Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[chaslow53 AT aol.com]

Unlike many of you on this list, I neither knew Walker Percy nor am able to study his work for extended periods in an academic setting.  I am what Kieran Quinlan characterized in The Last Catholic Novelist as a nettlesome amateur, or what the Victorians more kindly called a "general reader."

Here is my observation, which leads to a question: WP obviously was an advocate of a pre-Vatican II theology, both in terms of the articles of belief themselves and in the way that those articles were taught and held.  He makes that clear in essay after essay directly, and in the novels indirectly.  His views on dissenting clergy, liberation theology, etc., expressed in the decades after the Vatican Council, could just as easily have been regarded as common before the Council.

The question, then, is this: is there any indication of what he thought of some of the day-to-day changes made following the Council?  Was he sorry to see the Latin Mass go?  Did he rush to trade fish for hamburgers on Friday?  Did he abandon the Rosary or any other of those devotional elements that were widespread at the time of his conversion but which are now much rarer?

Father Samway, in his biography, makes the very specific assertion that WP was a true Vatican II Catholic.  I just haven't seen much evidence of it, and I thought that maybe others on the list could offer insight.

Thanks.  I would be grateful for any insight forwarded to the list or any private responses.  Apologies to any on the list who are not particularly interested in this type of question.

Chuck Lowry
Brooklyn, New York