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Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in Battersea, London on May 29, 1874 and baptized in the Anglican Church. Attending St. Paul's School until 1891 when he enrolled at University College and then became an art student at the Slade School of Art in 1893. Three years later he was hired by London publisher Redway and T. Fisher Unwin where he worked until 1902 when he began his career as a writer with a book of poems entitled "The Wild Knight." From then on, he became one of the most prolific writers, engaging in art only on a few occasions. He became a very well known opponent to Britain's Boer War, making him also one of the most controversial writers. From 1913 to 1914 he gained great experience and exposure as a contributor to the Daily Herald.
World War I made things sparse not just for Chesterton but for all Brits. After the war he rose to the leadership ranks of the Distributist movement was was eventually voted President of the League by the same name. The party's platform was somewhat socialistic in nature with private property being divided into minute freeholds and partitioned off to all classes in society. It was during this time in 1918 that he became the editor of "G.K.'s Weekly," which replaced his brother Cecil's, "The Eye Witness."
He said that his "chief idea of his life" was the awakening of wonder, the capacity to see things as if for the first time. There were few subjects that he didn't have some fresh insights into. From serious issues to fiction, G.K. Chesterton wrote on it.
Like another Englishman of media-fame - Malcolm Muggeridge, who was also a recipient of the TOP 100 CATHOLICS OF THE CENTURY honor - Chesterton lived his faith and displayed that faith through his writings long before he made his final conversion. He began writing Father Brown novels in 1910 which dealt with a gentle, quiet priest who could solve the most puzzling of mysteries. In 1934 and again in 1954 his novels were translated to the screen with the second featuring Alec Guiness in the title role.
In 1922 he was baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, saying: "I had no more idea of becoming a Catholic than of becoming a cannibal. I imagined that I was merely pointing out that justice should be done even to cannibals . . . [but] it is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church. The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it . . ." {The Catholic Church and Conversion, NY: Macmillan, 1926, pp. 59,62}
A contemporary of Hilaire Belloc, his apologetics works, "Orthodoxy" and "The Thing" are referred to even today. "The mind of modern man is a curious mixture of decayed Calvinism and diluted Buddhism; and he expresses his philosophy without knowing that he holds it. We [i.e., Catholics] say what it is natural for us to say; but we know what we are saying; therefore it is assumed that we are saying it for effect. He says what it is natural for him to say; but he does not know what he is saying, still less why he is saying it . . . He is just as partisan; . . . just as much depending on one doctrinal system as distinct from another. But he has taken it for granted so often that he has forgotten what it is. So his literature does not seem to him partisan, even when it is. But our literature does seem to him propagandist, even when it isn't." {The Thing, NY: Sheed & Ward, 1929, p. 120}
"Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground. Christianity is the only frame which has preserved the pleasure of Paganism. We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff's edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the center of the island; and their song had ceased." {Orthodoxy, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1908, p. 145}
One of the least known accomplishments of G.K. Chesterton was his debate with Clarence Darrow, after his stunning win in the Scopes Monkey Trial which was the first, and major, victory of science (evolution) over faith (creation). "Unfortunately, 19th-century scientists were just as ready to jump to the conclusion that any guess about nature was an obvious fact, as were 17th-century sectarians to jump to the conclusion that any guess about Scripture was the obvious explanation . . . . and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion." {Saint Thomas Aquinas, Garden City, NY: Doubleday Image, 1933, p. 88}
Though no transcripts are available of what occurred, there are articles which indicate what occurred. "Mr. Joseph J. Reilly attended a debate at Mecca Temple in New York City, between Chesterton and Clarence Darrow, which dealt with the story of creation as presented in Genesis.
"It was a Sunday afternoon and the Temple was packed. At the conclusion of the debate everybody was asked to express his opinion as to the victor and slips of paper were passed around for that purpose. The award went directly to Chesterton. Darrow in comparison, seemed heavy, uninspired, slow of mind, while G.K.C. was joyous, sparkling and witty .... quite the Chesterton one had come to expect from his books. The affair was like a race between a lumbering sailing vessel and a modern steamer. Mrs. Frances Taylor Patterson also heard the Chesterton-Darrow debate, but went to the meeting with some misgivings because she was a trifle afraid that Chesterton's "gifts might seem somewhat literary in comparison with the trained scientific mind and rapier tongue of the famous trial lawyer. Instead, the trained scientific mind, the clear thinking, the lightning quickness in getting a point and hurling back an answer, turned out to belong to Chesterton. I have never heard Mr. Darrow alone, but taken relatively, when that relativity is to Chesterton, he appears positively muddle-headed…..As Chesterton summed it up, he felt as if Darrow had been arguing all afternoon with his fundamentalist aunt, and the latter kept sparring with a dummy of his own mental making. When something went wrong with the microphone, Darrow sat back until it could be fixed. Whereupon G.K.C. jumped up and carried on in his natural voice, "Science you see is not infallible!" Whatever brilliance Darrow had in his own right, it was completely eclipsed. For all the luster that he shed, he might have been a remote star at high noon drowned by the bright incandescent are light of the sun. Chesterton had the audience with him from the start, and when it was over, everyone just sat there, not wishing to leave. They were loath to let the light die!" ("Chesterton As Seen by His Contemporaries," complied by Cyril Clemons, Webster Groves: International Mark Twain Society, 1939, pp. 66-68.)
"Ostensibly the defender of science against Mr. Chesterton, he (Darrow) obviously knew much less about science than Mr. Chesterton did; when he essayed to answer his opponent on the views of Eddington and Jeans, it was patent that he did not have the remotest conception of what the new physics was all about. His victory over Mr. Byran at Dayton had been too cheap and easy; he remembered it not wisely but too well. His arguments are still the arguments of the village atheist of the Ingersoll period; at Mecca Temple he still seemed to be trying to shock and convince yokels." (Arictle from Henry Hazlitt, "The Nation" Feb. 4th, 1931)
He was also an accomplished poet or, as he liked to say, a "balladeer" and his short poem of the great, miraculous victory at sea in the Battle of Lepanto which he appropriately dubbed "Lepanto" captures the essence of the scene like few could:
He was a strong apologist for the Faith and translated his prose and poetry to warning all of the growing danger of new ageism which he penned in a poem called "Jealousy". Below is a sample:
If she must lean on lesser props
of earthly fame or ancient art,
make shift with Raphael or Racine,
put up with Dante or Descartes
not wholly can she mask her grief,
but touch the wound and murmur sadly,
'These lesser things are theirs to love
who lose the love of Mr. Bradley.
Bradley was either a pseudonym for someone who bolted from the Church, embracing new age ideas, or an actual person who Chesterton wanted to needle. He was good at needling and tweaking consciences. His book Heretics pointed out the pitfalls and shortcomings of those who disagreed with Church teaching and his works Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man have been adapted by so many through the decades as excellent compendiums of examples of apologetic logic of the truths of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The excellent publication The New Oxford Review places a priority on his work and prints many of his articles and writings regularly.
G.K. Chesterton's renown became even greater through radio talks. Though he traveled widely in Europe, America, and Palestine, his last twenty years were spent at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, where he died on June 14th, 1936, at the age of 62 during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI who praised Chesterton for upholding the ideals of Catholicism amid difficult circumstances in the face of public opinion. As the years have gone by history has been kind to this man and he is perhaps more popular today than ever before. Perhaps the American Chesterton Society sums up his contributions best with the phrase: "Common Sense for the World's Uncommon Nonsense."
Saint Gabriel, of course, is the archangel who appeared to Mary announcing that she had been chosen most blessed among all women as the Mother of God. This is documented in the first chapter of Luke as well as Gabriel's prophecy to Zecharia or Zachary about the birth of his son Saint John the Baptist. There is also mention of Gabriel in Daniel 8: 16 and 9: 21. Gabriel in Hebrew means "Power of God". In the Syriac Church Gabriel is placed highest among the angels. Gabriel is considered the patron of couriers and communication workers.
The least known of the three, Saint Raphael is mentioned in the Book of Tobit 12:12-15 where the Archangel identifies himself with the "seven archangels who stand before the Lord." In Hebrew his name translates to "God heals." He is the angel who "healed" the earth from defilement of the sins wrought by the fallen angels. He is considered the patron of the blind and of travelers.
The responsibilities of this office, headed by Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo of Spain as Chamberlain or Camerlengo, are to tend to the temporal goods and rights of the Church during the vacancy between the death of one Pope and the election of the next. It corresponds to the Treasury of the Church. The Camerlengo assumes the regency upon the death of a Pope and makes arrangements for the conclave and papal election.
This office dates back to the 11th century and was virtually untouched until 1934 when Pope Pius XI reorganized it. Subsequently Pope Pius XII did the same in 1945, Pope John XXIII in 1962 and Pope Paul VI in 1975.
This office is strictly financial, coordinating and supervising administration of the temporal goods of the Holy See. Bishop Sergio Sebastiani is the current pro-president.
With the scandal of the Vatican Bank in the sixties, Paul VI established this office on August 15, 1967 to monitor finances. It was reorganized by Pope John Paul II and functions redefined in his Motu Proprio Pastor Bonus on June 28, 1988.
The primary responsibilities of this office are to handle the estate of the Apostolic See under the direction of papal delegates acting with ordinary or extraordinary authorization. The President of this office is Italy's Cardinal Lorenzo Antonetti.
This office (APSA) has its origins dating back to Pope Leo XIII in 1878 but it was not fully defined until August 15, 1967 by Paul VI.
