Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 1365

Stockholm Syndrome

Somebody posted a billboard in New York pointing out the perfectly true fact that the abortion industry makes a killing (literally) slaughtering the children of the Black community.

Black "community leaders" like Al Sharpton, natch, decried this as (wait for it) "demonizing black women" and demanded they be taken down. They were.

Hitler managed to turn a few Jews into kapos among the desperate prison population. But Planned Parenthood has actually managed to turn the "leadership community" among African-Americans in the US into the staunchest defenders of genocide against Black people. Talk about Stockholm Syndrome. Give us more Alveda Kings![image error]

Prayer Request

A reader writes:

Please have your readers pray for me. I just lost my job - I was laid off due to income reduction. I don't know what is going to happen to me.

Father, we ask that you would help your son find work quickly and that, in the meantime, he would cast himself upon you and that you will carry him through this hard time. Grant him peace and give your people the power and creativity to help him in this trial. Mother Mary, St. Joseph, and St. Francis, pray for him!

I hate being...

...right all the time.

But what really shocked me was the Universite de Montreal professor, Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem, who showed up to tell MPs pedophilia was a sexual orientation just like heterosexuality or homosexuality.

The day is coming when the Catholic Church will be condemned, not for failing to act against pedophiles, but for daring to condemn pedophilia.

By the way, I think the first thing to do with guys like this professor is to begin taking a good hard for any evidence that he practices what he preaches.

Bernard Nathanson, RIP

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blair Witch Project in Spaaaaaaaaace!

Looks like a fun dollar rental.

Catholic Lane is on the Air!

It's a very nice new site managed by my friend, the dazzlingly omnicompetent Mary Kochan, and it's chock full of tasty goodness. Do check it out!

Hey Western Washington!

Dear Friends of the Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society,

Just a reminder:

We invite you to join us tomorrow evening for our fourth gathering of this season at the Catholic Newman Center of the University of Washington, located at 4502 20th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105.

Thursday, February 24, 2011, at 7:30 PM, UW Newman Center

From Optina Monastery to Sixties Berkeley:
The Surprising Legacy of Pre-Revolutionary Russian Monks

Dr. Michael Matriotti
Seattle University

Gogol, Kireyevsky, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy were among thousands who sought consolation and guidance from five generations of humble monks who were trained in the tradition of eldership, a tradition stretching back to Anthony the Great, Cassian the Roman, and other venerable saints, who in the first centuries of the Church, fled to the deserts of Egypt and Syria to explore the depths of life in Christ. The elders of Optina contributed to the "Russian Religious Renaissance" in letters, the arts, and most importantly, spirituality. The renaissance was cut short by the Revolution of 1917, and the monastery at Optina was closed ruthlessly by the Bosheviks on Thomas Sunday, 1923. However, the ideals of the Russian Renaissance came to light again in Paris, in London, and, of all places, in Berkeley during the fifties and sixties.

Dr. Michael Matriotti is an Assistant Professor in Matteo Ricci College at Seattle University and Head Cantor at St. John Chrysostom Catholic Church here in Seattle. Prof. Matriotti took his B.A. degree from St. Thomas Seminary in Kenmore, Washington, and his Doctorate in Theology degree from the Graduate Theological Union, at the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation was a study of "The Relation between Science and Religion Viewed in the Light of the Evolutionary Notions of Julian Huxley, Carl Jung, and Friedrick Wilhelm von Schelling."

Please see our full Events Calendar for more details pertaining to meetings. Parking at the Newman Center is extremely limited. It is recommended that commuters park in the nearby "N5" lot on the University campus, accessible via the north gate at NE 45th St and Memorial Way. The fee for evening parking in the University lots is $5.00. Campus maps showing the exact location of the N5 lot are available here.

We look forward to seeing you Thursday evening!

Yours faithfully,

The Seattle G. K. Chesterton Society

No. Really. Lying for Jesus *is* a Faustian Bargain

A reader writes:

I'm a regular reader, occasional commenter. I really appreciate the work you've been doing on the Live Action issue. Here in the trenches, I can't tell you how important is the moral integrity of the pro-life movement. So often when we talk to legislators, they throw back at us every offense ever committed by pro-lifers. In the old days it was acts of violence, but now it's lies. For example, we're fighting a bill in NYC that accuses crisis pregnancy centers of deceptive practices, and the legislators eagerly fall upon every possible instance of lying or deception by any pro-lifer to prove their point. It's very discouraging when we're trying to influence the law, but we're undermined by the misguided tactics of our own side. The heroes who advocate lying never have to sit at a table and have the lies thrown in their faces, and then used as an excuse for dismissing all our arguments.

On another point, I blogged today on the Archdiocese website about the President's decision to surrender his duty on the Defense of Marriage Act:

Yep. Lying for Jesus is disastrous, not only because it is just one more piece of soul-corroding consequentialism, but because you sell your soul and get *nothing* in return. You hand the enemies of life a nice shiny sword with "Liar" inscribed on it and they run you with it.

As to the DOMA business, I saw that and cheer the Archdiocese for trying to talk sanity. The Prez's cowardly and unconstitutional choice to simply ignore the law is a direct violation of his oath. But this amateur has made it clear that his conception of the office is only tangentially related to the concept of law.

Zac Alstin....

confronts the moral reasoning of the profoundly evil (I personally suspect demonically-inspired) Peter Singer. Catholic moral reasoning begins (though it emphatically does not end) with ordinary moral intuitions like "Incest is bad". Of course, our natural moral intuitions need perfecting by grace (as counter-intuitive commands like "Love your enemies" demonstrate). But you start with natural, not with Singer deeply anti-natural evil.

Please continue to pray (and push) for Sayed Musa's release

Bug your appropriate government critter to get off the dime and save this brother in Christ from execution by our barbaric Friends in Kabul. If we're going to do nation-building then lets use our clout to keep such barbarism at bay. If not, then let's get the hell out and leave the savages to live out their corrupt and barbaric folkways in this failed narcostate that we are propping up for no good reason of national interest. The ridiculous spectacle of our throwing billions into supporting a regime that murders one-legged Christian converts and saints is obscene.