I think it was Macaulay who said that the Roman Catholic Church deserved great credit for, and owed its longevity to, its ability to handle and contain fanaticism. This rather oblique compliment belongs to a more serious age. What is so striking about the "beatification" of the woman who styled herself "Mother" Teresa is the abject surrender, on the part of the church, to the forces of showbiz, superstition, and populism.
It's the sheer tawdriness that strikes the eye first of all. It used to be that a person could not even be nominated for "beatification," the first step to "sainthood," until five years after his or her death. This was to guard against local or popular enthusiasm in the promotion of dubious characters. The pope nominated MT a year after her death in 1997. It also used to be that an apparatus of inquiry was set in train, including the scrutiny of an advocatus diaboli or "devil's advocate," to test any extraordinary claims. The pope has abolished this office and has created more instant saints than all his predecessors combined as far back as the 16th century.
As for the "miracle" that had to be attested, what can one say? Surely any respectable Catholic cringes with shame at the obviousness of the fakery. A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of MT, which she happened to have in her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumor. Her physician, Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn't have a cancerous tumor in the first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a course of prescription medicine. Was he interviewed by the Vatican's investigators? No. (As it happens, I myself was interviewed by them but only in the most perfunctory way. The procedure still does demand a show of consultation with doubters, and a show of consultation was what, in this case, it got.)
Read the rest at
http://www.slate.com/id/2090083/
Wednesday, September 30
The Fanatic, Fraudulent Mother Teresa
I think it was Macaulay who said that the Roman Catholic Church deserved great credit for, and owed its longevity to, its ability to handle and contain fanaticism. This rather oblique compliment belongs to a more serious age. What is so striking about the "beatification" of the woman who styled herself "Mother" Teresa is the abject surrender, on the part of the church, to the forces of showbiz, superstition, and populism.
It's the sheer tawdriness that strikes the eye first of all. It used to be that a person could not even be nominated for "beatification," the first step to "sainthood," until five years after his or her death. This was to guard against local or popular enthusiasm in the promotion of dubious characters. The pope nominated MT a year after her death in 1997. It also used to be that an apparatus of inquiry was set in train, including the scrutiny of an advocatus diaboli or "devil's advocate," to test any extraordinary claims. The pope has abolished this office and has created more instant saints than all his predecessors combined as far back as the 16th century.
As for the "miracle" that had to be attested, what can one say? Surely any respectable Catholic cringes with shame at the obviousness of the fakery. A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam of light emerged from a picture of MT, which she happened to have in her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumor. Her physician, Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn't have a cancerous tumor in the first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a course of prescription medicine. Was he interviewed by the Vatican's investigators? No. (As it happens, I myself was interviewed by them but only in the most perfunctory way. The procedure still does demand a show of consultation with doubters, and a show of consultation was what, in this case, it got.)
Read the rest at
http://www.slate.com/id/2090083/
Tuesday, September 29
Australian surfer Mark Visser surfs an 11 metre (36 foot) wave at Cow Bombie, near the West Australian town of Gracetown, 280km (174 miles) south of Perth, in this handout photograph obtained September 28, 2009. The organisers claim that Visser has caught one of the biggest waves in Australia for 2009. The Cow Bombie break is gaining a reputation as one of the hot spots for big wave surfing.
REUTERS/Calum Macauley/Handout
Monday, September 28
무소유
고려 말의 학자이자 명신인 이조년李兆年은 호가 매운당梅雲堂인데 유명한 시조 "이화에 월백하고"를 지은 시인이기도 하다.
소년 시절 그는 형 억년과 한강 가를 걸어가다 우연히 길가에서 금덩이를 주웠다. 하나씩 나누어 가진 두 형제가 기쁨에 들떠서 나룻배를 타고 강을 건너고 있었는데 갑자기 동생 조년이 금덩이를 강물 속에 던져버렸다. 깜짝 놀란 형이 이유를 묻자 조년이 대답했다.
"형님, 금덩이를 버리고 나니 마음이 편안해졌어요. 금을 형님과 나누어 갖고 난 후 줄곧 욕심이 솢구쳐 마음이 편치 않았어요. 형님이 없었더라면 내가 몽땅 가질 수 있었을 텐데 라는 생각도 들고, 형님의 것을 뺏고 싶다는 충동마저 느꼇지 뭡니까. 그래서 나는 황금이 요물임을 깨닫고 버린 것입니다." 이 말을 들은 형 억년도 금덩이를 한강 물 속에 던져 넣으며 말했다.
"나도 마음속으로 너와 똑같이 생각하고 있었다. 하마터면 우리 사이에 금이 갈 뻔했구나."
후세 사람들은 형제들이 금을 던졌던 양천나루를 투금탄投金灘이라고 불렀다.
오늘날 우리들이 살고 있는 이 시대는 황금만능의 물질시대이다. 지금이야말로 은밀하게 부정한 방법으로 돈주머니를 채우는 행위에서 벗어나 황금을 강물 속에 던져버리는 이조년 형제의 사상을 본받아 실천할 때인 것이다.
Self-Pity
I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.
-D.H. Lawrence