Jollyblogger has called me his favorite papist and added me to his blogroll. 🙂 He has great taste in writers. C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton are among his favorites. I heartily recommend his blog. 🙂
“My attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have
long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is
Thursday.”
Ya gotta love a guy who posts
lengthy quotes from Chesterton. Go, Jollyblogger, go! 🙂
Here’s some info on an Catholic author for whom I gain more respect every time I
read another of his books.
“Who
is this guy and why haven�t I heard of him?”
A pithy bio of G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist
President, American Chesterton Society
I’ve heard the question more than once. It is asked by people who have just started
to discover G.K. Chesterton. They have begun reading a Chesterton book, or perhaps
have seen an issue of Gilbert! Magazine, or maybe they’ve only encountered a series
of pithy quotations that marvelously articulate some forgotten bit of common sense.
They ask the question with a mixture of wonder, gratitude and . . . resentment.
They are amazed by what they have discovered. They are thankful to have discovered
it. And they are almost angry that it has taken so long for them to make the discovery.
Sometimes it’s enlightening to soak up some of G.K.Chesterton’s wisdom, especially
when it’s obviously still applicable after 80 years.
“You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must
have a democracy in order to have a revolution.” – Tremendous Trifles, 1909“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives.
The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives
is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” – ILN, 4/19/24“It is the mark of our whole modern history that the masses are kept quiet
with a fight. They are kept quiet by the fight because it is a sham-fight; thus
most of us know by this time that the Party System has been popular only in the
sense that a football match is popular.” – A Short History of England. 156“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found
it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background.
I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge
of the scoundrel.” – The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III“Progress is a comparative of which we have not settled the superlative.”
– Chapter 2, Heretics, 1905“Progress should mean that we are always changing the world to fit the vision,
instead we are always changing the vision.” – Orthodoxy, 1908“This is the age in which thin and theoretic minorities can cover and conquer
unconscious and untheoretic majorities.” – ILN, 12/20/19“Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God.” – Christendom
in Dublin, 1933
I think this satire by Mark Shea just about sums up the abuses of Vatican II.
Chesterton: A Spirit of Vatican II Bibliography
"Many people know that G.K. Chesterton, a famous defender of the Catholic faith as well as a prolific writer in fields as diverse as murder mysteries, literary criticism, biography, and political, theological and economic thought, fell strangely silent in the mid-1930s and ceased to publish for nearly 50 years. As a result, some speculated he might have died. However, the last few years have seen a fresh outpouring of new and markedly different material from that now-reclusive knight of Christendom. These new writings have been communicated to the outside world through the mediation of an elite team of American theologians from several major Catholic universities. These men and women assure us that these writings authentically embody the thought of ‘the New Chesterton’–a Chesterton who is now (under their careful editorial supervision) deeply reflective of ‘Spirit of Vatican II’ sensibilities and trends."