← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Buster

Buckley on the Pope

Thread ID: 16726 | Posts: 5 | Started: 2005-02-12

Wayback Archive

Buster [OP]

2005-02-12 22:42 | User Profile

This is from Thomas Fleming.

So Buckley wishes the Pope would die. Guess what I wish for.

Friday, February 11, 2005

Beware of What You Pray For

William Buckley’s revelation that he wishes the Pope were dead has aroused the predictable response from the self-appointed spokesman for American Catholics, Bill Donohue. Buckley begins his most recent column: “At church on Sunday the congregation was asked to pray for the recovery of the Pope. I have abstained from doing so. I hope that he will not recover,” before going on to explain that since the Pope cannot do his job effectively, we may as well pray for his death. He concludes by citing an entirely irrelevant passage from Muriel Spark’s novel Memento Mori, suggesting that decrepitude is the first step to immortality. That citation alone proves that Mr. Buckley has lost whatever wits he once possessed.

As a mere philologist and essayist, I make no pretense to deep knowledge of moral theology. I do think, nonetheless, that even a simple man might be astonished by the implied premises of Mr. Buckley’s argument. When we pray, we are asking God to do something we desire. Christians are not permitted to pray for what is immoral. For example, we may not pray that our neighbor’s wife will come to our bed or that we can find the means of stealing our neighbor’s ox or ass. It seems reasonable, then, to conclude that while we might pray for a serial killer to die before he can kill again, we may not pray for our neighbor to have a heart-attack and die, simply because we covet his ox or his wife.

But, Mr. Buckley would probably reply, it is not John Paul’s death that is the ultimate object of his prayer. What he really wants is the welfare of the Church, which cannot be secured under the reign of an ailing and ineffective Pontiff. If the Pope would merely step down, then he would not wish him dead. But suppose my neighbor is a sick and feeble farmer, squandering his children’s patrimony on medicines. Might we not pray for his speedy death so that his son might take over the farm? Or, to make the rule more general, is it right, then, to hope that a man who has committed no crime and, so far as we know, done nothing to merit punishment, to suffer death simply because his removal will set in motion a train of events that will bring good to others? Mr. Buckley’s argument comes down to the position that one may pray for evil hoping good can come of it.

Of course, such a position is not without risks. For all we know a successor appointed this week would be vastly inferior to successor appointed a year from now. For all we know John Paul II has not yet prepared himself for death, and he will spend the next few months or years of life in making such preparations. Of course, the reverse of both of these suppositions might be true. We simply do not know, and where we do not know, we have no right to intervene or to pray for divine intervention.

There is another sinister premise lurking in Mr. Buckley’s utilitarian proposal. Ordinarily, we pray for things that it is licit for us to do. We may pray for success in a football in which we intend to play honorably, but we do not pray to get away with fouling the opponent with impunity. We may pray that the girl we adore will accept our marriage proposal, be we may not pray she will be dumb enough to take the drink we have laced with a love philter or a “roofie.” This is because we would not be justified in cheating or in committing date-rape. To cut this short, I cannot pray for a man’s death unless I think I should be justified in killing him myself, if I got the chance.

There is a precise term for Mr. Buckley’s prayer: It is a curse, or, in the language of the Church he has so long contemned, maledictio. Cursing is generally wrong, but the fault is mortal (lethale) says St. Alphonsus de Ligorio, when it is directed against parents and other superiors. [Theologia Moralis III.131]

Why Mr. Buckley wishes John Paul were dead must be a mystery to all but his best friends. To those who barely know him, his latest antic seems one more piece of evidence that Yale’s Merry Prankster is refusing to grow up and put aside all the affectations on which his career has been based. What might have been charming in a promising young man of 30 is as annoying at 70 as a miniskirt would be on a woman the same age.

The naughty boy that all the liberals loved to hate is now simply an embarrassing relic of a failed movement. I wonder what his successors, the unpromising nice boys at National Review, are thinking these days. In the unlikely event they were praying men, I wonder if they would agree with their magazine’s founder and apply his principle closer to home?

| print | permanent link | writebacks (6)

Bardamu

2005-02-13 01:15 | User Profile

The pope is past his prime, to say the least.

il ragno

2005-02-13 01:33 | User Profile

[QUOTE]Ordinarily, we pray for things that it is licit for us to do. We may pray for success in a football (game) in which we intend to play honorably, but we do not pray to get away with fouling the opponent with impunity. [/QUOTE]

[I]Hel[/I]lo: praying for the outcome of a [I]friggin' football game [/I] is seen as both normal and commendable. Note that of all the examples of life-situations in which prayer is applicable that he could have chosen, he leads off with [I]this [/I] one.

Here, in one sentence, is the impacted root of the problem with American Christianity. That it is a completely [I]unintentional [/I] indictment is almost too perfect to hope for.

Faust

2005-02-13 03:40 | User Profile

Buster

Yes Buckley is a moron. I sure the next Pope will be even more marxist than this one is.

Bardamu

2005-02-13 03:44 | User Profile

If not negro or jewish.