What’s Wrong With The World

In the aftermath of what is for English Catholics a joyful and—for many long overdue—milestone,  the Holy See now at last having officially pronounced that John Henry Newman is to be declared Blessed, it is difficult to remember that within living memory it was just as difficult to think of Newman as an exemplar of holiness as it is now for some Catholics to think of Chesterton in this way. As late as the 1950s, many Catholics thought of Newman as a great theologian but not as a holy man. 

The cult of Newman, practically speaking, began in Canada, with the publication, in the form of prayer cards, of a prayer to God the Father asking for graces and even miracles to be performed through Newman’s intercession so that the Church might declare him a Saint. The prayer, which had no official status, emerged in the thirties, a good three decades before the cult of Newman was officially accepted as a reality in England. The cult began with the emergence of a prayer. And so it may be now: our conference on ‘The Holiness of G.K.Chesterton’ has already had international reverberations, as I have noted, with responses coming from France, Poland, the U.S. and Italy.

Now, the one thing needful for a real cult to take on concrete life has emerged: a prayer for Chesterton’s intercession, which I understand began on the model of the Canadian prayer for Newman’s, but which has gone through a considerable process of mutation. Its authors, a layman and a priest who attended the Oxford conference, wish to remain anonymous. It is clearly the result of considerable thought and prayer. So I present it here now: who knows, it may be, perhaps, the beginning of something beautiful  for God. If it is widely prayed, I have no doubt that it will be. It has no official status, of course, so it should only be used in private prayer.

God our Father,

You filled the life of your servant Gilbert Keith Chesterton with a sense of wonder and joy, and gave him a faith which was the foundation of his ceaseless work, a hope which sprang from his enduring gratitude for the gift of human life, and a charity towards all men, particularly his opponents.

May his innocence and his laughter, his constancy in fighting for the Christian faith in a world losing belief, his lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and his love for all men, especially for the poor, bring cheerfulness to those in despair, conviction and warmth to lukewarm believers and the knowledge of God to those without faith.

We beg you to grant the favours we ask through his intercession, [and especially for ……] so that his holiness may be recognized by all and the Church may proclaim him Blessed.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen. 

Your reactions and reflections will be welcomed, either in the form of  comments on this post, or emails sent via ‘contact us’.

–William Oddie

At our recent conference (go to the Conference 2009 page via the website homepage for my opening remarks), I made it clear that it was not intended as the opening shot in a campaign for a cause to be opened towards Chesterton’s beatification: it was simply to ask a question: is there, or should there be, what the Congregation for the Causes of Saints calls ‘a reputation for holiness’ around his writings and his person–the necessary prerequisite for such a cause. This is not a Roman Catholic Society (though many of its members are Catholics) so we can’t as a society ask for a cause to be opened. But many non- Catholics (I used to be one) think that canonization is something the Catholic Church does which they value: one non-Catholic told me that he thought that it was a sign that we take one of our own seriously as a spiritual figure, and if we didn’t take Chesterton seriously, why should he?Chesterton has had a huge influence over non-Catholics like Dorothy L. Sayers and C.S. Lewis, and we should never forget that Orthodoxy was written when he was an Anglican, and is the result of Anglican theological influences. A famously holy American Anglican priest once replied, when asked why on earth Chesterton had become a Roman Catholic, “Oh, it was necessary for him to become a Catholic: only the Catholic Church can canonize him”.

First, though, there has to be some evidence of a cult in England as there is throughout the world. And in fact there is: it was very evident among those who attended our conference. It is quite wrong to say that it is only in America and Argentina that anyone is interested in  Chesterton in this way. And even if there were only a cult outside England, that would be no bar to opening a cause. I have had contacts in Poland, Spain and France who are mostly puzzled that there is no cause already, as well as in America. But an English Bishop would obviously look for some evidence of a cult here, a difficult matter since the English are reticent about such matters. But such evidence is now emerging, shyly, from the shadows: if you are part of it now is the time to make yourself known.

Meanwhile, go to  http://www.zenit.org/article-26454?l=english for evidence  of Chesterton’s ‘reputation for holiness’ in Italy. 

–William Oddie