain that some extremely imaginative Aussies got too excited about.

So it's easy, I suppose, to get the impression that I'm basically a hard-boiled skeptic about all private revelation and think it a waste of time and a distraction.

But in fact, I'm not. I think false and fake private revelation is a waste of time and a distraction and I am *highly* inclined to ignore most unconfirmed private revelations (unless, by some literal miracle, God should vouchsafe one to me and make it extremely clear to me that I should pay attention to it). I have no interest at all in claims of private revelation that the Church has either condemned (as with Bayside) or made very clear are not supernatural (as the bishop has done with Medjugorje). Should the Church change its mind with stuff like Medjugorje (which, I am morally certain, she won't), I will, as is my custom, defer to the Church. But, as I say, she won't change her mind, so I'm not bothering with it.

That's it. That's all. I said, out loud even, that I don't buy Medjugorje, but will change my view, should the Church say I'm wrong (which I'm confident she won't). But apparently it was enough. The comboxes were promptly deluged with Medjugorje enthusiasts denouncing me for blaspheming Mary (because, of course, my failure to buy an your claim that Mary is appearing someplace is, as we all know, blasphemy against your enthusiasm Mary). The comboxes swelled up and burst.

Next thing I know, the passive aggressives over at Spirit Daily are offering one of those "I'm just sayin'" passive-aggressive headlines meant to fire up the torch and pitchfork crowd while leaving the author (I'm talking to YOU, Michael Brown) able to worm out of saying he was actually making a solid charge in plain English. The headline was this:

"Did anti-apparition blogger use "deception"?" and it linked to a particularly hysterical freakout by one of the Medjugore zealots over at Ministry Values.

Mr. Brown, whose Spirit Daily site is a clearing house for every credulous claim of miracle, wonder, sign and portent from across the globe is welcome to be a sucker for Medjugorje if he wants. He's welcome to disagree with me if he likes. It's no skin off my nose. If it turns out that Benedict tomorrow announces that Medjugorje is authentic and renames St. Peter's, "the Supreme Basilica of Our Lady of Medjugorje" then, oh well, I was wrong. Not for the first time either.

But until that happens I will maintain my opinion that Medjugorje is, in all likelihood, the load of dodgy bushwah it certainly appears to be.

Note that: my opinion. Nobody has to agree with me. But neither is anybody, including Mr. Brown or the zealots at Ministry Values entitled to charge me with "deception" merely because I expressed an opinion that they dislike. So I hope that the next time Mr. Brown feels the need to call me a liar or dishonest, he will have the stones to say it to my face instead using passive-aggressive tactics of character assassination that leave him room to worm out of responsibility for his sleazy charge by claiming "I was merely asking a question."

Man up, Mr. Brown and the quacks at Ministry Values. Or shut up. I don't take kindly to being called deceptive. You owe me an apology. However, since I know I will in all likelihood never get one, I extend my forgiveness to you in to the hope that one of these days you will admit you were wrong and receive it. Oh, and Mr. Brown, bon voyage on the pilgrimage you are leading to Medjugorje for the low, low price of $2450.
I have no vested financial interest in doubting Medjugorje.

By the way, for those who have ears to hear....

If you remain doggedly committed to the eventual vindication of Medjugorje, then read the links above, as you will have nothing to fear from the truth, knowing as you already do, the future. Me: I don't know the future. I know what I read. And what I read says Medjugorje has no future. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

But, in my not-so-humble opinion, I'm not wrong. That no more makes me an "anti-apparitionist" than doubting a 300 foot tall Jesus appeared to Oral Roberts makes me an "anti-resurrectionist".

Update on Baby Andrej

A reader writes:

thank you for posting my prayer request, and all the prayers your readers sent Heaven-ward. However, I'm sad to report that baby Andrej passed away in his parents' arms last week in Melbourne, surrounded by his aunts and uncle, grandmother and other relatives.

He was baptized Andrej Francis Fak, and while his life after birth might have been short, he will never be forgotten by any of us. Although many thousands of kilometres separate us and our family in Australia, we here in Toronto feel their pain acutely, but are comforted by the fact that now there's a little saint in Heaven interceding for all of us before the Throne of God.

Thank you again for all your prayers.

Father, receive this new saint into your arms and console his family with the prayers of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Atlantis Found!

Again!

Only this time, it looks like there really might be something to it. We'll see, I suppose.

564 Followers!

Today, my lackluster thralls, I must give you bad news. No, not about you (for you it's always bad news in the Pits of Despair). I mean for me!

I have a really bad bug. I am sick as a dog. And not just any dog. THIS dog:



Behold the deceptively adorable Tori Keyes.

Here she is, performing her Man's Best Friend schtick and lulling me into a sense of complacency by pretending to be my guardian:

[image error]

The Lenten mission at St. Edwards having gone well (what a terrific parish and what a beautiful liturgy and what wonderful people!) and me having become good friends with Fr. Jeff Keyes, her Lord and Master...

[image error]

...I naturally assumed her breast swelled with the same sense of happiness and bonhomie we all felt.

And yet, lurking beneath those liquid brown eyes there is, in fact, pure evil, which can only be revealed by this special camera, unmasking her as the Demon Hound of Newark, CA!:

[image error]

One glance from those laser beam eyes of death and you end up with the world's worst head cold. Of course, a dog as pure evil as Tori carefully timed it so that the bio-agents would begin to activate as I was flying from San Francisco to Boston in the Winged Viral Containment Unit known as a 757. I made it safely there, but was already starting to feel the effects. Still, duty called, so we went to Worcester ("Wuhstuh" to the locals) and I did my thing:

[image error]

Now, although I'm suffering here and it is important to remember that this post is All About Me, still, let me say a word about the Worcester Catholic Men's conference: Awesome! At least 1200 guys all crammed into the Convention Center to hear about Jesus and our Catholic faith. We got to hear from Deacon Jack Sullivan (a lovely man) whose miraculous healing was the miracle that triggered Newman's beatification. Also, Kellen Clemens, QB for the New York Jets was there (just a totally true blue guy), and Michael Franzese, a former mob boss who is all about Christ and the Faith now. In addition, I brought up the rear as Banana Slug for Jesus.

This was the 11th one of these conferences in as many years, and until I went I had never heard of it. It has spawned 65 conferences of the same kind across the country! Who knew? It was really cool to be in room with that much masculine energy for Jesus! Go, men of God!

But enough about that. Back to me and my illness, which I'm sure you are all dying to hear more about, because what could be more fascinating than a minute by minute rehearsal of my symptoms? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm too sick to keep you posted on such interesting things. Instead, I will be taking today off to try to get well. So my last word to you, my minions, is to stop thinking about yourselves and your petty little agonies, bereavements, deaths and losses down there in your cozy Pit of Despair. What about ME? What about MY needs? I have a cold, dammit!



That is all!