Cardinal Newman, Retrofitted

Last updated on: December 30, 2014 at 4:25 pm by Mark Shea

Cardinal Newman, Retrofitted 2014-12-30T16:25:08-07:00 Mark Shea

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Poor Frank Weathers writes:

Um, why do I get these kind of comments?!

I thoroughly enjoyed your article ( and the comments) …Except for the image … a medieval castle is a very noble and special place for a true Catholic, and should not be inhabited by the kind of people that the image suggests ….

Medieval castles = sacrosanct. Duly noted. *cough*

This amazing vision of medieval history, which is remarkably unfamiliar with the sort of thing that went on in castles, makes me think of a conversation I once had with a friend of mine who was struck by the fact that, aside from bragging about the “riches of Catholic tradition” in arguments with Protestants, many and many a Catholic she had run into were quite as ignorant of Catholic history and tradition as anybody else and that it was not uncommon to get chewed out as a “modernist” by people who fancied themselves “Traditionalist” for noting something accurately about the Tradition that did not fit in with the cramped world of the Traditionalist.

I’ve noted this too. So for instance, when I pointed out some while back that there is, in fact, room for discussion of lay women cardinals and that no less then Fr. Benedict Groeschel and Cardinal Dolan had noted this as well, self-described Traditionalists had freaked out. Mind you, I don’t particularly endorse the idea (nor do I have panic attacks about it). I merely noted the fact that it is theoretically possible because it, you know, is. Suddenly, not just me, but Fr. Groeschel and Cdl Dolan were enemies of the Faith and modernists, etc. blah blah. By this was meant we stood in the medieval tradition of being able to consider ideas rather than in the peculiarly modern tradition of viewing all ideas only through the lens of ideological utility to maintaining unit cohesion and tribal identity.

St. Thomas could ask thousands of questions about things that were frankly heretical and invoke pagan and Muslim philosophers in answering those questions because he was not immersed in a culture that immediately charged him with being a “neo-Catholic” for doing so. We, alas, live in a time when ideas may not be ruminated on for their own sake but are always immediately assumed to be part of an “agenda”.

To be deep in history is to cease to be a Traditionalist.

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