Bad taste writ large

Great comment from Susan Peterson in Amy Welborn's comment box regarding this thread: A Polish Dominican monk has asked the Rome clinic that treated John Paul II to give him recordings of the late pope's heartbeat, which he hopes to play to ardent Catholics at Christmas midnight mass.

Susan says:

I cite again the immortal comment of Gerard Manley Hopkins,"One is always finding bad taste in the accessories of Catholicism."

Boy, ain't that the truth! Darwin and I spent our honeymoon at a B&B run by a Jewish couple who'd nevertheless gotten into buying old Catholic memorabilia on eBay. They had some really odd stuff -- merry-go-round mysteries of the rosary, images of Jesus with eyes that moved, saccharine holy cards, strange devotional objects, many pictures of a limp, effeminate Jesus with a beatific smile nailed to the cross. Many may long for the lost beauties of pre-Vatican II Catholicism, but it's also good to remember that the intention of paring down is to clear away the dead wood. I'd love to see a return to more beautiful architecture in our churches. But I'd gladly do without more pictures of the Sacred Heart of the type that Darwin's grandmother used to have hanging in her living room. Gives me the willies just thinking about it.