Mark Shea Fired from National Catholic Register

The party is over…

Mark Shea Fired from National Catholic Register

[UPDATES to this story found at end of post — scroll down]

The EWTN-owned “conservative” Novus Ordo publication National Catholic Register has finally terminated its relationship with “Catholic” loudmouth blogger, author, speaker, and longtime troublemaker Mark Shea. He was fired. The following message was relayed via Facebook:

The Register is no longer publishing blogs or commentaries submitted by Mark Shea. Mark’s writings at the NCRegister.com or published in our print edition were within our editorial guidelines. However, his writings and engagement on other forums were irreconcilable with our editorial vision or standards of charitable discussion.

(Quoted by Steve Ray, “Mark Shea fired at National Catholic Register – reported by many”, Defenders of the Catholic Faith, Aug. 21, 2016)

Although Shea’s blog at NCR is still accessible if one knows the URL, it is no longer linked from the main menu.

Over the years, Shea had demonstrated an uncanny ability to always come down on the wrong side of an issue with a predictability level nearing 100%. Of particularly infelicitous memory is his severe condemnation of David Daleiden, the heroic young man who exposed the horrific, abominable, and illegal works of Planned Parenthood — namely, harvesting and selling the body parts of aborted children, some of whom were reportedly still alive during the harvesting. What reason did Shea see to condemn Daleiden? You see, in order to obtain his underground video evidence, Daleiden had to deceive the monsters at Planned Parenthood, and of course lying is a sin.

Indeed, it is true — lying is a sin, and so is simulation (pretending) — but in the face of the butchering of children and the sale of their body parts to the highest bidder, turning the outrage and the focus on Daleiden and what conceivably did not amount to more than a series of venial sins on his part anyway, is itself outrageous and disturbing. In our TRADCAST podcast program of Aug. 17, 2015, we discuss this whole issue at some length and, exploring what Catholic moral teaching has to say about lying, put everything in perspective.

From the beginning, Shea has been an absolute cheerleader for “Pope” Francis. In a Sep. 17, 2014 interview with the Novus Ordo Jesuit rag America, Shea rhapsodized over the Argentinian apostate: “It’s almost inarticulate, but I have nothing but love for the guy. I think he’s the absolute real deal and I feel tremendous hope for the church.” Again, just to be clear: He’s talking about Francis. That’s this guy. Enough said.

When in 2014 the sodomite pop singer Elton John (aka the “queen” of England), who is “married” to his partner and has two children “with” him, expressed his unbounded admiration of Francis, Shea was overjoyed, arguing that this meant that Elton was “revisiting what the gospel has to say because of [Francis]”. Apparently it did not occur to Shea that the reason Elton John is excited about Francis is because Francis demonstrates contempt for Catholicism. Elton John is essentially saying, “Finally, there’s a man like me on the Chair of Peter, a man after my own heart. Finally, the church is starting to come around to my way of thinking! This deserves recognition! Long live Francis!” We took apart Shea’s daft argumentation in the following blog post:

• Mark Shea says Elton John’s Admiration for Francis shows he is “revisiting what the Gospel has to say”

Indeed, just a few months before his raving endorsement of Francis, Elton John had uttered the unspeakable blasphemy that our Lord Jesus Christ would have favored sodomite “marriages”. Is Mark Shea too stupid to get it? No, intelligence does not seem to be the problem here.

While it is not clear what exactly proved to be the final straw for the National Catholic Register that led to Shea’s long-overdue dismissal, their decision came less than a month after Stephen Herreid of The Stream posted an article entitled, “Pro-Life Catholics Deserve Better Than These Writers”, in which he calls out Mark Shea, Simcha Fisher, and John Paul Shimek — all contributors at the National Catholic Register then — for their unacceptable online behavior. Herreid criticizes Shimek for his article, “Should Good Catholics Read Far-Right Catholic Blogs?”, which was later removed by the NCR editors (the original can still be accessed here). As for Shea and Fisher, Herreid accuses them of calumny, hatred, childish bullying, and revolting language, and he provides copious documentation.

More recently, Shea got into a quarrel with John Zmirak, likewise of The Stream, who had accused Shea of “dusting off the Seamless Garment with a twist” (Zmirak, “The Seamless Garment: A Poison Pill to Kill Off the Pro-Life Movement”, The Stream, Aug. 11, 2016). For those who are not aware, the “Seamless Garment” doctrine was a clever ruse developed by the Satanic “Cardinal” Joseph Bernardin of Chicago to undermine pro-life efforts to stop abortion by lumping the issue of preborn baby killing in with all sorts of other social causes (some of them quite legitimate in themselves), embracing anything from obtaining better air quality to ending the death penalty.

Shea also has his clique of cheerleaders, of course, especially his (now former) fellow-NCR blogger colleague Simcha Fisher. Fisher herself deserves to be fired for her foul mouth alone. Sufficient samples of the kind of things she is not ashamed to say on Facebook — things St. Paul said ought not to even “be named among you, as becometh saints” (Eph 3:3-4) — can be found at the Herreid article already mentioned. But as Our Lord taught: “…out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Lk 6:45).

Independently of his work at NCR, Mark Shea still operates a private blog entitled Catholic and Enjoying It! at the notorious Patheos platform of all religions and none. Quite appropriately, Shea’s blog carries the tagline, “So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!” Now there’s a Catholic approach to publishing!

It may have escaped Shea, but there is a reason why the Church traditionally requires a nihil obstat and imprimatur for the publication of religious and philosophical works, why she has an Index of Forbidden Books, and why each diocese has a censor — and that is precisely so that many thoughts, especially the really stupid ones, will never get published. This is known as the censorship of books and is a thoroughly Catholic concept. But then again, some “Catholics” are so enamored of their own views and thoughts that they cannot stand the thought that what they have to say may not actually get published or taken seriously.

Thank heavens, Shea’s blogging adventure at the National Catholic Register has finally come to an end. No, we’re not gloating in the fact that someone lost his employment. Rather, we are delighted that a major Novus Ordo troublemaker has finally had one of his biggest platforms for spouting dangerous nonsense taken away from him. Being employed by EWTN, which owns the Register, gave Shea a lot of much-needed credibility. So, by no longer being a blogger there, Shea is able to do a lot less damage to souls for the time being, and that is a cause for joy.

UPDATE 23-AUG-2016 01:45 UTC: Blogger Simcha Fisher has now also been fired from the National Catholic Register, and for good reason. Below is a screenshot of her Facebook post of Aug. 22, 2016:

As with Shea, her blog has been removed from the Register’s menu, although the archives of her blog are still (and will remain) publicly accessible.

UPDATE 23-AUG-2016 13:26 UTC: Mark Shea: “I Stand with Simcha”, shows he still doesn’t get it — It’s always everybody else’s fault, isn’t it?!

Two big cheerleaders for the Novus Ordo Sect and the Francis Revolution are now able to do a lot less damage to souls. This is excellent news for the Catholic Church!

Further Updates:

• NCR Firings: Martyrs or Loose Cannons? (Unam Sanctam Catholicam)
• How Mark Shea Theology works (The Tenth Crusade)