Bp. Williamson reflects on poetry… a good niche?

22 Responses to Bp. Williamson reflects on poetry… a good niche?

1. Neal says:

   2 March 2009 at 3:46 PM

   May God give him strength.
2. Genna says:

   2 March 2009 at 3:51 PM

   Aside of all else, it’s a very good crit of Hopkins.
3. Ann says:

   2 March 2009 at 4:00 PM

   I think it is a good thing that he is choosing to move forward and be active with something and not dwelling on the problems he is having.

   I continue to pray for their return to unity.
4. Merriweather says:

   2 March 2009 at 4:46 PM

   H.E. was a professor of English Literature before becoming a priest. This is not a *new* pass time for him.
5. Mary Rose says:

   2 March 2009 at 5:18 PM

   I really enjoy Hopkins. A good friend of mine, who is a poet, introduced me to his work. He made the strangest words dance together. :-)

   My prayers are for Bp. Williamson.
6. Irish says:

   2 March 2009 at 6:09 PM

   My favorite poet. Spring and Fall is my favorite.

   No worst, there is none

   “No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief,
   More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.
   Comforter, where, where is your comforting?
   Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
   My cries heave, herds-long; huddle in a main, a chief
   Woe, world-sorrow; on an age-old anvil wince and sing –
   Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked ‘No lingering!
   Let me be fell: force I must be brief’.

   O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
   Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
   May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
   Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
   Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
   Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.”

   If you’d like access to an online anthology of poetry, visit the wondering minstrels:
   http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/
7. little gal says:

   2 March 2009 at 7:44 PM

   Poetry is a wonderful balm for wounds–at least this is something about “Fr.” Williamson that I understand. I will include him in my prayers…St. Paul needed to be knocked off his horse and perhaps the same remedy is needed here.
8. Antonio says:

   2 March 2009 at 7:47 PM

   Fr. Z., I find your comment insulting. Do not ever forget that you are speaking about a Bishop of the Catholic Church.
9. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:

   2 March 2009 at 8:21 PM

   Antonio: I find your comment insulting.

   Do you? Oh well. I will have to bear up.

   Do not ever forget that you are speaking about a Bishop of the Catholic Church.

   Uh huh. Right.Put in my place, I guess…. Let me just look up his name in the Annuario Pontificio …. looking…. looking….
10. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:

    2 March 2009 at 8:22 PM

    Merriweather: professor of English Literature before becoming a priest

    Thanks for that reminder. That had slipped my mind.
11. Merriweather says:

    2 March 2009 at 10:11 PM

    @little gal

    “Poetry is a wonderful balm for wounds—at least this is something about “Fr.” Williamson that I understand. ”

    Why do you place “Fr.” in quotes? I don’t want to read any snark into your post, so help me to understand. He is a validly ordained priest and consecrated bishop.

    “I will include him in my prayers…”

    I’m sure he is in great need of them right now.

    “St. Paul needed to be knocked off his horse and perhaps the same remedy is needed here.”

    It’s pretty difficult not to see anything snarky about that. I think H.E. has been “knocked” more than any man deserves in recent weeks.

    There is a saying about not kicking a man when he’s down.

    I’ve been very gratified by the balanced way Fr. Z has treated this whole matter–a nice change from the ferocity of the attacks against him elsewhere. There is something truly diabolical about their viciousness.
12. Edward C. says:

    2 March 2009 at 10:14 PM

    It’s ok Father *I* didn’t find anything insulting in the post. What is more insulting I think is when people feel the need to ” ” Fr. or priest or bishop, denying his priesthood by quotating Fr. I would say is a deep insult to his ordination and really ought to be avoided and condemned.
13. Shzilio says:

    2 March 2009 at 10:45 PM

    Tongue in cheek.
14. theology reader says:

    2 March 2009 at 10:54 PM

    I thought that it was good that this would be posted in any case as it shows Bishop Williamson’s more gifted and humanistic side. While I find Bishop Williamson’s reflection on Hopkins to be worthy, I was considering that while
    his background in poetry, literature and literature instruction is a good asset, sometimes those overly involved in literature tend to make flights of fancy in the imagination. Perhaps as a priest and Bishop this propensity for literature has both helped him and has gotten him into trouble through his high imaginative propensity that may at times hinder a more reasonable approach.
    Dostoevsky comes to mind who had a tendency to organize conspiracy theories in his mind and sometimes he went a over the edge letting his passion and imagination overcome a sounder judgment.
15. Merriweather says:

    2 March 2009 at 11:00 PM

    I’d like to clarify that I didn’t find anything offensive about Father’s initial post…I just responded about +Williamson’s past as a Lit professor, because I wasn’t sure people knew that about him.
16. Virility Is Not The Question says:

    3 March 2009 at 2:10 AM

    “Manley”!
17. Antonio says:

    3 March 2009 at 8:24 AM

    Fr. Z., so now the criterion is the “Annuario”? Sure you will find a long list of heretics there; do you you think they deserve more respect than Mons. Williamson for that reason? Neo-catholics can be hilarious. [And since your obvious intent is to offend, you can sit out for a while.]
18. pear says:

    3 March 2009 at 12:27 PM

    I didn’t realize Williamson had a blog. Just read some of his other posts on 9/11 being an “inside job.” Yikes — he’s definitely not a man in touch with reality.

    I am going to read some Hopkins, though.
19. Michael J says:

    3 March 2009 at 3:36 PM

    It seems that poetry may be all the good Bishop has left, at least in Los Angeles.

    Apparently, Cardinal Mahoney has established some sort of interdict against Bishop Williamson.

    “In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican’s directives regarding the Holocaust.”

    see http://www.the-tidings.com/2009/030609/statement.htm
20. Merriweather says:

    3 March 2009 at 4:51 PM

    @Michael J

    I think that interdict could safely be applied to all Catholics within the archdiocese of Los Angeles, no?

    Typical +Mahoney dissembling…”until he *and his group* comply…”

    Whatever.
21. Mike B. says:

    4 March 2009 at 1:50 PM

    As a Professor of Literature I am happy to see that he’s devoting his time to poetry, especially that of Hopkins.

    In case any of you are wondering, I’m a Poe, Hawthorne, and Faulkner man myself (with many others in the mix as well).

    Mike
22. Henry Edwards says:

    4 March 2009 at 2:11 PM

    In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Williamson is hereby banned from entering any Catholic church, school or other facility, until he and his group comply fully and unequivocally with the Vatican’s directives regarding the Holocaust.

    Hmm … Strikes me as possibly an excellent idea, that no bishop be allowed to enter any Catholic church in LA until he complies with all Vatican directives.

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