RealClearCatholic.Com is the Catholic blog of Shane Schaetzel: author, apologist, catechist and Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church. If you prefer to follow me on social media, my primary social media account is X, and I’m fairly active on Gab too. However, I do run some posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads with minimal interaction there.
The first name, Shane, is the Anglicized (English) version of Sean or Shawn, which is the Celtic way of saying John. Because people ask all the time, the last name Schaetzel (pronounced shet-zel) is German. My father’s side of the family (Swedish & German) came to America between 1840 and 1929. My mother’s side (British and Irish) started out as colonists in the New World, and have been on this continent for the last 400 years.
My family is staunchly Protestant: mostly Baptist and Lutheran. However, two members of my extended family began converting to Catholicism as early as the 1960s. As for me, I was baptized Lutheran in 1970, but raised as an American Baptist. My wife was baptized and raised Methodist. We married as Evangelicals, and then later converted to the Catholic Church in 2000, following a brief stay in Anglicanism.
I’m a traditional Catholic layman. When I say layman, that means I’m not ordained as a priest or deacon. I’m just a regular Catholic guy. When I say traditional, that means I actually believe what the Catholic Church teaches in the Catechism of Trent, the Baltimore Catechism, Credo and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In other words, I believe what the Catholic Church has always taught historically. What makes me “traditional” is my adherence to the Catholic Faith as always taught throughout history, praying the rosary regularly, and my insistence on attending reverent Catholic worship. I’m a member of the Catholic Church, in full communion with the Pope of Rome, and I’m a card-carrying member of the Knights of Columbus, 4th degree.
I’m also a columnist and author. My articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online.
Here in the pages of this blog, I will explain commonly misunderstood Catholic teachings, as well as comment on politics, news and current events, as they relate to the Catholic Church, Christianity and the world. If you like what you read here, please buy my books. This is the best way you can support my online apostolate (informal ministry). I don’t take donations, and I have no plans to start. I want my readers to have access to information. That’s what this apostolate is all about. Getting my books for yourself, and others, helps this apostolate grow, and it helps the financial side of keeping it going. Give my books a read, and if you like them, buy another copy for a friend. That’s how you can support this online apostolate. Thanks!
Politics
Any and all political views I may post on this blog are part of my deeply-held Catholic religious beliefs. That’s because my Catholic religion does not influence my political views, it defines them. Principally, I am a Christian Patriot, and specifically a Catholic Integralist while keeping with the teachings of Dignitatis Humanae in Vatican II. My political beliefs are fully defined in my book Pine Tree Politics.
Pine Tree Politics is just Christian Patriotism for ordinary Americans who still think this country ought to look like a Christian country. It is not a theocracy and it is not “keep your faith in the pews.” Politics always comes from somebody’s religion; when Christians leave the public square empty, someone else fills it. The book draws a straight line from St. Boniface felling the pagan oak and leaving a little fir standing, to Washington’s Pine Tree Flag and its Appeal to Heaven, to the work in front of us now: the unborn, the family, ordered liberty, and the common good. Catholics and Evangelicals lock arms on those domestic things without having to agree on every foreign-policy fight. Christ is King! That means society has a duty to acknowledge Him. It means families first, towns and states next, Washington DC last. That is subsidiarity in plain English. Stop retreating. Disciple the nation the same way we are supposed to disciple people.
Contact
You can follow me on social media: X, Gab, Facebook, Instagram and Threads. If you wish to contact me by email, I can be reached only through this blog by clicking here or on the email icon below.. Please note, if you are a member of the press, I am extremely selective of who I talk to. I generally only grant interviews, or make statements, to specific Catholic news outlets. If you are a Catholic blogger or podcaster, please cite some of your recent work before asking me to do an interview. Thank you.
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