As anyone who has read The Mystery of Things knows, I have had a longtime interest in the so-called “Theology of the Body” developed by Pope John Paul II, so it was with some interest that I read this article in the National Catholic Register by Thomas L. McDonald on the first (presumably annual) national Theology of the Body Congress which was held last week in Philadelphia. Speakers included Helen Alvare, Greg and Lisa Popcak, Father Richard Hogan, Damon Owens, Pia de Solenni, Janet Smith, Father Brian Bransfield and Joan Frawley Desmond.

I would have most liked to have heard the keynote address by Michael Waldstein on the so-called “hidden talks” of JPII on the Song of Songs, Tobit and Ephesians 5. According to The Register,

Due to the adult nature of the imagery, the Pope chose not to deliver these talks in public, and Waldstein only discovered them after the death of the Holy Father. The talks do indeed include remarkably vivid language about human sexuality and provide a more complete sense of the biblical basis of the Pope’s theology. Waldstein is preparing a final edition that will include these lost talks.

One of the things I find encouraging about this development is that it reminds Catholics, who sometimes confuse the virtue of modesty with an unwillingness to say anything that a ten-year-old shouldn’t hear, that, yes, it is good to discuss the human body and its meaning and purpose, and in the sort of detail that is indeed beyond the range of a ten-year-old.

I may feel more than usually strongly about this subject, I suppose, as I have on several occasions received communications from disgruntled readers of my novel–or as Bertie Wooster would have it, “far from gruntled” readers–who have contended that mine could not be considered a “Catholic novel” because it deals frankly with sexuality in the context of the Culture of Death. As my book was intended for an adult audience, and this accusation has been thrown at some of the leading lights of Catholic fiction from Waugh to Percy, I haven’t seen any reason to change my mind on the subject, but it’s good hearing that theologians are taking the whole business ever more seriously.

As I have said elsewhere, for Catholics to excuse themselves from frank discussions of sexuality, is to leave this critical field wide open for every other point of view but our own.

Wish I could have been there!

To read Cardinal Justin Rigali’s homily during the Congress, click here.

Go here for the Congress’s website.

Go here for the website of the Theology of the Body Institute, which sponsored the Congress.

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The latest “Mad Mel” kerfuffle, this one involving the (in my view immoral and one would hope illegal) publication of assorted telephone rants with girlfriend Oxsana, induced me to dig up my two articles on Mel Gibson previously published on the now sadly defunct GodSpy.com. Looking over them, I can’t say there’s much if anything I would change, and I think they make several points worth repeating, both on the subject of Christians as artists and public figures as sinners.

I mean, I don’t know about you, but you couldn’t pay me enough to be so famous that my every sin, failure, or moment of lunacy was considered public domain.

So here we go again:

• Wrestling with the Angel of Strangeness: The Passion of the Christ one year later (first published March 2005)
• Signs and Contradiction: The Mad Mel Mess and Why (or if) it still matters (first published December 2006)

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Ashland Creek in Lithia Park, Ashland, Oregon, State of Jefferson

• a comedy-of-manners/mystery set in Ashland, OR. Think Jane Austen or Sherman Alexie (with a touch of P.G. Wodehouse) crossed with P.D. James. Yes, eccentric, I suppose, but I think it will be effective and, perhaps more importanlty, a hoot. One of the best parts: I do a lot of the otherwise onerous first-drafting at beautiful Lithia Park, always an inspiring place.
• Meeting with a small group of fellow writers every two weeks, who are keeping me on the Straight and Narrow when it comes to my writing goals, especially for the above project!
• a second edition of David Craig’s poetry collection, Mary’s House, for idylls Press
• Keeping up the website for the Southern Oregon Book & Author Fair, which will be held this November in Ashland.
• putting final touches on the new Idylls Press website/shopping cart…enough of geekdom for me for a while, thank you very much!
• an e-book version (in .pdf) of The Mystery of Things
• remote research for the next two books in The Ashland Grail Cycle — a prequel and sequel, you might say, to The Mystery of Things. The prequel involves a fair amount of research — fun but time-consuming
• a whole lot of gardening (and enjoying summer in the beautiful State of Jefferson)
• volunteering (ticket-taking) at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and taking in plays!
  
• writing a couple of stage/screen Shakespeare reviews for Bardolatry, which I otherwise haven’t had much time to work on
• taking part in an online reading group that’s just begun–we’re reading all those wonderful classic books mentioned so frequently on our beloved TV series LOST.
  
• a new “classic fiction” title for Idylls Press — TBA

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