If you had collared me before I was Catholic and asked my opinion of Rome’s teaching on artificial contraception, I would have said something like this: “I understand and applaud the Magisterium’s opposition to abortion, since abortion kills people. But I’m not comfortable with the Church’s stodgy stand on artificial contraception based on Her opposition … Read more
Praising is profoundly misunderstood in our culture. We tend to think of it in terms of either therapy or power. On the one hand, we praise children in order to guard their fragile egos. On the other, we condemn sycophantic praise for the tyrant—the invincibly moronic Big Cheese surrounded by underlings who praise him as … Read more
Prudence has acquired something of a bad name these days. It is easily associated with words like “prude,” “prune,” and “George Bush” (“Wouldn’t be prudent”). Some people think it is a synonym for “timidity.” But for St. Thomas Aquinas, prudence means something more like common sense. The prudent person realistically assesses a situation and does … Read more
“Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils,” said G. K. Chesterton; “they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.” Different political ideologies tend to have different ways of finessing and nuancing what, in Catholic thinking, is more bluntly called “mortal sin.” Conservatives are familiar with the ingenious ways … Read more
Welcome to St. Joan of Arc’s in Minneapolis (www.stjoan.com), the quintessential “AmChurch” parish. See Happy Pastor Rev. George Wertin profiled by an adoring parishioner on its Web site. He’s a courageous rebel who “loves the cutting edge.” Quotable quote: “He talked about loving Rome and his repeated visits to Italy—I asked him, ‘Could you say, … Read more
It has to be one of the strangest things in the world: So many Christians who love Jesus with all their hearts recoil in fear at the mention of His mother’s name, while many who do love her find themselves tongue-tied when asked to explain why. Most of the issues people have with Mary are … Read more
Another remarkable intersection of religion and film culture took place several months ago during the press interviews at the premiere of the final installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. John Rhys Davies, who plays Gimli, the dwarf, departed from the normal PC Hollywood script about multiculturalism, environmentalism, “spirituality,” … Read more
Experts in source-criticism now know that The Lord of the Rings is a redaction of sources ranging from the Red Book of Westmarch (W) to Elvish Chronicles (E) to Gondorian records (G) to orally transmitted tales of the Rohirrim (R). The conflicting ethnic, social, and religious groups that preserved these stories all had their own … Read more
Some time ago, my kids got a computer game called Myst. It’s a very curious game—there are no instructions, no rules, and no commentary offered at the beginning. You find yourself plunked down into a strange environment on a mysterious island. You don’t know where you are or why you’re there. As you look around, … Read more
My friend Dave is an American scholar of Eastern Europe. A few years ago, he went to Poland for a year. On his arrival back in the States, he sighed contentedly and said, “It’s so good to come back to the country where there are only two sides to every question.” He’s got a point. … Read more
He was a bold, cutting-edge “street priest.” Leading lights in his community pored over his tapes on “Counseling Parents of Gays” and “Changing Norms of Sexuality” like Holy Writ. He was inspiring, charismatic, and lionized. He wrote a bold, iconoclastic newsletter (largely featuring himself in a starring role) that inspired devotees with his courageous stands … Read more
"Jesus came to give us moral guidance, and to prove he meant business, he let himself be killed and seen after death, so we would listen and be good." Not being raised in any particular religion myself, it wasn’t until later that I discovered that this view of Jesus’ death and resurrection (which I heard … Read more
“Jesus came to give us moral guidance, and to prove he meant business, he let himself be killed and seen after death, so we would listen and be good.” Not being raised in any particular religion myself, it wasn’t until later that I discovered that this view of Jesus’ death and resurrection (which I heard … Read more
Editor’s note: Mark Shea responds to Christopher Hitchens’s question, “Why do you look forward to a second visit from the Redeemer, and why is this necessary?” Ask any fan of Douglas Adams, “What’s the meaning of the universe?” and you’ll be told, “42.” Adams, author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was an atheist. … Read more
One of the more interesting collisions waiting to happen is the coming head-on crash between those who believe in the American dogma of equality and those who believe in pure empiricism and skeptical rationalism. Often, these people occupy the same head, but they do not seem to realize that their two cherished worldviews are wholly … Read more
In mid-1993 I tumbled all willy-nilly into the middle of a remarkable phenomenon called the Internet (or Net for short) when I joined a “list group” called CHRISTIA (Practical Christian Living). A list group is a group of computer users who sign on to a mail-distributing computer called a listserver for the purpose of discussing … Read more
Excerpted from This Is My Body: An Evangelical Discovers the Real Presence, by Mark P. Shea, available from Christendom College Press If there is anything a good Protestant suspects, it is an intermediary between us and the grace of Christ. Such a thing seems contrary to the very idea of boldly approaching the Throne. It … Read more