Friday, December 04, 2009

In a little piece of bread?

Thomas Merton once said that it's hard to convince someone of the existence of a fire they have never been warmed by.

2 comments:

Athos said...

Good Fr Barron wipes up O'Brien's condescending without resorting to triumphalism; or rather, a triumphalism by merely naming the true great intellectuals of the Church who loved the Lord their God sufficiently to spend time in His Real Presence.

It never ceases to amaze me that the 'progressives' - so-called - both within and without the Church lay claim to the greater intelligence in preening self-aggrandisement.

Meanwhile, the true greats humbly allow the True Light to cascade through them, shards of the Logos.

Dennis said...

Nice knocking down of a straw man.
Read McBrien's statement. (BTW, I didn't catch Barron's response to the THEOLOGICAL argument McBrien made in that piece.Then again, Barron didn't present any of that.)

Let's stay with the out of context snippet quoted by Fr. Barron. A twisting of McBrien's reference of the historically dismal state of education for the bulk of Catholics into an attack on Catholic Intelligensia is sad and laughable at the same time.

Is Barron a theologian? Sounds like an ecclesiastical politician (Seriously! This is pandering to a constituency not a theological argument!

I can't recall Rahner (whom he cites) ever talking about another theologian as "delivering himself of a strong polemic diatribe"!

Conservatives hate McBrien because he tells the truth (ie. tidbits like - bishops used to be elected, etc.!)and does his homework!

They still revile his book "Catholicism", even though it is the ONLY work (at the prolonged urging of his critics) vetted by the entire USCCB!

What is McBrien's theological felony? McBrien has the nerve to tell his readers: "this is a dogma", "this is a doctrine" and "this is a theological opinion". In short, every thing that you hear from a clergy man need not be digested whole.Everything is not on the same level.

There are other forms of Catholicism and approaches that Rome has (and does) admit are legitimate. Apparently, they would rather you not know about these things.

BTW, the entire Eastern CATHOLIC Church would agree with McBrien's position on eucharistic adoration!
Are they not truly Catholic according to Fr. Barron?

Richard McBrien (and here is the real joke) is the most ORTHODOX of theologians! He accepts the Church's teaching on all 7 sacraments, the physical resurrection and Papal infallibility, etc., etc.!

Trust me, there are many Catholic theologians who do not. And yet, McBrien draws the ire.

McBrien's problem is that his area of theology is ecclesiology. This requires the raising of questions on power and order in the Church.

For the record, I personally enjoy eucharistic adoration. However, I can separate out my personal preferences from theological argumentation. At least, I've not yet won a theological debate by insisting, "but I like it!" ;-)