He’s back and odder than ever! Read more

Mary’s Aggies detect somebody blunting Rome’s message to Obama. I think, on the contrary, that the language simply broadens the point to include a reference to the new encyclical *and* to include not just the defense of human life, but the right of conscientious objectors to opt out of being forced to participate in abortion, contraception and things contrary to their conscience. One of the things I’m please about is Obama’s willingness to listen to this point and (judging from... Read more

Stoic atheism is all good and fun when the sun is shining and you are feeling your oats and the insolence of youth. But really internalizing this stuff leads directly to the nihlistic despair that poor man is facing. Keep him in your prayers that he could shed his pride and finally ask, “What if there is hope in God after all?” Christ died for that man. Let us never forget that all the hosts of heaven desire nothing more... Read more

You may want to sit down for this, but it turns out that the Catholic Church has suppressed the truth about Jesus and that it turns out Jesus was a guy who exactly fits the fascinations of our current cultural trends instead. Yes, yes, you say. We know all about that. Jesus have had a stint as a 19th Century Social Gospel Preacher, a businessman in the 20s, an Aryan and a Marxist in the 30s, a hippie in the... Read more

My husband is lying about money, taking days off work and spending them with someone else, says he does not love me and refuses affection to me. I am alone with no friends, family, car, job or anything. I love my husband and I’m fasting and praying that God will make him turn away from all his sins, love me against, be faithful and honest and save our marriage. I pray for anyone he has sinful soul ties with to... Read more

Nobody will prescribe daily orgasms as a heart attack prevention tool for your fat TV-engorged yob of a Dudley Dursley kid and no genius will double your kid’s chances of pregnancy with free condom programs. Have I mentioned that we homeschool? Read more

If you want to know what to do about things like the Virgin Mary turning up your back yard tree or on your grilled cheese sandwich (or at Lourdes and Fatima), I would suggest you read chapter 3 of Volume III: Miracles, Devotion, and Motherhood in the Mary, Mother of the Son trilogy. By the way, a reader writes me just this morning to say: “Hey Mark! Wolfed down vol.1 and loved all the new fun facts. Reading 2 on... Read more

I think the tribalists of the Right who have been laboring to turn every single breath, every chance word, every look and every movement Obama makes into an opportunity to condemn him have, as is the custom with tribalists, acquitted themselves poorly. I don’t think Obama is a devil in human form, so I don’t assume that everything he says and does is motivated by nothing but pure evil and I don’t think it’s charitable to go searching for evidence... Read more

A reader writes about the stupid “Obama Represents American Catholics Better Than the Pope” piece: The thing that boggles my mind is this: Catholics support another intrinsic evil, torture, at a greater rate than the general population, as well. By Kennedy’s brilliant logic, wouldn’t that make Dick Cheney Pope of America?Or perhaps it just means that too many nominal Catholics take their moral cues from the political leaders of an increasingly morally bankrupt society? It’s a depressing thing for a... Read more

A reader writes Here’s an amusing mental exercise. Imagine you are able to travel back in time to, say, 1985 or 1990, a moment when the Ratzinger-is-the-evil-Inquisitor-the-Panzer-Cardinal narrative was in full swing. And you find the journalist Peter Hebblethwaite (may he rest in peace), one of the propagators of Cardinal’s reputation. And you tell him that in 2009, Ratzinger is Pope. (Give him a moment, it will throw him for a loop.) Then tell him in summer of ’09, Pope... Read more