Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 27

A reader writes to ponder mortal and venial sin

She writes: I know you are busy, and there is no need to reply to me on this, but I would like to share with you some thoughts – or questions – about venial sin. Thinking back over some of the sometimes heated discussions about Amoris Laetitia, it seems to me that there was something […]

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats and “Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do.”

The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats is about the judgment of “the nations” (or “goyim” to use the Hebraism that lies behind that translation.  It is a term that refers to those “outside the covenant people”.  For Jews, it meant Gentiles.  For Christians, its meanng shifts to “those outside the household of faith”. […]

My guest this evening is Mike Lewis of Where Peter Is

Catholic and Enjoying It Live! is on the air at 7 PM Pacific (10 PM Eastern) every Monday night.  Tonight, we will be discussing how healthy Catholics live in fidelity to the Magisterium of Pope Francis and stop running after every conspiracy theorist declaring him a heretic.  You can listen here and you can call into […]

A reader has questions about cultural liberalism in the Age of Trump

He writes: I’ve had a question that I’ve been struggling with that I wanted to run by you, in all seriousness do you think you can have the economic liberalism of the Democrats without the cultural liberalism? Doubtful.  But since I don’t think we can fix cultural liberalism by laws and force–and I’m not at […]

One of the reasons I became Catholic…

…is that the Catholic intellectual tradition savors and does not fear the sciences. Of course, here in the US, a lot of Christianist Catholics get their ideas about the sciences neither from the Tradition nor from the sciences but from the Right Wing Freak Show. So you still have a certain percentage of Catholics who […]

The last installment of my series on Catholic Social Teaching: Solidarity, Part 2

Last time, in this space, we noted that the Church speaks of solidarity as both a “social principle” and a “moral virtue.” Further, the Church doesn’t hesitate to teach that the state has a role to play in helping to reform “structures of sin” into “structures of solidarity” — since such a task is simply […]

Part 6 of my series on Catholic Social Teaching: Solidarity, Part 1

The great Roman playwright Terence said, “I am a man. Nothing human is alien to me.” It’s significant Terence was known for his comedies, since comedy is the art form that focuses most strongly on our weaknesses and our need for help from both divine and human grace and mercy. In tragedies, the protagonists die […]

Part 5 of my series on Catholic Social Teaching: Subsidiarity, Part 2

As we saw last time, the principle of subsidiarity means that, as a general rule, the people closest to a particular need or problem should generally respond to it first. We don’t, as we noted, phone the White House demanding that the library parking-lot pothole be fixed. Work done by ordinary people close to the […]

Part 4 of my series on Catholic Social Teaching: Subsidiarity, Part 1

Following the dignity of the human person and the common good, we turn to the third pillar of Catholic social teaching — subsidiarity. This pillar can be difficult for some U.S. Catholics to grasp, given the particular understanding of the human person and of human nature that we have inherited from the political thought of […]

My guest this evening is Destiny Herndon-de la Rosa of New Wave Feminists

Catholic and Enjoying It is on the air live at 7 PM Pacific (10 PM Eastern) every Monday night.  Tonight, we will be discussing the Consistent Life Ethic and prolife feminism and giving ourselves up to general jollification for the hour.  You can listen here and you can call into the show at 1-866-333-6279 while we […]