A priest whose homilies can often be found on Audio Sancto and whose words have done me much good has kicked a hornet's nest. He gave two talks on J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis's Narnia and space series that were critical of the works. Rorate Caeli has part of the text of his talks here and you can find the full content on You Tube.
I don't know about you but here on the East Coast you are not really considered an educated Catholic unless you can quote from C.S. Lewis. Lord Of The Rings, the Narnia series and Lewis's space series can be found in every well stocked Catholic bookstore. This priest seems to me, to be saying that these works don't deserve such reverence. This stuff is fiction--not a retelling of the Bible or Imitation of Christ or the Lives of the Saints. He also asks how many people were converted by reading The Hobbit.
I like LOTR but it's not my life. Some people have gone so far into the fantasy that they've become nuts and lash out if anyone dares point that out. It's very much like the hysterics some Medjugorje and Harry Potter fanatics go into if you don't love their thing 100%. I may not agree with all of what was said in these talks but I revere good priests. Father does not attack Tolkien as a Catholic. He says the books are not Catholic literature and that Catholic writer, Professor Joseph Pearce is horribly mistaken in his understanding of Tolkein's body of work . He put forth a theory that is open to debate and that's not my real concern. I took this as an interesting parlor debate because as I said before, LOTRs is not my life.
The thing that caught my attention and really disturbs me is the reaction to these talks. I saw Tweets and comments on various blogs that were personally insulting to this priest. If you are going to get so upset at a priest to the point of calling him and anyone who agrees with him, offensive names because he doesn't' like your favorite book you need to check yourself. What are you, ten?