Mystic Monk Coffee Break: reader feedback edition

I have a pretty active email inbox.  Far too active in some respects.  Here is a piece of “fan mail” that actually made me laugh.

NB: We haven’t talked about the goofy Matthew Fox for a long time here.  The writer must have found WDTPRS through a web search.

Enjoy!  But I suggest put your Mystic Monk Coffee down first.

The Subject line was “Matt Fox”.  No edits.  Just enjoy the raw stream:

I had no idea it was a practice of ROMAN Catholics to pound an individuals opinion opinion into the ground. The things you and your followers said about this thought provoking outside of the box sage was slander. Oh wait a sec, this is the Vatican we are speaking of.
Galileo, that only took a few hundred years to fess up to. This Priest was a student of De Chardin and well liked by De Chardin.The way you and your followers spoke of this man was completley unholy. Your actions define you. You as the followed should appologize to Mr. Fax.
And confess you inappropriate actions to your followers. Shame on you.
No worries though, hundreds of years from now will read you blog and shake there heads in disbelief. Remeber you remarks are acts against Christ. “Whatever you do unto the least of them, YOU do unto me”. I think the problem you and your followers have with Fox is that he is an intellectual. You say things of individuals and all your followers agree, not one comment on you blog disagreed with you. Far be it for a good ROMAN Catholic to disagree with a priest. When people like Fox speak they encourage others to question there opinions. Now as for your Pontif… I recently read that Ratzinger (Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Previously known as the
Inquisition!) was unwilling to hear Fox defend himself prior to being silenced. Are you guys related? I promise you I will not denigrate you and your followers for your beliefs or what you believe to be true.
That would be unholy, even for a heathen as me.

Okay.  That convinces me.  I was entirely wrong about Matthew Fox’s splendid and insightful theology.  How could I have been so blind?

I get stuff like this all the time.  This one, however, was pretty amusing.

I’ll wager the writer is a subscriber to the National Catholic ReporterFishwrap.

And now that we are enjoying our really swell Mystic Monk Coffee Break

[CUE MUSIC]

The gun-tottin’ Carmelites in Wyoming, who ship coffee and now tea to your home or place of business, have some nut flavored coffees.

It seems appropriate to give you these links.

  • Nutty coffee 1:  Hazelnut.
  • Nutty coffee 2: Royal Rum Pecan.

And here is a link to a grinder, which calls to mind the torture devices of the Ratzinger’s INQUISITION.

Poor Galileo.  Poor Matthew Fox. Caught in the Ratzinger’s machinations.  Remember, Bp. Morris of Toowoomba said that Pope Ratzinger didn’t listen to him either!

Will the injustice never end?

IDEA for the Coffee Carmelites:

The Soap Sisters, Dominican nuns in New Jersey about whom I have written before – too bad they don’t have an affiliate program – had a soap named after Savonarola.  That soap had the scent reminiscent “crackling fire” – with its smokey overtones – but one of the sisters thought she heard “crackling FRIAR” so they called it “Savonarola”!

In that spirit, the Coffee Carmelites should have a coffee blend called Roman Roast.    They could have a tea called Inquisition Infusion or even better, Autoda.

In the meantime, since – as you can tell – I am so devastated I’ll give everyone a chance after ordering consoling coffee or tea to console me too.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in Green Inkers, SESSIUNCULA, Throwing a Nutty and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

36 Comments

  1. JoAnna says:

    “You as the followed should appologize to Mr. Fax.”

    Best line in the whole piece.

  2. vellemere says:

    A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

  3. Andrew says:

    But we had to speak up. It says in the Bible: “Go tell that fox” (Luke 13:32)

  4. priests wife says:

    not Matthew Fox of the dearly departed Lost, I hope.

  5. Rob Cartusciello says:

    I am obliged to quote Billy Madison:

    What you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

  6. A. J. D. S. says:

    I’ll have two pounds of the Auto-da-Té, please!

  7. Rob Cartusciello: I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

    And here I thought that “Roman Roast” thing was a pretty good idea!

    o{];¬)

  8. EWTN Rocks says:

    Oh my…makes me want another cup of Mystic Monk Coffee!

  9. rsalie says:

    Politically incorrect or not I don’t think you should have to apologize to your fax machine or start referring to it as “Mr.”.

  10. APX says:

    @ JoAnna
    “You as the followed should appologize to Mr. Fax.”
    Best line in the whole piece.

    Yes, indeed. I assume he/she didn’t even do a two-bit proofread prior to hitting “send”.

    Father Z, don’t take it too personally. lol.

  11. Vince K says:

    Childish.

  12. everett says:

    My mother went through a period where she was into reading Matthew Fox and his works. Somewhat ironically, this was the same time that I spent in the college seminary. Thankfully she was realized his errors and his now a third-order Carmelite and more interested in reading John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, in addition to Therese.

  13. Warren says:

    The citation is proof positive that one should not smoke weed before attempting to write an email.

  14. meunke says:

    “You as the followed should appologize to Mr. Fax.”

    Uh, what does the great Mr. Fax have to do with this?

    http://img03.mar.cx/_images/US73626723

  15. amenamen says:

    This just in, :

    Dear Mr. Fax,
    I completley apologize for not listening to you defend yourself when I was Prefect of the Inquistion! I as the followed never actually read you books, because I could not remeber. Please do not shake there heads.

    x (signed)
    the ROMAN Pontif

    The original certified document is on file, but it is not being released to the public.

  16. benedetta says:

    “Thought-provoking outside of the box sage” It would be a great name for a punk band…

  17. inara says:

    y’all are making my Peaceful Monk come out my nose…not very ladylike

  18. benedetta says:

    amenamen. Tears of laughter. It’s in the circular file.

  19. AnAmericanMother says:

    Oh, dear. This is horrible and at the same time hilarious.

  20. Rob Cartusciello says:

    I’m glad you enjoyed it, Father. Should you wish to see the quote in its original (video) context:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0

    FYI, the line was quoted by a judge in a decision several years ago.

  21. EWTN Rocks says:

    meunke, amenamen, and inara – way too funny!

  22. BLB Oregon says:

    I have been told that if it were a denomination, ex-Catholics would be the second-largest denomination in the US. I am inclined to believe it. I cannot imagine who else could describe himself as a “heathen” and yet get this worked up defending Matthew Fox against the blog musings of a traditional Roman Catholic priest.

    Or maybe it is like being Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. When the media criticizes the Church, the whole world is ex-Catholic.

  23. Ezra says:

    I think the problem you and your followers have with Fox is that he is an intellectual.

    Given the name-calling that these “eco-spirituality” types resort to when any of their cherished errors (pan[en]theism being foremost) are queried for philosophical/theological reasons, this made me laugh. I suspect that next week the writer will be inveighing against heartless scholasticism for seeking to combat intimations of Gaia with a system of oppressive axioms.

  24. Rich says:

    It seems rather hypocritical to quote Mt. 25:40 while simultaneously using such a derisive tone throughout, and what with referring to Fr. Z. and his “followers” (of whom I am a proud member). This person should question his or her opinion that questioning one’s own opinion makes for a hallmark of sound teaching, and sit down to try and read Pius XII’s Humani Generis, a good antidote to Matthew Fox’s teaching on creation and original sin.

  25. Dr. Eric says:

    Shouldn’t it be renamed “The Outhouse Paper” instead of “The Fishwrap”?

    I just made my first order from the Mystic Monks- I want to see how good their tea really is.

  26. Gabrielle says:

    I hereby confes my inappropriate actons in lughing so hard I almost crid

  27. AnAmericanMother says:

    Rob and smad,

    That has already been passed on to where it will do the most good.

    As Spike Milligan once observed,

    “What? No black cap?”

    “It’s at the laundry.”

    Adolph Hitler, My Part in His Downfall

  28. pseudomodo says:

    Interesting…

    Savonarola…

    Savon is French for Soap.

  29. James Joseph says:

    Matt. Fox?!

    You mean the guy that pitches for the Red Sox with the 10.80 ERA?

  30. Ezra says:

    You mean the guy that pitches for the Red Sox with the 10.80 ERA?

    If this blog turns into incomprehensible baseball references 24/7, I am going to cry.

  31. AnAmericanMother says:

    Ezra,
    You are getting off easy. My very first job, my office mate was a retired semi-pro pitcher who insisted that I learn to keep a box score.
    Actually, though, it has proved useful on more than one occasion. And you can really appreciate the finer points of baseball once you keep score for a couple of games.
    I found my old score book last weekend while cleaning out a closet. I was actually able to remember the details of several of the games while reading the scores (and we’re talking about 1980!)

  32. ERA is “earned run average”.

  33. Ezra says:

    Suburbanbanshee,

    I got to the second word of your comment before slipping into a coma. Come again?

  34. Joan A. says:

    The last time I saw Matthew Fox was about 1984 and his Institute for “Creation Centered Spirituality” group was sitting in a big circle on the lawn of a college campus, silently and intently staring at a dead bird.

    I thought the guy was considered passe by now.

  35. ‘“Whatever you do unto the least of them, YOU do unto me”’

    I know! It’s a terrible thing to be leading people astray with rampant heresy! We have a duty to resist it by spreading information about it, also in order to try to relieve the burden eventually carried by the spreader of heresies.

    Of course, without having read (to my memory) the posts on Foxhere or the combox and thus not making a comment on whether this has occurred in this case, it is a well known fact that some people can get a little overenthusiastic when commenting on the internet and thus perhaps leave kindness aside a little to the detriment of convincing the as yet unconverted. Something we all need to take on board, I guess, especially as it is so tempting to do it, and there is so much frustration just begging to be vented at the various types of madness being presented in the place of solid and sane doctrine. It can leave even a solid and in and of itself charitably motivated point open to attacks and less capable of actually swaying those who are mislead.

    “Far be it for a good ROMAN Catholic to disagree with a priest. ”

    Isn’t Matthew Fox a priest, so how does this work? How can I possibly manage not to disagree with a priest in this matter?

Comments are closed.