The aggressors in the “liturgy wars”

Last night the Pray Tell blog posted an egregiously spiteful hit-obit on a monk, scholar, and Churchman who had died that very same day.

This morning it was removed, and a slightly milder but still preposterously inappropriate version has replaced it.

The author, Paul Inwood, is considered such an expert on mercy that cathedrals around the globe were required to sing a hymn he wrote on the subject. But there was no mercy here for his professional enemy.

It’s a tactic of the left to act in a “who, me?” fashion regarding conflict, to call for an end to this war or that war, the culture war, the liturgy war, the translation war. As though the left is an innocent bystanding pacifist rather than the agenda-pushing, angry aggressor.

The liturgist has no clothes.

A full retraction, with apology, to the monk’s religious and natural families is in order.

12 Replies to “The aggressors in the “liturgy wars””

  1. Great catch, Kathy. I hadn't read the article, but did after seeing this on FB. If what is published now is an edited version, I would be loathe to read the first draft. Mr. Inwood has demonstrated a rather niggardly side of his prose here and there over the decades. But he was in his fine form with this one. I love being dismissed as "backward looking" by proxy.

  2. Wow. I just came back from Pray Tell having read some of their recent posts. Has something happened recently that I don't know about? They seem angrier, more bitter, more hostile, more condescending and more reactionary that ever. I wonder what's fueling that.

  3. They've never had much patience for differing views – nothing different there. I do myself a favor and avoid it.

  4. to call for an end to this war or that war, the culture war, the liturgy war, the translation war

    Indeed. If you are that committed to peace, then capitulate. No? Then clearly you think the stakes are worth fighting for, just like the people on the other side of the issue. Funny how that works, isn't it?

    Case in point: the supposedly fair-handed John You-knuckle-dragging-Taliban-Catholics-need-to-be-more-charitable Allen. He weighed the new translation war against the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and gee whizz how out of whack our priorities are. He might have actually had a point if not for the fact that he and the birdcage-liner he worked for were decidedly on the "What if we just said 'Wait'?" side (Translation: What if we just said "Never!") Well, if the new translation was that unimportant, then just let it pass so that we can get to the important stuff. But Noooooooo.

  5. Didn't see the original, but Benedictines have a tradition of frank and open analysis in obituaries.

  6. Inwood's a disgrace. And his music is trite and ephemeral: 'Hildegard of Bingen meets Joan Baez in a 1970s cocktail lounge' to quote Damian Thompson. The fact that Rita Ferrone thinks the sun shines out of his fundamental orifice should come as no surprise.

  7. How do you know he was a member of the left? What does his politics affiliation do with what he wrote? Everything from your third paragraph down is a political diatribe that does not belong on a nominally Catholic website

  8. Wait, what's that you say, Billy? Catholics are forbidden political opinions in relation to their faith?! Who knew?

    I guess what Katherine was driving at was that the left, or whatever you choose to call them, are cruel and relentless proponents of cultural Marxism that always and everywhere to advance the subversive and transgressive at the expense of community, peace, beauty and truth. It's a tell.

  9. Thought your post on the singing wedding priest was the best I've seen in years ! The liturgy cannot be a platform for sentiment those actions humiliate the integrity of the sa side at Calvary and perpetuate not the Holy Mass per se but the ego of the priest

  10. The leftism she is referring to is primarily liturgical, not political. Inwood is noted for hostility to the EF. I'm not aware of any political statements in the usual sense by him which I'll grant is a wise move on his part. Take same-sex "marriage" for instance. If he were to come out in favor of it, he would (hopefully) lose his church jobs. If he came out against it, then he would likely lose a lot of support of the people who prefer his mawkish ditties.

  11. Years ago I used to joke about a book I would write called " Murder in the Cathedral" Unfortunately, someone used the title but I think there is enough material for another. What is it about people involved in church work that gives them the right to be petty, uncharitable and egomaniacs.
    I am not an expert, just an observer.

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