"Mater si, Magistra no"?

Did William F. Buckley, Jr., really write a famous column by that name? or along those lines?

Apparently not, according to this very poorly edited part of an exchange at Eutopia, May 2000 (emphasis added):

.... Fr. Collins suggests that journalist William F. Buckley's discussions of Mater et Magistra in National Review [NR] shortly after the encyclical's 1961 publication are "the manifesto of capitalist proportionalism." Was Buckley guilty of the bald rejection of Church economic teaching that Collins suggests? An examination of the related National Review articles indicates not. Because of the seriousness of Collins' charge, and because of the fame of the exchange which Buckley and the more politically liberal Jesuit editors of America magazine had over the encyclical, it is worth taking some space to set the record straight....

Two weeks later, a single line in NR's gossip column quipped: "Going the rounds in Catholic conservative circles: Mater si, Magistra, no." (Contrary to Fr. Collins' assertion, Buckley wrote no essay with this title, seminal or otherwise). America [that is, the magazine by that name] subsequently condemned NR for these remarks, on grounds that it was presumptuous and disrespectful to even appear to criticize an encyclical. However, as Buckley noted in the August 26 NR, "National Review has made no substantive criticism of Mater et Magistra." It merely pointed out that "coming at this particular time in history, parts of it may be considered as trivial." ....

On September 23, Buckley published in NR a letter he had written to America editor Fr. Thurston Davis, SJ, which Davis had refused to publish. The Mater si quote, Buckley explained, spoken "by a Catholic scholar in Virginia, was flippancy pure and simple. I take no objection to your denouncing the flippancy as having been in imperfect taste: I am quite prepared to subject myself to the criticism of my elders on such matters."

Re: Archbishop Chaput on the Church (and "cafeteria Catholicism") and All called to advance Church's mission in the world.

See Mater et magistra.

(Thanks Richard.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/19/02 03:38:26 PM
Categorized as Religious.