Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 33

Abortion: Realpolitik, Kulturkampf, and Evangelization

My friend John Medaille chews over what a really consistent prolife ethos means: Hence the “pro-life” movement, by tying itself to the Republican Party, ties itself to the aggressive support of capitalism and to the party least likely to impose any controls or obligations on the system. Like the Fox channels, they have bracketed off […]

Hilarious Israeli Magician…

…is very Chestertonian. He would have loved the whole concept of finding magic in everyday stuff. That is one of the great gifts Chesterton gave us: his love of seen the miraculous in the everyday. He remarked that the world would never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder. Wonder is the […]

Don’t forget to listen to my new radio show this evening!

Catholic and Enjoying It will be on the air live at 7 PM Pacific (10 PM Eastern) starting Monday, June 17 and running every Monday night at that hour.  We will be discussing life, the universe, and everything from a Catholic perspective and giving ourselves up to general jollification for the hour.  You can listen […]

Hey! Imma be on the air on Radio Maria starting Monday June 17!

Catholic and Enjoying It will be on the air live at 6 PM Pacific (9 PM Eastern) starting Monday, June 17 and running every Monday night at that hour.  We will be discussing life, the universe, and everything from a Catholic perspective and giving ourselves up to general jollification for the hour.  You can listen […]

What Real Religious Persecution Looks Like

The trial of Scott Warren ended in a hung jury.  For those not following the news, this was a guy who left water out in the desert so that desperate refugees would not die of thirst.  This is literally what Jesus says spells the difference between heaven and hell: “When the Son of man comes […]

On the necessity of the Priesthood to the apostolic Church

So the other day, on Facebook, I praised Dawn Eden Goldstein for her fine piece in America rebutting James Carroll’s demand for the abolition of the priesthood. Dawn is simply right about the necessity of the priesthood in the New Covenant. For some reason, people have the notion that the priesthood is an accretion on the […]

Shun false prophets who use private revelations to make war on the Magisterium

For as long as I have been Catholic (and of course the phenomenon is much older than that, traceable back to Tertullian and his fascination with Montanism) people who have not liked what the Magisterium has to say have latched on to some claim of private revelation and tried to weaponize it against the Church’s […]

Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty

I get mysteriously signed up for a lot of spam mail from various orgs who seem to think I am what (I have recently been informed) is known as an “social media Influencer”.  I’m not altogether persuaded that this is a judgment of me that is in contact with Reality, but given the volume of […]

The excellent Where Peter Is on the Grace and Mercy of God

Daniel Amiri writes: What is grace, and how exactly does grace “work”? I don’t want to suggest to anyone that I have the full answer, but over the last few years, Pope Francis’ theology has reminded the Church, in important ways, about what grace actually is and what it is not. When I say, “Pope […]

Carl Sandburg Reads One of His Stories from the Rootabaga Country

If you’ve never had a chance to read (or better yet, hear Carl Sandburg read) his stories from the Rootabaga Country), I highly recommend it. My wife Jan found a recording once of “How to Tell Corn Fairies When You See ’em” and we fell in love with it. His description of corn fairies sitting […]