Looks like The Public Square might want to get a devil's advocate (or would it be Divine Public Defender) if RJN keeps gunning for "discontinuists."
al | 05.30.03 - 6:31 pm | #

RJN was responding in good faith to what he thought was a reliable news item. If there's anybody eager to condemn, Al, you might consider that it's you.
Mark Shea | Homepage | 05.30.03 - 6:34 pm | #

I love RJN - he is a gift to us in these days. The Public Square is the first thing I read when I get "First Things" in the mail (most of the rest of it is over my head!)

I liked Fr. Duffy because I enjoyed two of his terrific books "The Stripping of the Altars" and especially "The Voices of Morebath - reformation & rebellion in an English Village" (taken from detailed parish accounts written by the parish priest) and now I think I love Fr. Duffy as well. Imagine a man big enough to apologize - (from the Times article) "He started to write letters of apology and prepared his resignation from the Pontifical Historical Commission" for heresy he was not even sure he'd uttered.

We could use more good and honest men like Fr. Duffy. And Fr. Neuhaus, too.

Glad this whole thing is cleared up.
Colleen | 05.30.03 - 8:23 pm | #

Since "Stripping of the Altars" has a treasured place on my history bookshelf I'm very glad to hear that Eamon Duffy is still amongst the believers. His "Saints and Sinners" history of the papacy book which is a companion piece to the(inferior)TV mini series of the same name is also good history.

Duffy may or may not be a fan of the present pope but he is an objective historian all the same. He demolished Garry Wills' "Papal Sins" in Commonweal and Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope" in the British Tablet, both "liberal" magazines.
Ita O'Byrne | 05.30.03 - 8:52 pm | #

Duffy's _The Stripping of the Altars_ is one of my favorite histories, so I'm glad that Eamon Duffy is not the source of those insipid remarks--though it saddens me that anyone could say such things.

Colleen's comments indicate Professor Duffy is ordained. Is he a priest? I always thought he was a layman.
Kevin Jones | Homepage | 05.30.03 - 9:18 pm | #

Duffy is not to my knowledge ordained at all.

He is a fine historian, but he is not without his criticisms of the Church these days, and not all of his criticisms come from a conservative perspective; they are idiosyncratic, shall we say, not ideological.
Liam | 05.30.03 - 9:58 pm | #

I am relieved to hear that the warmed over lapsed Catholic rhetoric was wrongly attributed to Duffy by Frontline. I shouldn't be surprised however. PBS being in gross error is definitely in the "dog bites man" category.
Donald R. McClarey | 05.30.03 - 11:19 pm | #

Sorry! I always thought Dr. Duffy was a priest - dunno why I thought that. Thanks for enlightening me, Liam.

And thanks to Ita for mentioning Duffy's critique of Gary Will's "Papal Sins" in Commonweal. Reading the Commonweal piece brightened my day considerably (it's on the Internet). I read "Papal Sins" a couple of years ago and it left a bad taste in my mouth.
Colleen | 05.31.03 - 9:01 am | #

This is such a funny story (though not that funny to Duffy). I have had my own share of miscommunications the past couple of days, (though nothing as mortifying as this story!) so the story came at the right moment for me.

Duffy is always an interesting read precisely because he is so quirky and ideosyncratic in his views. Radtrads would be aghast that lovers of the old rite would include crypto-liberals like Duffy.

Here is a link to a great Duffy article on the horrific translations that ICEL foisted on the Catholic world found on Gerard Serafin's website. Reading it, I was practically jumping up and down in agreement.

http://www.praiseofglory.com/duffy.htm
Patrick Rothwell | Homepage | 05.31.03 - 3:06 pm | #

Mark,
I used to keep my objections about Fr. Neuhaus to myself, in light of all the good that he does. Just as I try to do with the Episcopacy. But Iraq and this tendency to try to put people outside of the bounds of the acceptable are too much. NCR's John Allen was right on this, as is the Houston Catholic Worker--Neuhaus is too theological challenged to be the arbiter of Catholicity. If you want to demonstrate that someone has said something heretical, good for you, go a head and do it. But defining the Catholic "Center" of Orthodoxy, based on a nebulous "spirit of Vatican II" is exactly the sort of shenanigans RJN chides in the liberals.
al | 05.31.03 - 3:51 pm | #

I liked Eamon Duffy's books so much that I did a web search on his name and came up with the Frontline trnascript. I never even saw the discussion in First Things. I don't think Neuhaus can be blamed for thinking that Frontline was true. I am so relieved that this was a mistake because the remarks seemed so out of character. But how idiotic is PBS?
John Sheridan | 06.01.03 - 10:38 am | #