When the first two words uttered by the homilist are "Andrew Greeley..."

... you might be tempted to think:

1). This will not be the best homily I've ever heard.
2). "I'm glad the reading was from the Bible and not from one of Andrew Greeley's novels."
3). This will probably be the worst homily I've ever heard.
4). "...has been responsible for the death of a lot of trees."
5). This is indeed the worst homily I've ever heard.

No, I didn't actually think all of those thoughts at the time. But I did hear a homily begin with that name. No, the homily wasn't given by my pastor, who is an excellent homilist and who would probably rather mow the church lawn twice a day for a year (and it's a big lawn!) than read any of Fr. Greeley's novels. The homily was given a few weeks ago in another city by a priest (who appeared to be 60-ish in age) I'd never seen before. Strangely enough, the homily had almost nothing to do with Fr. Greeley, except that the priest was referring to a medical study that Fr. Greeley had written a column about a few years ago -- a medical study showing that prayer can produce detectable health benefits. But the first minute of the homily went something like this:

Andrew Greeley is a brilliant man of many talents. He is a renowned sociologist and a critically-acclaimed novelist. He has written numerous books [dead trees!] and has taught at the University of Chicago and at [Some Other University] and at [Yet Another School]. In an article written in 1999, he...

The entire homily could be summarized thus: Prayer is good for you. Period. Not a bad message, of course, and certainly not heterodox, but rather thin gruel to spread out over twelve minutes -- time that could have been spent on, say, the readings. Yes, indeed, a rough homily. But, in all fairness, it probably was far better than hearing a homily begin with "Hans Kung..." or "The spirit of Vatican II..." or "That wonderful artist, Kanye West..."

Comments

[Adverted]

Nicely done, Carl. A textbook case of what Peter Kreeft would call an ad hominem attack. Or, if you're the type of person given to reading the Gospels, what might be called "What good can come from Nazareth?"

[Carl Olson]

Yes, Adverted, quite right. I shouldn't be so hard on Kanye West. After all, it's hard being the best hip-hop artist in the world.

[Carl Olson]

Oh, are you referring to Fr. Greeley, who said of the election of Benedict XVI: "If the chief heresy hunter of the Church becomes Pope, well then that by itself means regression"? So, speaking of ad hominem, at least my attacks are on Fr. Greeley's novels, not on his character.

[Deacon John M. Bresnahan]

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I have a problem--I have never read any of Andrew Greeley's novels. Why? Because frequently on many newsstands his books- when in paperback -have the steamiest covers of any on sale. Somehow this strikes me as the type Catholic clerical decadence that helped create the Protestant Reformation. Shouldn't a priest vowed to celibacy so he can more fully serve God and the people of God, be spending his free time in prayer, spiritual and Biblical studies and readings--and writing on same-or similar relevant Church-religious topics -if he has a yen to write? Instead, he makes himself penthouse living rich out of re-telling what--from the covers and cover comments-- apparently are his sexual fantasies.

[Carl Olson]

Fr. Neuhaus describes Fr. Greeley's novels as "bodice-rippers." Whether or not he has read any of them, I have no idea. But the covers of some of them do strongly suggest that bodices are being ripped.