Mark P. Shea's Blog, page 63

A reader well articulates lay frustration with our bishops

A reader writes: Do our bishops get it yet? The evidence so far is not encouraging. A couple of weeks ago a certain bishop brightly wrote on Twitter: “Despite the egregious offenses of a few, and despite the faults and sins we all have, I’m very proud of my brother bishops and I admire and […]

Christopher Tollefson is on the Right Track

Over at First Things he writes: My Fellow Catholics, On July 28, I sent the letter below to my bishop, the Most Reverend Robert E. Guglielmone of the Diocese of Charleston. In it, I explain that I will no longer contribute to diocesan appeals for financial contributions until I am convinced by his public actions […]

The Catholic Tradition has a name for this

It’s called a “sin that cries to heaven for vengeance”. Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. […]

Part 3 of my Series on the First Line of the Creed

is up at The Catholic Weekly: For the first Christians, Jews one and all, the encounter with God took place through their entire culture. They were a people steeped in the thought and imagery of the Law and the Prophets: what Christians call the “Old Testament”. God, before he was revealed as God the Father by Jesus, […]

The McCarrick Scandal

Ross Douthat argues that the Church needs to create a mechanism to hold bishops accountable as it has done for pervy priests: One of the best things that the bishops of the American Catholic Church did during the great wave of sex abuse revelations 16 years ago — and yes, there’s a low bar for […]

Echoes of a Previous Panic du Jour

About a month and a half ago, a reader wrote me, but I’ve only had a chance to plow through my mail this week.  He’s a good egg and he wrote: As I’ve mentioned to you before I really do see Pope Francis as a spiritual father, and I see what he’s doing from a […]

Illustrating my point is what LifeSiteNews exists to do

Just last week, Eric Sammons was announcing on CatholicVote that he was actually rejecting the very idea of being “prolife” so he could allegedly focus on being merely “anti-abortion”. I then pointed out that the last thing the bulk supposed “anti-abortion only” Christianists do is actually focus on being “anti-abortion only”. Instead, huge amounts of […]

One of the Pro-Choice Left’s Biggest Unpaid Bills

Recently, in this space, I remarked on the distinction between the claim of being “pro-choice” and the charge of “pro-abortion” and noted, in part: Very few people are “pro-abortion”.   Most people don’t want the state making anybody get an abortion (except for those who supported the One Child Policy in China).  What they want is […]

A reader ponders the article on the Cake Controversy

She writes: I read your noodling the cake article this morning and thought it was one of the best pieces you’ve recently written. Your gift of teaching was out in full bloom. Thanks! I am still confused about one point. Touring an empty frame in Poland is one thing, but if someone orders a cake, […]

Part Two of my Series

…on the first line of the Creed: I Believe in One God the Father Almighty I Believe There are two interesting things to notice about these words of the Creed. The first is that the Creed makes not the slightest attempt at argument for the existence of one God. The Creed assumes that the person […]