Ice Age: the Evolution & Extinction of Thought

By Diogenes ( articles ) | May 22, 2005

Curran said the personal action the Vatican took against him "had a tremendous chilling effect on theologians. Look at what the chilling effect has done in moral theology for example. Very few people were willing to write on sexuality for a long time because, even if you were, quote, a lay person, you were still teaching in a Catholic institution, and you didn't want to get into it. Now I think it's changing a bit, but certainly for a good 10 to 15 years after my case, the chill factor was very, very present."

Boy and girls, let's do a little progressive paleontology, so as to track the spectacular development of Catholic intellectual life from its tender beginnings to its zenith, the better to see the lethal consequences of the Ratzinger Effect at the dawn of the doctrinal Ice Age (warning: have at least two hankies at the ready):

1965: First Donovan LPs appear. Proto-feminist "Lucy" in Peanuts comic.

Pre-Cambrian Curran: "To survive, the Church must OK contraception."
Pre-Cambrian McBrien: "To survive, the Church must dispense with celibacy."
Pre-Cambrian Chittister: "To survive, the Church must ordain women."

1975: First "s/he" pronoun in print. Hetero liturgists extinct.

Devonian Curran: "To survive, the Church must OK contraception."
Devonian McBrien: "To survive, the Church must dispense with celibacy."
Devonian Chittister: "To survive, the Church must ordain women."

1985: Corita dies. Neo-con mags appear.

Jurassic Curran: "To survive, the Church must OK contraception."
Jurassic McBrien: "To survive, the Church must dispense with celibacy."
Jurassic Chittister: "To survive, the Church must ordain women."

1995: Whitewater-gate: emergence of Catholic Clinton apologists.

Pleistocene Curran: "To survive, the Church must OK contraception."
Pleistocene McBrien: "To survive, the Church must dispense with celibacy."
Pleistocene Chittister: "To survive, the Church must ordain women."

2005: Ratzinger elected Benedict XVI. Thinking, reading outlawed.

Post-Reese Curran: "To survive, the Church must OK contraception."
Post-Reese McBrien: "To survive, the Church must dispense with celibacy."
Post-Reese Chittister: "To survive, the Church must ordain women."

Notice the changes?