Happy 150th Birthday to G.K. Chesterton!

Only G.K. Chesterton could make such an event as his birth an excuse for levity, with deeper intent than at first perceived:

Bowing down in blind credulity, as is my custom, before mere authority and the tradition of the elders, superstitiously swallowing a story I could not test at the time by experiment or private judgment, I am firmly of opinion that I was born on the 29th of May, 1874, on Campden Hill, Kensington; and baptised according to the formularies of the Church of England in the little church of St. George opposite the large Waterworks Tower that dominated that ridge. I do not allege any significance in the relation of the two buildings; and I indignantly deny that the church was chosen because it needed the whole water-power of West London to turn me into a Christian.

Nevertheless, the great Waterworks Tower was destined to play its part in my life, as I shall narrate on a subsequent page; but that story is connected with my own experiences, whereas my birth (as I have said) is an incident which I accept, like some poor ignorant peasant, only because it has been handed down to me by oral tradition. And before we come to any of my own experiences, it will be well to devote this brief chapter to a few of the other facts of my family and environment which I hold equally precariously on mere hearsay evidence. Of course what many call hearsay evidence, or what I call human evidence, might be questioned in theory, as in the Baconian controversy or a good deal of the Higher Criticism. The story of my birth might be untrue. I might be the long-lost heir of The Holy Roman Empire, or an infant left by ruffians from Limehouse on a door-step in Kensington, to develop in later life a hideous criminal heredity. Some of the sceptical methods applied to the world's origin might be applied to my origin, and a grave and earnest enquirer come to the conclusion that I was never born at all. But I prefer to believe that common sense is something that my readers and I have in common; and that they will have patience with a dull summary of the facts.

from his Autobiography. He has received and accepts on faith the history of his birth, as have nearly all of us. Please note that Chesterton finished his Autobiography just before he died and it was published posthumously.

He also wrote about birthdays:

The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive….But there is a second fact about Birthdays, and the birth-song of all creation, a fact which really follows on this; but which, as it seems to me, the other school of thought almost refuses to recognize. The point of that fact is simply that it is a fact. In being glad about my Birthday, I am being glad about something which I did not myself bring about.

--from G.K.’s Weekly, 21 March 1935

Our local Chesterton society is meeting extraordinarily tonight (6 pm) at Eighth Day Books to celebrate his birthday by buying books and then repairing to a local ice cream shop -- not a pub? -- for a treat!

Happy Chesterton's Birthday to all his fans!

Image Credit (Public Domain): Picture of Chesterton with a Dog

Local History: Servant of God Emil Kapaun and the Medal of Honor

I attended Kapaun-Mount Carmel High School (our school mascot is the Crusader!), the east side co-educational school here in Wichita, Kansas. Before its founding in 1971, there had been two high schools: Chaplain Kapaun Memorial High School, a Jesuit preparatory school for young men established in 1956 and Mount Carmel Academy, a preparatory school for young women established in 1886 under the guidance of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Everyday in the rotunda of the high school, which was the building the Sisters of Charity had built on east Central, I passed by the display honoring Chaplain Emil Kapaun and the mosaic of Our Lady of Kansas.

Father Kapaun's cause for sainthood is being sponsored by the Diocese of Wichita and the website is here. Yesterday, April 11, Father Emil Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Our local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, has been very involved in the Father Kapaun story, producing a series of articles, a television special, and even a new book, all about Father Kapaun. This site consolidates the material from the series and reports about the Medal of Honor ceremony.

It's fascinating to be witnessing this process of honoring the namesake of my high school alma mater. I remember reading comments that Servant of God Kapaun should be canonized as a martyr--many of those who saw him taken by the Chinese to their "hospital", which was really a death house, believed he was being punished for his Christian witness in the POW camp. Because there are no witnesses to his death, however, the cause being pursued is for his beatification and canonization as a confessor.

Lord Jesus, in the midst of the folly of war,
your servant, Chaplain Emil Kapaun spent himself
in total service to you on the battlefields and
in the prison camps of Korea, until his
death at the hands of his captors.

We now ask you, Lord Jesus, if it be your will,
to make known to all the world the holiness
of Chaplain Kapaun and the glory of his
complete sacrifice for you by signs of
miracles and peace.

In your name, Lord, we ask, for you are the
source of peace, the strength of our
service to others, and our final hope.

Amen.

Theology on Tap

I've been tapped--thanks to a friend's recommendation--to give a presentation next Tuesday night, June 14, at Theology on Tap a program for young adults in the Catholic Diocese of Wichita. The meeting is held in Loft 150 of River City Brewery in Old Town at 8:00 p.m.

My presentation will focus on Blessed John Henry Newman and two current events: Pope Benedict XVI's visit to England in September of last year (including the beatification of John Henry Newman) and the progress of the first Personal Ordinariate in England, Our Lady of Walsingham this year (placed under the spiritual direction of Blessed John Henry Newman).

After my talk, I might enjoy an Emerald City Stout--carefully, while signing copies of Supremacy and Survival!

Ordinariate Opportunities Closer to Home?

I have been asked several times if I know of opportunities for the Anglican Ordinariate in my home town of Wichita, Kansas. Looking at the Episcopalian communities here, I don't see any. The mainline Episcopalian churches have accepted women as priests, evidently, because they have female vicars, curates, and deacons. There was a breakaway group from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in 2004, which formed St. Michael the Archangel Antiochian Orthodox Church (Western Rite) . We do have a traditional Anglican parish, St. Joseph of Glastonbury. It is part of the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite in the Diocese of Holy Trinity and the Great Plains, which is not affiliated with the Archbishop of Canterbury. That Diocese proclaims:

We welcome you in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen. The Diocese of Holy Trinity and Great Plains is in the province of the Holy Catholic Church Anglican Rite. We are an American family of traditional Anglican Churches, within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. We continue in the historic catholic faith, apostolic order and liturgical worship, as the Lord taught, the apostles preached and Church Fathers preserved.

Our worship is based on Holy Scriptures, Apostolic Tradition, and the use of the 1928Book of Common Prayer and the Anglican/American Missal.

The Mission of the diocese is to perpetuate historic catholic faith, Apostolic order and Sacramental worship through the unbroken apostolic succession of the Anglican Tradition until His second coming!

They believe they have sacramental ordination (male only) and believe in the seven Sacraments as outward signs of inward grace. The Holy Catholic Anglican Rite community believes it is the via media between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism--the English Catholic Church. Its website does not include a statement about the role of the Pope, the Bishop of Rome.

St. Joseph of Glastonbury proclaims its mission:

St. Joseph's Church is a parish of the Holy Catholic Church (Anglican Rite), which stands in the unbroken continuity of Apostolic Faith (teaching) and Order (organization) given by our Lord Jesus Christ to His Church. Our faith is based on the Word of God found in Holy Scripture, and on the first seven Ecumenical Councils held by the undivided Christian Church. We are dedicated solely to the Glory of God and the uncompromised living-out of His teachings. Our core beliefs are in the Holy Scriptures as the revealed Word of God; salvation is found only through Jesus Christ: the sanctity of life beginning at conception, and marriage as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. Our Services continue the Liturgy of the Anglican Missal and the Book of Common Prayer (English, 1549, American, 1928, and Canadian, 1962.)

Therefore, they have already separated themselves from the Anglican Communion to develop their own branch of the branch under the branch theory of the via media. I don't see them as a group wanting to join a Catholic ordinariate, based on a surface investigation at least.

St. Therese the Little Flower in the Blue Hills neighborhood of Kansas City is the closest opportunity I know of. Earlier this year the parish hosted a conference for those interested in the Ordinariate and people from Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas attended. Note: Kansas not mentioned.