the future that never was

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Oct 04, 2005

Only in Episcopal churches have I received the Eucharist from a woman who consecrated it.

That's Arthur Jones of the NCR, in his editorial "Retrospective," noteworthy for being as frivolous as it is bitter -- qualities rarely found in the same work in the same measure.

Like fellow gnasher-of-teeth Garry Wills, Jones pulled a Lord Jim in the 1960s and broke from the teaching Church, jumping from what he was sure was a sinking ship. She didn't sink. Now Jones, Wills, McBrien and Co. share the same pathetic lifeboat, incensed that no one under the age of 70 sees in them and their project the promised Future. So they entertain each other with stories of the counter-Catholic stunts they pulled as young mustangs: "Top this. I received the Eucharist from a woman who consecrated it, and I'd snarfed a bacon cheeseburger twenty minutes earlier!"

Glory days.