YOU KNOW YOU ARE AN OBSESSIVE TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC WHEN...
...you get a hat of this variety as a gift. Tis a hat weaved from seagrass. As you may see in the pic below it was made in Vietnam and was crafted by Nguyen Thuc.
Now the last name "Thuc" may not mean much to many people, but to many Trad Catholics it instantly calls to mind Archbishop Thuc who was a Vietnamese prelate. Recently I had been having a spirited conversation with someone about Archbishop Thuc, and the next time they were shopping they saw the hat, thought of me, and bought it for me with the express desire that I wear it and think of Archbishop Thuc!
Thuc is a very controversial figure who was a bishop in good standing 'til some time after Vatican II, when he became panicked at the crisis in the Church, went rogue, became an ally of the sedevacantists and consecrated bishops without the permission of the Vatican. These bishops went and consecrated other bishops illicitly. Such bishops are referred to as, "the Thuc line" and are part of the "Thuc lineage"; such words ought be part of a glossary of Traditional Catholic terms.
I am not a fan of Thuc, but he is a fascinating, deeply complex figure whose life may inspire a bestselling book of the Vatican intrigue genre. And as more people are coming to acknowledge the dire crisis in the Catholic Church, they may not agree with Thuc's actions (I know I don't) but Thuc's panic at the devastation being wrought in the Church of the 1970s inspires just a bit more sympathy than it used.
Love the hat! Mary, pale pinkies like us need hats to protect us from the sun. I wear a hat outside now all summer long. My Scotch Irish ancestry does not like too much sun.
ReplyDeleteVery healthy for you to wear a hat all summer long. I am a pale-pinky, too, but turn into a lobster when I'm exposed to too much sun.
DeleteMary, I admire your understanding and charity very much. It is something not found sometimes among tradition Catholics but, then again, I can understand why that is. Charles Coulombe, I think, once said that any despised minority has the tendency to become nasty. Furthermore, I can understand the harsh tones of sedevacantists because, after all, they are an even more despised minority. There is a video on the Tumblar House youtube channel, on which Coulombe appears every week, entitled "Sedevacantists need Love Too."
ReplyDeleteI think what may not be well known about Thuc is that he died reconciled with the church. Also, there has been a lot of talk about him being mentally ill in his later years. I think, though I could be mistaken, Archbishop Lefebvre mentions this in some statements criticizing the Thuc consecrations. I hope an extensive and balanced biography is written of Thuc someday especially clarifying Thuc's involvement in the unrest and bloodshed following the celebration of his 25th anniversary as a bishop. It seems that two or three of Thuc's brothers were killed in the political and social chaos that followed. This is taken only from the wikipedia article of him.