the Horst Wessel of the pro-abort zealots. Always remember the Nancy Kerrigan Principle: Just because you are a victim doesn’t mean you can’t be a jerk (or, in this case, a monster) too. Read more

I’ve been trying to explain to my girlfriend how a contraceptive culture leads to an abortion-on-demand culture, which inevitably will lead to a euthanasia culture. She keeps telling me I’m making slippery slope arguments and I hear a lot of “Not necessarily”, so I’m thinking I maybe not articulating it very well. How would you explain the logical progression from contraceptives to a culture of death? Thanks. Given that our culture has *already* made the journey from contraception to euthanasia,... Read more

In which we continue looking at the Beatitudes, including this very unpopular one. Basic rule of thumb: we deeply admire and even love true meekness when we see it in others. Their self-possession is deeply attractive. But we are terrified of what meekness means for us because we fear it means the concerted effort to make a human being into a mouse. Read more

The MSM is not wringing its hands over what Sotomayor’s Catholicism “means” for the Supreme Court as they did with Roberts and Alito. And why are they all winking at each other? Read more

A devout Catholic family here includes an adult daughter who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. She is bitterly opposed to all religion and intends to die in her atheism. I’m barely acquainted with the mother, who lost her husband only a few months ago, but one of her friends asked me to call for prayers. Father, hear our prayer that the daughter may die in grace and that mother may have peace at last in this time of trial.... Read more

So a friend of mine goes to the website of the latest Gay Brownshirt Public Intimidation Project here in Washington. (I don’t get out much during the day and so had not heard of this petition, much less had a chance to sign. But I would, just for the honor of getting my name on the Gay Brownshirts’ List of People to Bully, Intimidate and Threaten. I wonder if you can do it online….) Anyway, my friend goes to the... Read more

Fr. Erik Richsteig tells this unusual story about Catholics who appear not to be 100% tuned in to the teaching of the Church: So, I get back from the barber today. As soon as I walk through the door, I am told that I need to have my secretary tell me about the phone call that came in while I was out: “Excuse me, do priests still do circumcisions?” Oy veh, someone thinks I am a moyle. (Maybe I should... Read more

Turns out those millions who died from the religious persecution in the USSR were no big deal. One guy born long after the murders assures us it was all fine and besides, he’s not much interested in religious questions so: eh. That’s the sort of hard-hitting willingness to challenge the status quo so prized by the free-thinking community. Read more

Yesterday I was struck by a complaint from a reader to the effect that “Shea calls anybody who disagrees with him a consequentialist”. This is very alarming and painful, of course, because it means I have obviously not got, in this case at least, a reader who can read. To recap: consequentialism is basically “end justify the means” thinking. If you believe that the good ends you are trying to achieve allow you to do things which are intrinsically immoral... Read more

…in which we explore what has to happen once a culture enshrines at its heart the notion that consent is the sole criterion of the good (as ours already has). Read more