Comments on: The Vatican at the Venice Biennale

By: Maureen Mullarkey

Maureen Mullarkey — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 01:27:32 +0000

Your comment about the two million Poles murdered during the Soviet
occupation of Poland took the discussion off in a direction that did
not pertain to the point of the posting you responded to. Try to stay
on point.

By: Jacek

Jacek — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:24:31 +0000

Why did you remove my comment about 2 Milion Poles killed during First years of Soviet Occupation of Poland?
When this Guy was trying to make career confiscating peasants food and land along his colleagues during the task of building new society. Why you do not use comments from “Mao Tse Tung” or proclaim Marshall Petain as French Patriot. Same school.

By: Nahma Sandrow

Nahma Sandrow — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 01:22:05 +0000

Your concerns, and the quotation you end with, are a microcosm of – a metaphor for? – most of the institutions of our time.

I’m glad to follow you to First Things, Maureen.

By: Mark Kirby

Mark Kirby — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:55:24 +0000

(corrected typo, sorry!)
We can wait and see, but MM’s convinced me optimism on the prospect is not warranted.

The quotes from Kolakowski, whom I know only by reputation, seem to me acute, sadly and devastatingly accurate, and right on the money for this subject. One sort of wants to laugh at the whole project; except it seems dangerous to the soul of the Church, as the head quote makes too clear.

By: Catholic Health Care Sisters

Catholic Health Care Sisters — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 15:37:24 +0000

Maureen, I’m glad you’re now blogging with First Things. For one thing I wouldn’t have been aware of the context for the Vatican’s participation in the Venice Biennale. I would have accepted it uncritically as a positive thing.
You wrote, “Under cover of the new evangelization, the Vatican has hopped on the carousel.” Well, Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. Maybe a few of them were even art collectors, so I’m more opitimistic than you about the evangelization angle. But with your heads up, I will wait and see what happens.

By: Maureen Mullarkey

Maureen Mullarkey — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 11:04:12 +0000

Kolakowski began as a Marxist, a common starting point for Eastern Europeans
of his generation. He grew to condemn “the monstrosities of the twentieth
century” and became a revered voice in Poland among opponents of Communism.
He was the first recipient of the Kluge Prize, awarded to him in 2003 for
outstanding contribution to the humanities. You might want to do a bit of
homework on the man and his scholarship. Three of his later essays appear
(including “Leibnitz and Job” on the metaphysics and experience of evil)
in the archives of The New Criterion, a publication not known to feature
Communists.

By: Jacek

Jacek — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:15:51 +0000

I do not think your article brings anything new to the subject, just compilation of rumors easy to find on internet without any fresh input. Muddy water of restless mind I would call it. are you trying to be critical to the most commendable effort of most popular religion in the word to connect with contemporary art? To find the soul and renew itself same way how it was done for last 2000 year. Using name of philosopher associated with Communist party in Poland with their obvious anti religious agenda is just one more ingredient of the muddy soup with obvious lack of salt