and still contend with a man who insists on maintaining a public profile as a leading "traditional" Catholic voice when he should have sought a far more private life. A lot of things that a convert must contend with take a good deal of time to navigate through and one can hardly lead discussions when they're supposed to be focused on catching up.

Totally agree.  He has no qualifications whatsoever to have a "Trad" blog, much less a novus ordo one.  Put all the usernames of "cathinfo.com" into a hat and 90% of us would be better qualified to run a blog than he.

I'd argue that naming your kids after the Opus Judei founder makes you dyed-in-the-black-wool. However, for those who need an official list left from an Alta Vendita level operative, suffice to say the man has naturally aligned his entire career based off of the same principles. They draw from the same source of inspiration.

He named one of his sons Escriva? Please support this -- I was unable to verify.

Here is my son on the way home from the hospital today. He shall be baptized, Jude Ambrose Josemaria Marshall.

Jude because [...]

Ambrose because [...]

Josemaria after St Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei. I have gained a deep devotion to this holy man and his writings. I attend daily Mass at the St Josemaria Chapel (at the Catholic Information Center) and my boss (and father and friend) is a priest of Opus Dei. Also, my son was born on June 26, the feast day of St Josemaria.

https://web.archive.org/web/20130506164425/http://www.taylormarshall.com/2006/06/my-new-son-jude-ambrose-josemaria.html



Nowadays, he appears to prefer to mention just "Jude":

Here is an “in action” baptism photo. Father Stetson (coped) of the Prelature of Opus Dei administers the sacrament. My beloved wife holds our son. That’s me in the background with one of our daughters. As you can see, Jude is crying as he comes into the Kingdom – regenerate and infused with the Holy Ghost.
Photo from the godfather – Mark Adams.

https://taylormarshall.com/2006/07/baptism-photo.html

I will say this, the child can't help but be a better Josemaria than his namesake! But let's just leave it at that. I hope his family does well in spite of whatever shenanigans Taylor is pulling online. A family that size needs a lot of resources and perhaps that's the main reason he might be going along with whatever agenda that gets handed down to him. Opus Dei is rather well off compared almost any other Catholic organization I can think of... for reasons we all know...

… Endo's Silence …

Corrigendum: I confused The Silence, which I haven't read, with The Samurai, which I have read and which I admire. Of the former book I know nothing. I realized my error too late to correct it. Mea culpa.

He gives the reasons why Jude, why Ambrose, and why Josemaria. By why did he have his son baptized Marshall?

I'd like to think that the suggestion that Marshall is part of the child's baptismal name was merely an inadvertency or a bêtise on his dad's part. The presence of an emoji at the end of your comment suggests that you think much the same. Nicht wahr?

If we discount the twinkle in your eye, however, perhaps the explanation is that Marshall père was channeling his inner Italian gentiluomo. There was a centuries-old custom among the Italian aristocracy, extending even into the twentieth century, to christen an eldest son with the singular form of the family name. Examples are Galileo Galilei, Marino Marini, and Vincenzo Vincenzi. As English lacks most case endings, plain blunt Marshall Marshall will have to do for this child. If this surmise is correct and if, in a few years, junior's schoolfellows discover the duplication, they will mock the poor boy with such unrelieved intensity that he may end up hating his old man.

Alas, the devil is tempting me to take sinful delight in that thought. Still, it's an ill wind that blows no one good.

Why would you think, claudel, that he could be an Italian?

I don't. By "channeling his inner Italian gentiluomo," I simply meant that he might be imagining himself to be such a man and thus, as it were, be living a dream. In using the turn of phrase I did, it certainly was not my intent to deliberately perplex you.

I do not understand the fascination of supposedly traditionalist Catholics with other lay Catholics as purported authority figures.

....

I understand why President Trump might logically think that a lay Catholic appointee would "help with the Catholic vote," since most voters are lay. But I don't see the "infatuation" of Catholics with laymen when there are priests who are not confused, who are respected by a large body of traditionalist orders, etc.

This positioning of lay people as celebrities/authority figures is quite common in the Novus Ordo Church (think Scott Hahn, Matt Fradd, Christopher West, etc). If I were to speculate, this fascination perhaps comes from the fact that more traditionally minded lay "authority figures" are now, more often than not, how most people in the NO find out about Traditional Catholicism for the first time, due to the Internet savvy and significant social media presence of these prominent laymen. And so, it is easy for newcomers to Traditional Catholicism to cling to these types, since they provide an easy source of information and, at least in the minds of these newcomers, these lay "authority figures" have proven themselves trustworthy. Also, keep in mind that many of these people come from the Newchurch, where this sort of phenomenon is quite entrenched, and so they don't see this as wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure that lay theologians were a Vatican II invention.