I simply don't know where to start. All I can say is I'm sorry to the writer of this article for this comment, but the only thing that comes to mind is IDIOT. What a complete misunderstanding and disservice to gifted intellectual giants of our time, while giving credit to those who least deserve even to be mentioned. I can't even speak or wish to speak on such written garbage.
Loya is a comic character, in the sense that all of those misbegotten V2 enthusiasts of the seventies were comic: priests and nuns who used their seculo-Catholic pretentiousness as a means of disguising their utter loathing of the simple, unsophisticated religiosity of those whom they supposedly served. They were priests who left the priesthood, nuns who left their orders, because they felt such things were an impediment to their ministering to the needs of men, but who ended up as political proselytizers, folk singers, sexual omnivores, pop psychologists, journalists, even Wall Street stockbrokers.
Of course, that is only half of the joke – the only half that today’s neo-Caths will acknowledge. The other half is the fact that all that has come to pass of this comical dunderheadedness has its roots in the academic ego of a pontiff, a true “Son of the Council”, who had no taste for the ordinary duties of governance, but who indulged his pedantic flights to a fault, and in doing so inflated a single issue – sex – to elephantine proportions, from which nothing has emerged but confusion and consternation.
John Paul’s “theology of the body” – the documents and the reactions to them within and without the Church – is a microcosm of V2 itself.
Whatever Father Thomas Loya gets wrong about John Paul II's Theology of the Body or other matters, he is a devout Byzantine Catholic priest who believes and teaches the Catholic faith, celebrating the Divine Liturgy most reverently. Comparing him to the "misbegotten V2 enthusiasts of the seventies" who abandoned their vocations is erroneous and simply unjust.
Comment two: inflammatory in tone; but I think its concluding sentence is uncomfortably true. If there is such a thing as a theological novelty, TOB as hyped is it.
I don't know... Priests talking about sex should speak circumspectly. If not, when they look like misbegotten V2 enthusiasts of the seventies it is probably because that is how they are sounding. I'm just sayin... For once I would like to see us hold conservatives to standards of excellence instead of accomodation. The TOB crowd pruduces material that is middling, its only truly outstanding recommendation being JOHN PAUL II is attached. given Weigel's thorough working of that legacy, I have to say its credit with many has worn thin. Stand on your own merits, and drop the hucksterism. TOB has about as much intellecual class as The Purpose Drive Life. It all screams "CONTRIVED." If papl endorsement means anything at all, we should all be strident propoents of Inerrancy, right? Given that has been shredded, excuse me if I laugh at the effort to equate sexual intercourse with divine perfection. Married sex is great, but heaven on earth... we;ll yeah, like wine, chocolate and NASCAR. I mean reeally, can TOB salesmen get a clue. OK: aI'll recant somewhat there, but really... Thom Howard might call JPIIs TOB talks magisterial, but any realist will say, "HARDLY."
I don't disagree with your criticisms of TOB and the way its popularisers -- even Father Loya -- have popularised it, JM. My only point was that RRD's personal attack on Father Loya is, however, inaccurate, unfair, and unjust.
I simply don't know where to start. All I can say is I'm sorry to the writer of this article for this comment, but the only thing that comes to mind is IDIOT. What a complete misunderstanding and disservice to gifted intellectual giants of our time, while giving credit to those who least deserve even to be mentioned. I can't even speak or wish to speak on such written garbage.
ReplyDeleteLoya is a comic character, in the sense that all of those misbegotten V2 enthusiasts of the seventies were comic: priests and nuns who used their seculo-Catholic pretentiousness as a means of disguising their utter loathing of the simple, unsophisticated religiosity of those whom they supposedly served. They were priests who left the priesthood, nuns who left their orders, because they felt such things were an impediment to their ministering to the needs of men, but who ended up as political proselytizers, folk singers, sexual omnivores, pop psychologists, journalists, even Wall Street stockbrokers.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that is only half of the joke – the only half that today’s neo-Caths will acknowledge. The other half is the fact that all that has come to pass of this comical dunderheadedness has its roots in the academic ego of a pontiff, a true “Son of the Council”, who had no taste for the ordinary duties of governance, but who indulged his pedantic flights to a fault, and in doing so inflated a single issue – sex – to elephantine proportions, from which nothing has emerged but confusion and consternation.
John Paul’s “theology of the body” – the documents and the reactions to them within and without the Church – is a microcosm of V2 itself.
Whatever Father Thomas Loya gets wrong about John Paul II's Theology of the Body or other matters, he is a devout Byzantine Catholic priest who believes and teaches the Catholic faith, celebrating the Divine Liturgy most reverently. Comparing him to the "misbegotten V2 enthusiasts of the seventies" who abandoned their vocations is erroneous and simply unjust.
ReplyDeleteComment one: Intellectual GIANTS? Well, Okay...
ReplyDeleteComment two: inflammatory in tone; but I think its concluding sentence is uncomfortably true. If there is such a thing as a theological novelty, TOB as hyped is it.
Jordanes:
ReplyDeleteI don't know... Priests talking about sex should speak circumspectly. If not, when they look like misbegotten V2 enthusiasts of the seventies it is probably because that is how they are sounding. I'm just sayin... For once I would like to see us hold conservatives to standards of excellence instead of accomodation. The TOB crowd pruduces material that is middling, its only truly outstanding recommendation being JOHN PAUL II is attached. given Weigel's thorough working of that legacy, I have to say its credit with many has worn thin. Stand on your own merits, and drop the hucksterism. TOB has about as much intellecual class as The Purpose Drive Life. It all screams "CONTRIVED." If papl endorsement means anything at all, we should all be strident propoents of Inerrancy, right? Given that has been shredded, excuse me if I laugh at the effort to equate sexual intercourse with divine perfection. Married sex is great, but heaven on earth... we;ll yeah, like wine, chocolate and NASCAR. I mean reeally, can TOB salesmen get a clue. OK: aI'll recant somewhat there, but really... Thom Howard might call JPIIs TOB talks magisterial, but any realist will say, "HARDLY."
I don't disagree with your criticisms of TOB and the way its popularisers -- even Father Loya -- have popularised it, JM. My only point was that RRD's personal attack on Father Loya is, however, inaccurate, unfair, and unjust.
ReplyDeletepoint taken.
ReplyDelete