John Zmirak - The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism

More Praise for

The Politically Incorrect Guide to

Catholicism

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism envelops its deep learning in a breezy Chestertonian style that entertains as it informs. It offers a wry combination of the hilarious and the profound: truth delivered with razor wit. As a result, it is compulsively readable. Peppered throughout the text are recommendations of books Youre Not Supposed to Read. This nervy book now joins that honor roll. Read it.

Robert Reilly, former director, Voice of America, and author of The Closing of the Muslim Mind and Making Gay Okay

John Zmirak is so brilliant, effervescent, and indefatigably entertaining that Im much too embarrassed to mention it publicly.

Eric Metaxas, New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer and If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty

John Zmirak has a deeply informed and accurate understanding of the real political and economic implications of the Catholic Faith, conveyed in gracious and highly readable language with more than a dash of healing humor. This book is the antidote to the leftist distortions of the Church that are all too ubiquitous today.

The Honorable Faith Whittlesey, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland

John Zmirak has written an entertaining and enlightening book that will help you to think about Catholicism in ways you may not expect. His insights challenge conventional wisdom. Whether you come to agree or not with his at times provocative diagnoses of and remedies for the problems in the Church, reading this book will help you understand what is at stake.

The Reverend Gerald E. Murray, J.C.D., pastor, Holy Family Church, New York, New York

John Zmirak is the most articulate and learned defender of real Catholic social teaching of his generation. For decades, he has courageously spoken out for the life of the unborn, for the freedom of faith and families, and for the integrity of the Faith. The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism should serve as a vital textbook in classrooms of Catholic collegesthough of course, it probably wont!

Jason Scott Jones, producer, Crescendo, co-executive producer, Bella

This book will help you learn a great deal about that greatly misunderstood subject: Catholicism. Whats more, youll laugh a great dealsomething that is thoroughly Catholic!

Samuel Gregg, research director, Acton Institute

John Zmirak is a joyful scandal, not scandal in the sense of leading anyone astray, but in the sense of telling the truth, which is always a scandal to modern ears. His new book is a wild and bumpy ride through Church teaching as it ishas beenwill be, with immense dollops of orthodoxys smoky incense and utterly bereft of heterodoxys uncertain bells and whistles. Oh, and plenty of belly-laughs to boot.

Austin Ruse, author of The Littlest Suffering Souls and president of The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute at the United Nations

The Politically Incorrect Guides to

American History

Thomas Woods

9780895260475

The Bible

Robert J. Hutchinson

9781596985209

The British Empire

H. W. Crocker III

9781596986299

Capitalism

Robert P. Murphy

9781596985049

Catholicism

John Zmirak

9781621575863

The Civil War

H. W. Crocker III

9781596985490

The Constitution

Kevin R. C. Gutzman

9781596985056

Darwinism and Intelligent Design

Jonathan Wells

9781596980136

English and American Literature

Elizabeth Kantor

9781596980112

The Founding Fathers

Brion McClanahan

9781596980921

Global Warming

Christopher C. Horner

9781596985018

The Great Depression and the New Deal

Robert Murphy

9781596980969

Hunting

Frank Miniter

9781596985216

Islam (And the Crusades)

Robert Spencer

9780895260130

The Middle East

Martin Sieff

9781596980518

The Presidents, Part 1

Larry Schweikart

9781621575245

The Presidents, Part 2

Steven F. Hayward

9781621575795

Real American Heroes

Brion McClanahan

9781596983205

Science

Tom Bethell

9780895260314

The Sixties

Jonathan Leaf

9781596985728

Socialism

Kevin D. Williamson

9781596986497

The South (And Why It Will Rise Again)

Clint Johnson

9781596985001

The Vietnam War

Phillip Jennings

9781596985674

Western Civilization

Anthony Esolen

9781596980594

Women, Sex, and Feminism

Carrie L. Lukas

9781596980037

Copyright 2016 by John Zmirak

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, website, or broadcast.

Material in this book was adapted from articles that originally appeared in The Stream, Aleteia, Crisis, Breitbart, OnePeterFive, First Things, The Catholic Thing, and Quadrant, and is reprinted here with permission.

Scripture quotations are from The Catholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1965, 1966 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Regnery and Politically Incorrect Guide are registered trademarks of Salem Communications Holding Corporation

First e-book edition, 2016: ISBN 978-1-62157-608-2

Cataloging-in-Publication data on file with the Library of Congress

Published in the United States by

Regnery Publishing

A Division of Salem Media Group

300 New Jersey Ave NW

Washington, DC 20001

www.Regnery.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Books are available in quantity for promotional or premium use. For information on discounts and terms, please visit our website: www.Regnery.com.

Distributed to the trade by

Perseus Distribution

250 West 57th Street

New York, NY 10107

To my beloved sister, Patricia Marie Fain, who had to endure me

as a teenager. Thanks for not strangling me, though I deserved it.

See, Damien did eventually amount to something!

Table of Contents

Contents

T he Roman Catholic Church is like the weather: everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. They cant, not in the most fundamental sense, any more than they can change earths climate. The truths that the Church teaches about God and man, right and wrong, and the purpose of human history are simply