← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Buster
Thread ID: 4389 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2003-01-08
2003-01-08 21:03 | User Profile
[url=http://www.mattscatholicsite.com/sheen.htm]http://www.mattscatholicsite.com/sheen.htm[/url]
I don't listen much to Catholic radio. One good program, however, is "Life is Worth Living" featuring Bishop Sheen. An enterprising man has made the 50 part series available on the web at the given address. It's good, solid, concise, subtle teaching--the kind you never hear in the Church today, especially from our hapless Pope.
It is also good for non-Catholics to hear a man worthy of the title "Bishop." We certainly have none of his caliber today.
Otherwise, most of radio EWTN sounds more to me like Catholics behaving like holy roller Protestants ("Amen to that, brother"). Many people on its broadcasts are in fact ex-Protestants, such as Scott Hahn, et. al. Also, too much sentimentalism and mush. Third, Mother Angelica seems to have always surrounded herself with men who I would describe as wimps and effeminates. Very few masculine type priests seem to last long there. Maybe she finds them harder to control.
You will need RealAudio (free) to listen to the programs.
2003-01-27 12:37 | User Profile
I had the honor of meeting Bishop Sheen in person in 1976. He was an old man and he said mass in a huge Arena. During the sermon this little Irishman with twinkling eyes kept 10,000 people in rapt attention, and often rolling in the aisles with laughter. He was a towering rhetorical talent.
Later I met him briefly and shook his hand.
He's up for canonization, or so I was told.
Walter
2003-01-27 15:20 | User Profile
Originally posted by Buster@Jan 8 2003, 21:03 ** Third, Mother Angelica seems to have always surrounded herself with men who I would describe as wimps and effeminates. Very few masculine type priests seem to last long there. Maybe she finds them harder to control.
**
I think masculine priests and masculine Catholic men are hard to find on EWTN in general. I got that impression after watching some of the masses which are held at their church on television. I used to watch Mother Angelica a while back but there was nothing substantial about it. Then again, I think EWTN is of the "neo-Catholic" wing so I'm not surprised by what I see over there.
2003-01-27 17:09 | User Profile
Dittoes, Robbie. I find most of the programming shallow and sentimentalized, though I did enjoy M. Angelica's personality and visible habit. Very counter-cultural. She is disabled currently, of course.
Too bad she never pushed for a televised Tridentine Mass on EWTN.
Also, with her attitude that the Pope can do no wrong, she undercut the traditionalist cause as much as she helped it.
When neo-con ultra-Zionists like Deal Hudson (Crisis magazine editor) are given their own programs, there is little ground for optimism.
bb
2003-01-27 18:28 | User Profile
Buster,
Fulton J. Sheen was bishop of the Rochester New York diocese for a short time. He did not like the parochial nature of the local society. He was a man of cosmopolitian appetites with a flamboyant style. His successor was one of my college professions, Bishop Hogan, a true gentleman and sincerely grounded thinker.
On balance FJS was a positive influence.
SARTRE :ph34r:
2003-01-27 19:32 | User Profile
Originally posted by SARTRE@Jan 27 2003, 12:28 ** Buster,
Fulton J. Sheen was bishop of the Rochester New York diocese for a short time. He did not like the parochial nature of the local society. He was a man of cosmopolitian appetites with a flamboyant style. His successor was one of my college professions, Bishop Hogan, a true gentleman and sincerely grounded thinker.
On balance FJS was a positive influence.
SARTRE :ph34r: **
Sartre:
Most of what you say is consistent with my understanding. I think his style probably suited the necessities of bland early television. Hence his gestures and his use of ceremonial regalia.
A couple more anecdotes: I gather Sheen died kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament. Supposedly he also once embellished his resume' to get to England and escape the oppression of Cardinal Spellman. I think New York Church politics was also the reason he was assigned to Rochester rather than Manhattan, which he would have preferred-- somewhat ironic since he was raised and ordained in small town Illinois.
He lived until the early days of JPII's pontificate. He must have been saying the Novus Ordo Mass, else we would have heard of it. Padre Pio was lucky and died one week before he would have been ordered to say the New Mass.
2003-01-27 21:40 | User Profile
Buster,
Just giving the local perspective. FJS didn't like being in Rochester. You are entirely correct that he wanted to reside in Manhattan.
That's the like point I was making about his tenure.
SARTRE :ph34r:
2003-01-28 19:07 | User Profile
Bishop Sheen was somewhat different than what he portrayed. He did have the sense to cater to the common man.
**In this country Henry Mencken described Irish Catholics as being Puritans of another sort, but occasionally of scarcely less ferocity. Mr. Mencken did cite a researcher who searched Who's Who in America and determined for every 100,000 Unitarians some 1185 were sufficiently distinguished to be listed. Whereas only 18 professing Methodists were, and only 7 Catholics. One of his favorite targets, His Eminence, Cardinal O'Connell of Boston, was quoted as confiding that he never met a man who in the least understood what Einstein was driving at. Mr. Mencken thought His Eminence confined his searching to South Boston where the ordinary mind of the human race prevailed.
The most prominent of American Roman Catholic proselytizers in America in the 20th century was [color=blue]Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Rejecting his father's name of Morris, the young man took his mother's maiden name of Sheen for professional purposes.[/color] His brilliance was recognized early when he led his college debating team to its first ever triumph over Notre Dame. After being ordained a priest, he went to Europe for five years of study. There his dissertation was judged so exemplary the University of Louvain awarded him a prize for philosophy, the first ever awarded to an American. His subsequent sermons in England led him to be described the most popular of American preachers who had ever come to England. One may hope that young Americans would not have to leave the country as they once did to be honed intellectually.**
When young, I would watch Bishop Sheen with my Irish Catholic grandmother as she tried to elevate my morals and outlook.
2003-01-28 19:27 | User Profile
In this country Henry Mencken described Irish Catholics as being Puritans of another sort, but occasionally of scarcely less ferocity
Mencken was probably a fallen away Lutheran. You really have to take a lot of he says with a great deal of skepticism because I've always regarded him as primarily a comic who sought to offend not by using profanity but by breaking icons. Sorta like Shelly Berman with his "is there anybody I haven't offended?".
The Irish took a terrible drubbing from guys like Mencken and the rest of the establishment press. Dunne's Mr Dooley was the Amos and Andy of the Irish in terms of ethnic stereotyping and played to a wide wide audience. Still the Irish through their natural gifts elevated themselves w/o quotas or affirmative action. To this very day, every NYC or Boston cop, regardless of his race, is emulating the demeaner of Irishmen. They set the standard for good cops. Fair, tough as nails, and, yes, compassionate.
I watch Sheen occasionally in reruns and find him as dated as a 3rd rate tragedian. More a John Carradine than a John Barrymore. Still, if you just listen to the guy he was a masterful rhetorician and right on most of the time.
Spellman BTW was a homosexual who liked to dabble with seminarians.
2003-01-28 21:32 | User Profile
Originally posted by eric von zipper@Jan 28 2003, 13:27 ** I watch Sheen occasionally in reruns and find him as dated as a 3rd rate tragedian. More a John Carradine than a John Barrymore. Still, if you just listen to the guy he was a masterful rhetorician and right on most of the time. **
The site that I mentioned at the top of this thread was actually reproduced from phonograph records Sheen made in the 1960's. I find them much more enjoyable and fresh than his old television shows, which unavoidably reflect an antiquated state of visual technology. His sermons for the recordings still sound as if they could be delivered today.
2003-01-29 00:26 | User Profile
eric von zipper,
We name one of our Irish Wolfhounds Dooley after a lawyer who extracted significant funds (representing me). The dog would have done better in court . . .
SARTRE :lol: