What the F, Where Am I?

Last Friday, Assumption College in Worcester hosted a colloquium titeld "The Regensburg Moment: Benedict XVI and the Rediscovery of Reason". I went. It was really well attended.

What the F? Where am I? Assumption College, which in recent memory has hardly been a hotbed of theological conservatism, is hosting a colloquium that is largely sympathetic to Pope Benedict XVI? In Worcester?

I went outside to have a smoke before the talk and a guy from Ignatius Books (a very conservative, Catholic publisher) was chit-chatting with a young lady from the area. There were five professors in attendance, who I knew personally, who I know to be traditional theologians and philosophers.

When the New Springtime has come to Worcester, you know that the tide is turning. It is reassuring, but also unsettling in its own way. More on the unsettling later. It is reassuring that the efforts expended over the last forty years in preserving and promoting traditional Catholic culture haven't been in vain. It seems that all that prayer and sacrifice is working like a charm.

Now for the unsettling. I have said for a while now that I have been looking forward to the days when the pendulum of life in the Church would swing towards conservatism. Since the Church is neither liberal nor conservative, it is just as likely that theological conservatism could be the next problem in line. I have been looking forward to this swing because it will give me the opportunity to play the role that I am much more comfortable with: that of the liberal agitator.

It's much more fun to be the liberal. I love liberalism. That's why my blog is called This Liberal Blog. Liberalism is much sexier, that's why it sells so well.

So get ready for the conservative revolution. Kudos to the grandmothers praying the rosary on Tuesday mornings who got us here. Is it soon enough? How far will it go? Good questions, but remember the via media. Catholicism cannot be identified with the Republican party. Who would want to be? They're not much fun anyways.