From the Archives
OK, so everyone's dumping on Art Jones from NCR.... And so it goes.
I won't join in the hate fest besides saying that if it isn't sufficiently clear by now that Wojtyla and Ratzinger are by no means the same person, it will never be clear -- and the old "Hammer of Heresy" caricature of the latter doesn't work anymore, sorry. Give the man his due. You've got the hard Right saying "Down with Vatican II, heretical council, heretical popes!" and the hard Left saying "Vatican II's getting rolled back! Boo!"
As B16 seems to fall right in the middle of the hysteric fringes, he's doing just great.
Our good friend Todd mentioned a long ago commentary of mine on why ecclesiastical progressives have cast themselves off the reservation. As he was seeking it out, I've culled it from the treasure-trove of goodies that was here long before all you lovely latecomers showed up. (Thanks for coming, by the by. Stay awhile and feel free to vent. And, as always, enjoy the show.)
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I get some ribbing -- and, admittedly, sometimes it's justified -- that I don't come down nearly as hard on the more progressive elements in the church as I do on the conservatives. This disproportionate savagery -- which, admittedly again, violates my policy of equal-opportunity flagellation -- is the product of several factors, a precious few of which I will now enumerate:
1. The Right is a fount of material nonpareil, the only exception being the spring of Lourdes. Come on, at least VOTF wasn't headquartered in a pizza shop -- and that's the only thing they've done right.
2. The Left would get more lashings from me if only they followed Rule #1 -- For the love of God, show up for the game. Think of it like this: in the status quo, the conservatives have the home field at Yankee Stadium, packed house, everyone waiting to see a knock-down, drag-out contest, and the progressives are on a sandlot in Yonkers trying to get the game moved there. Who wins? Play by the rules, people -- Woody Allen said that 90% of life is just showing up, and if you don't know how true that is, you're done.
3. Because the Right has home-field, and is the dominant movement in the biz, the spotlight (and the responsibility) naturally falls more on them. The Left can have all the eccentrics it wants -- and, believe me, it does (but they're dropping like flies, they're all so old) -- however, their priests don't get dioceses, their laity don't get backdoor access to the pope and the dicasteries... if anything, American ecclesiastical progressives scare the Curia away as if they were waving 6x10 Arcigay flags -- and they have no one to blame for that but themselves.
4. Lewis Black has said "This is American politics -- the Republican party, a party of bad ideas; and the Democrats, a party of no ideas." It's an appropriate analogy -- not only does the Left not show up for the game most of the time, but when it does, it shows no sense of aecumen and blows up the rules from the outset ("Nice to meet you, Bishop. END CELIBACY NOW!"), killing posthaste whatever credibility it could establish within the institution.
'Nuff said.
-30-
I won't join in the hate fest besides saying that if it isn't sufficiently clear by now that Wojtyla and Ratzinger are by no means the same person, it will never be clear -- and the old "Hammer of Heresy" caricature of the latter doesn't work anymore, sorry. Give the man his due. You've got the hard Right saying "Down with Vatican II, heretical council, heretical popes!" and the hard Left saying "Vatican II's getting rolled back! Boo!"
As B16 seems to fall right in the middle of the hysteric fringes, he's doing just great.
Our good friend Todd mentioned a long ago commentary of mine on why ecclesiastical progressives have cast themselves off the reservation. As he was seeking it out, I've culled it from the treasure-trove of goodies that was here long before all you lovely latecomers showed up. (Thanks for coming, by the by. Stay awhile and feel free to vent. And, as always, enjoy the show.)
***************************************
I get some ribbing -- and, admittedly, sometimes it's justified -- that I don't come down nearly as hard on the more progressive elements in the church as I do on the conservatives. This disproportionate savagery -- which, admittedly again, violates my policy of equal-opportunity flagellation -- is the product of several factors, a precious few of which I will now enumerate:
1. The Right is a fount of material nonpareil, the only exception being the spring of Lourdes. Come on, at least VOTF wasn't headquartered in a pizza shop -- and that's the only thing they've done right.
2. The Left would get more lashings from me if only they followed Rule #1 -- For the love of God, show up for the game. Think of it like this: in the status quo, the conservatives have the home field at Yankee Stadium, packed house, everyone waiting to see a knock-down, drag-out contest, and the progressives are on a sandlot in Yonkers trying to get the game moved there. Who wins? Play by the rules, people -- Woody Allen said that 90% of life is just showing up, and if you don't know how true that is, you're done.
3. Because the Right has home-field, and is the dominant movement in the biz, the spotlight (and the responsibility) naturally falls more on them. The Left can have all the eccentrics it wants -- and, believe me, it does (but they're dropping like flies, they're all so old) -- however, their priests don't get dioceses, their laity don't get backdoor access to the pope and the dicasteries... if anything, American ecclesiastical progressives scare the Curia away as if they were waving 6x10 Arcigay flags -- and they have no one to blame for that but themselves.
4. Lewis Black has said "This is American politics -- the Republican party, a party of bad ideas; and the Democrats, a party of no ideas." It's an appropriate analogy -- not only does the Left not show up for the game most of the time, but when it does, it shows no sense of aecumen and blows up the rules from the outset ("Nice to meet you, Bishop. END CELIBACY NOW!"), killing posthaste whatever credibility it could establish within the institution.
'Nuff said.
-30-
posted by Rocco Palmo at 00:30
1 Comments:
Rock, thanks for the reminder. I spent two hours combing through your blessed archives and I knew I'd read it somewhere.
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