The National Catholic Fishwrap published an encomium of Fr. Hans Küng written by the former editor of The Tablet.
It’s kinda sweet, actually.
Rather like overhearing three spinsters muse about halcyon days when a cup of coffee cost a nickel and the boys still looked.
One of them absently pats her bluish hair into place behind her ear and gazes with a little smile at the street beyond the window. The other two watch her from under their big hair dryers.
[CUE WISTFUL MUSIC]
When you’ve had a hard day trying to figure out just why you keep those books on the shelf and then realize that the terrible theology in them simply can’t hurt anyone anymore, smile and make yourself a fragrant WDTPRS mug of Mystic Monk Coffee!
And as you stare at the old, cliche titles and increasingly irrelevant authors, channel your inner liberal and order some … I am not making this up… Fair Trade Organic Decaffeinated Mexican!
No, no… this is a coffee.
Because liberals are sure to wince at the very thought that both the traditional monks in Wyoming and Fr. Z are getting a taste of the sale, leave them conflicted, in inner turmoil. After all! They have a nearly Pavlovian response to phrases like “FAIR TRAAAAAADE” and words such as “orgaaaaaanic“, unless of course “organic” pertains to liturgical development. The “Mexican” part will probably make them think about Liberation Theology, too!
And do you need a newspaper to wrap those damp, played-out old coffee grounds in?
Yes, it’s all good fun.
Mystic Monk Coffee.
It’s still swell!
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When I seen Father stretch out words like “traaade” and orgaaanic,” I wonder what talk show host he might have been tuning in on? (Grin)
Seriously?? I went and read the article, and it is exactly how Father describes it. The comments are horrific. Kung should be Pope…. Kung is the best….. Very sickening.
@gloriainexcelsis: You beat me to it! I was just loading the comments page to post the same comment!
I do, indeed, wonder where Fr. Z might have picked that up.
(I also wonder whether he is a fan of Kung Fu Panda when he says stuff like “we are noodle fold”.)
Father, your comments are right on!
And those three old cats are still making snide comments about their classmate who made good . . . .
Forgive me Lord, but Fr. Kueng’s meds need to be adjusted…I don’t know if he’s in dementia or just plain psychotic;
give me a break…and the rest of the Church, as well.
This guy is a “caricature” of the ’60s…he’s the one who has a problem with “getting with the times”.
God give him the mercy to at least die in the state of grace.
What a futz!
[Oh, just relax and enjoy him while we still have him!]
Ok, I love Mystic Monk Coffee just as much as any of you. In fact, I am drinking some as I type this. But enough is enough. Do we really have to have a commerical every other post?
[Perhaps you need another cup? Then you will see that they are also commentary. Besides, I like ’em. So refresh your supply today! o{];¬) ]
Yes! You can never have too many advertisements for Mystic Monk Coffee. :D
The organic Mexican decaf is my favorite. I drank a lot of this while pregnant & caffeine-free. Now I drink it late at night while watching Dr. Who after the kids are in bed. It’s really awesome.
Fr. Kueng suffers from what v. Balthasar described as “the anti-Roman complex”. His fellow German, Martin Luther, was among the most famous sufferers from this mental aberration. As one unkind commentator remarked “Fr. Kueng can never be pope. He would have to give up being infallible”.
I, too, actually read the NCR article on Kung. How sad. You say we should “enjoy him while we still have him”, Fr Z, but – wow! – it’s hard to enjoy people who seem to hate you. I suppose if one can look at his ideas as fast-crumbling museum pieces, they could somehow seem less acrid.
“Joseph Ratzinger was a colleague at Tübingen until frightened into leaving the progressives’ camp by the student revolts of 1968.”
Oh please, Joseph Ratzinger does not have a frightened bone in his body. I will take the humble and holy Pope Benedict over the arrogant, egotistical and uncharitable Hans Kung any day.
Thank God the Holy Spirit agrees with me.
‘“Joseph Ratzinger was a colleague at Tübingen until frightened into leaving the progressives’ camp by the student revolts of 1968.”
Oh please, Joseph Ratzinger does not have a frightened bone in his body.’
Why, don’t you know that people who resisted the Nazi regime are all sissies?
Count me in the camp who thinks Kung is good for a laugh.
Question: What is the difference between NPR and the NCR?
Answer: One letter, and that is all.
So rich for Kung to say he was through with Benedict once he lifted the excommunications of the “schismatic” (his words) SSPX bishops, as well as to lament the oh-so-cruel treatment he has received from the Vatican.
Kung is has always been “in good standing,” of course. For a pompous heresiarch like Kung, that’s called being treated with kid gloves! The Vatican would have roasted him without hesitation in earlier times.
In my waning days as a student at the University of Michigan; hh kung came in dressed as a business man, and set-about appeasing the liberals seated in the auditorium (oh, yes, famous liberal catholics garner huge audiences; with an almost, ‘I told you so’ attitude; like us conservatives are sooo stupid!)
But, I’ll never forget this: this Consecrated Priest set-about explaining why abortion is OK.
Before that time, I generally admired his “Mere Christianity” and his “Evidence for God” though, admittedly, they were pseudo-intellectual. But, after that speech (and this is on the trails of being an atheist myself, loving everything from Sartres to Camus, but nothing in-between.)
Hey, if “organic” means “quality ingredients” and “fair trade” means “better treatment of workers”, then I don’t see why Lefty’s should get them all to themselves. Drink deep of Traditional Christian fonts, I say.
Okay, now I get it–you share revenue on the coffee.
Here’s one liberal who doesn’t wince at the monks nor their creative way of raising funds for their beknighted monastery. No indeed, I only wince at their appalling architectural taste.
I’d rather have French Gothic pastiche than whatever is currently “cutting edge” in the modernist school today. In 100 years the French Gothic pastiche will still look beautiful though “unoriginal” and will remain expressive of Catholic theological beliefs while the modernist structure will look ugly and outdated while artistically reflecting little or no Catholic theology. The true utilitarian building of the two is the French Gothic pastiche, for it far better serves its purpose as a place of authentic Catholic worship.
Benighted doesn’t seem a particularly apt term; the good monks seem to be veritably swimming in vocations, and solid in praxis. As their architectural stylings, about time some sanity be restored to the world of Church architecture after the garbage that has come in the last century.
If you want a good idea of the future, check this out: http://www.sacredarchitecture.org/
My impression of Kung from the NCR article is that this is a man who lives in the past. He sounds bitter. It is quite sad.
“What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism.”
G.K. Chesterton
@ Gabriel Austin – Hans Küng was born in Switzerland – he seems to live in the Tübingen area, but he’s not a German citizen.
Thank God!! We’ve produced quite a big share of strange and destructive philosophers and theologians in this notoriously anti-Rome country of ours – but we can NOT be blamed for Mr. Küng – that pompous, self-loving, stuck in the sixties, arrogant old fossil!
PostCatholic says:
Here’s one liberal who doesn’t wince at the monks nor their creative way of raising funds for their beknighted monastery. No indeed, I only wince at their appalling architectural taste.
The architecture of the monastery is an expression of faith, which you have made clear that you have renounced. And so it’s not surprising that you would wince at the design.
I’m always amused by your comments here–you seem to be an ex seminarian version of Miss Havisham.
@ PostCatholic: “Here’s one liberal who doesn’t wince at the monks nor their creative way of raising funds for their benighted monastery. No indeed, I only wince at their appalling architectural taste.”
I’m surprised, PC … normally you’re not so snarky. If you could step outside your secularist box for a moment, would you favor us with a description of what a monastery should look like?
I also read the NCR piece … as about as petulant and self-congratulatory a piece of narcissistic cow plop as ever was foisted on an unsuspecting public. Küng may be harmless now, but he and his fellow travellers have already done their damage. He makes me too sad to laugh.