Bishop Peter Doyle said he took the decision due to the lack of a local cult, the lack of any “pattern of personal spirituality” in the life of the author, and “the issue of anti-Semitism”.
Perhaps he should read this: Was G.K. Chesterton Anti-Semitic?
The charge is usually made thoughtlessly or ignorantly. But in some cases it is made knowingly and deceitfully. It is a calumny against the man who said “The world owes God to the Jews,” and “I will die defending the last Jew in Europe,” who was sought out by Jewish leaders in his support for Zionism, a man who hated racism and racial theories and who fought for human dignity and always affirmed the brotherhood of all men.
Chesterton wrote a lot, and he wrote a number of things about Jews that an American politician could not say without the other party barking for his head. In proportion to the volume he wrote, there may not be many. He did show up on the right side when things got bad, denouncing the notion that Schiller was German and Lessing not. He had Jewish friends of great loyalty. But what he wrote, he wrote.
ReplyDeleteAnd I find interesting the notion of a local cult; did Newman have one?
And is it victimization not to be nominated for sainthood? When we were in Switzerland in 2003, the guidebook said that there had only ever been one Swiss canonized--which did recall Harry Lyme's comments in The Third Man. Presumably the Swiss were never much more evil-living than the rest of Europe: I infer that their holy men lacked family and other well-placed advocates to plead their cases at Rome.
ReplyDeleteActually, Wikipedia has an entry for Swiss Roman Catholic saints and there are lot more than one.
ReplyDelete