Mother Teresa defended by an angry...Andrew Greeley?

Yep. And I have to say, it's rather fun to read. From Father Greeley's August 29th column in the Chicago Sun-Times:

Is there no way that journalists reporting on the Catholic Church can treat it like it is something about which a little more is known than primitive tribes in the Brazilian rain forests or the impenetrable jungles of New Guinea?

Don't the respectable news agencies, the major TV outlets and the great if fading print media have a list of reliable Catholic experts who can explain what goes on among us?

A few years ago, a nasty editorial in what Jimmy Breslin calls the New York Times Newspaper compared the Jewish feast of Passover favorably with the Christian feast of Easter. Didn't the good gray Times have a fact-checker available who could have warned that they are the same feast and that in many languages have the same name?

Was there no one in the deep sub-basements of ABC who knew about the Dark Night of the Soul -- an experience in which someone on the road to sanctity feels abandoned by God and has to cling to faith and vocation by sheer stubborn faith? Could not someone at a local chancery call ABC and say, hey, you idiots, that feeling of abandonment is one more proof that she was a saint?

Catholics know that doubt and fear are part of the human condition, and absolute certainty is rarely if ever granted, and merits skepticism if it's offered. St. Teresa of Avila experienced the Dark Night; Juan de la Cruz did, too, and wrote one of the greatest of poems in human literature about it ("Once in the Dark of Night"). St. Therese of Lisieux lived through it in the last years of her brief life. Jesus' Agony in the Garden was quite literally a Dark Night. So was his cry, ''Why have you forsaken me?''

When I'm asked if I experience doubts, I usually answer, ''No more than 20, but that's before breakfast.''

Read the entire column.

Comments

[Brian John Schuettler]

Is there another priest named Andrew Greeley who possibly wrote this?

Praise the Lord! Brother Andrew is back inside the fold. Let's see what he writes next time.

[Jackson]

A stuck clock....

[Gail]

Gee, the way some people here write about Fr. Greely, you would think he was Garry Wills. Yes, he is the quintessential grumpy old uncle these days, and he certainly has a lot of liberal ideas that he disseminates freely. But as a revert I feel that I must come to his defense. Early in my process of returning to the Church I read a lot of his books, because my library had them on the shelves (as opposed to the Summa Theologica or anything by Chesterton, which one must order). I learned a lot of good things from the Grumpy Father, including my first understanding of what the whole "Mary Thing" (as I thought of it then) was about. I first read about Catholic social teaching (the real thing, not the hippie version), about analogical thought, and about the Catholic understanding of the Bible from Fr. G. And most of all, whatever else his opinions and whether or not I eventually came to hold them myself, I got the message always, ALWAYS, that it was a very good thing to be Catholic. So please give him a break now and then, he isn't a heretic. Am I surprised Fr. Greely wrote that? Not at all, and nobody who had actually read his books would be either.

[Carl Olson]

Fr. Greeley's problem, it seems, is with authority. He has said some of the most ridiculous and often insulting things about John Paul II and Benedict XVI. But, yes, he does come to the defense of basic Catholic doctrines on occasion. Good for him. It's the least a priest can do.

[Meg Q]

When he's off-base, he's more than irritating. But when he's angered by the stupidity of the media about the Church - well, there are few better.

[Stephen Sparrow]

Flannery O'Connor also experienced "The Dark night..." if this opening sentence of her 1959 letter to Louise Abbot is anything to go by.

Dear Louise, Sat. 1959

I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child’s faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.

[Cristina A. Montes]

Maybe it's Mother Teresa's charity winning him over.

[Carl Olson]

I think that Father Greeley has a true and deep love for the saints and the Blessed Mother. But, as I say, he seems to have a real issue with authority, including legitimate (i.e., papal) authority. As for his novels...

[jeff]

While roaming the internet this evening I came upon the controversy concerning Mother Teresa's private letters quite by accident. I must say my first reaction was that her critics are grasping for straws to interpret her thoughts as evidence of disbelief. A life well-lived is evidence enough of beliefs. Although I am not Catholic, I am a Christian who has read St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and others. Mother Teresa's private letters fit easily within the concept of the Dark Night of the Soul. The closer we come to Christ, the more likely we are to have that experience. I applaud Andrew Greeley's rejoinder and lament with him that so much of the secular press is not in touch with religious thinking.

My second reaction was to recognize the criticism as little more than a sensational way to draw attention to oneself (in the case of Mr. Hitchens, who has a book to sell) and to sell magazines (in the case of Time). One must always consider the source when ideas are promulgated that undermine followers of Christ. The last of the Beatitudes tells us to rejoice when people falsely say all manner of things against followers because of Christ. Although she doesn't need the extra help, somewhere in heaven Mother Teresa was probably blessed yet one more time because of this latest controversy.

[Brian John Schuettler]

That was beautifully put, Jeff. Your thoughts were very consoling when juxtaposed against some of the rather unreflective comments in the MSM.

[Ian]

My biggest problem with Fr. Greeley is the soft-porn he writes on the side.