Mark Shea's "Parable"

To be perfectly honest, I couldn't get through Mark's latest bitter screed.

Is he seriously implying this mauling is like a parable from scripture?

There are plenty of reasons not to trust a politician, not to like his background.
One might go as far as to say there is a duty to warn the sheep about a wolf. But Mark seems to have lost his way from the matrix of who, when, where and how that preserves Catholic convictions about redemption.

If a politician has a long history of saying whatever is politically expedient, of saying one thing but legislating another agenda, if there are reasons to suspect he is a manwhore without respect for the dignity of women, a narcissist, an empty suit, then by all means, knock out an opinion.

But if you look at a person's history and there is a traceable trajectory that leads to conversion to Catholicism and the Sacraments,a stable relationship for some time that goes along with the story, a history of honorably serving your country, a patriot, what kind of a bleephole would scour perez hilton to dig up 20 year old stories to imply the path to the sacraments and redemption is cheap to Catholics?

There is a duty to protect and preserve the theology of redemption. We want converts to know that we believe, with full conviction of the heart. We are are supposed to be living witnesses to the forgiveness of sins.

Mark's "parable" does a terrible disservice to Christ's Church.

I didn't think anything could trump Mark's mischaracterization of people who fall from grace as a 'frauds'. It was a reckless disregard for the soul of a priest who served the Church faithfully to malign him as a reprobate. We want our brothers and sisters to get up, dust themselves off, untangle themselves from the sin with vigilant use of the sacraments.

It is supposed to be a loving environment, where we believe in the dignity and good of every person who is traversing towards Bethlehem, Gethsemene, Golgotha, Transfiguration or Resurrection. We don't send the message that we are waiting for them to prove they are frauds so we can toss them into the trash.

Even if you have no good reason for your dislike of a candidate, fine. But you don't use your bully pulpit to scandalize redemption and the sacraments of the Catholic Church.