{"id":29663,"date":"2015-06-09T13:00:37","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T19:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=29663"},"modified":"2015-06-09T08:06:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T14:06:58","slug":"actor-mark-wahlberg-says-his-priest-saved-him-from-life-of-drugs-and-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/actor-mark-wahlberg-says-his-priest-saved-him-from-life-of-drugs-and-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor Mark Wahlberg Says His Priest Saved Him from &#8220;Life of Drugs and Violence.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_29665\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29665\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/06\/mark-wahlberg-and-wife.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29665\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/06\/mark-wahlberg-and-wife.jpg\" alt=\"Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons by WEBN-TV https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/politicalpulse\/\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons by WEBN-TV https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/politicalpulse\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Parish priests are where the rubber meets the road.<\/p>\n<p>If the parish priest fails, the Church fails.<\/p>\n<p>We need to pray for these men in collars. They have a grave responsibility for souls.<\/p>\n<p>Actor Mark\u00a0Wahlberg left a life of drug and violence which resulted in him being charged with attempted murder to become a devout follower of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI pray every day and try to go to church every day. My faith in God is what makes me a better man,\u201d he says, earnestly. \u201cIt\u2019s the most important part of my life. I pray that I will live up to my intention to be the best husband and father than I can be.\u00a0I never would have been able to change my life and have the success and love that I have in my world today without my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This dramatic change is a testament to what can happen when the shepherding of a priest combines with God\u2019s redemptive mercy. It is also a testament to the fact that we are, each of us, works in progress.<\/p>\n<p>The article I quote below says that Mr Wahlberg is in a \u201ccommitted relationship\u201d with the mother of his four\u00a0children. It turns out that they were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people.com\/people\/article\/0,,20295454,00.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">married in the Church<\/a>\u00a0after having been together for a number of years. They had three children at the time of their marriage.<\/p>\n<p>The ever-forgiving, always-loving Catholic Church welcomed them home.<\/p>\n<p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/www.squaremile.com\/wise-guides\/the-interview-mark-wahlberg\/?id=105\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Square Mile:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"color: #444444;\">For the longest time, it didn\u2019t look as if Mark Wahlberg would make it beyond the prison cells of Boston \u2013 never mind to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. As a teenager he was arrested and detained multiple times \u2013 he was once charged with attempted murder (although pleaded guilty to assault) \u2013 and was addicted to cocaine before the age of 15. His biography is almost as extensive for his misdemeanors as his filmography.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #444444;\">It\u2019s something he\u2019s asked about a lot in interviews, and something that he always responds to. It\u2019s also what makes him a controversial actor: some believe that he didn\u2019t deserve a second chance, particularly given the nature of some of his crimes, but he\u2019s always maintained that he has had to put the past behind him. That \u2018kid from the wrong side of the tracks\u2019 vibe stayed with him and his image as the bad-boy of Hollywood served him well, but the most important thing he remembers from this period is his faith.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #444444;\">It was religion that helped Wahlberg back onto the straight and narrow after his parish priest took him under his wing, and he\u2019s retained that faith to this day. \u201cI pray every day and try to go to church every day. My faith in God is what makes me a better man,\u201d he says, earnestly. \u201cIt\u2019s the most important part of my life. I pray that I will live up to my intention to be the best husband and father than I can be.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #444444;\">I never would have been able to change my life and have the success and love that I have in my world today without my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Parish priests are where the rubber meets the road. If the parish priest fails, the Church fails. We need to pray for these men in collars. They have a grave responsibility for souls. Actor Mark\u00a0Wahlberg left a life of drug and violence which resulted in him being charged with attempted murder to become a devout [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":29665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,819,726,7544,1],"tags":[821,5045,7573,7574],"class_list":["post-29663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-2","category-conversion","category-following-christ","category-mercy-2","category-uncategorized","tag-conversion-2","tag-divine-mercy","tag-mark-wahlberg","tag-mercy-of-christ"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Actor Mark Wahlberg Says His Priest Saved Him from &quot;Life of Drugs and Violence.&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Parish priests are where the rubber meets the road. If the parish priest fails, the Church fails. We need to pray for these men in collars. They have a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2015\/06\/actor-mark-wahlberg-says-his-priest-saved-him-from-life-of-drugs-and-violence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Actor Mark Wahlberg Says His Priest Saved Him from &quot;Life of Drugs and Violence.&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Parish priests are where the rubber meets the road. If the parish priest fails, the Church fails. We need to pray for these men in collars. 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