On W. F. Buckley, Jr., and the Faith

Sounds like he was a sounder Catholic than I'd heard--I shall have to read more of him:

“It annoyed him to be thought arbitrary in religion,” wrote Father Rutler. “The line attributed to him, Mater, Si; Magistra, No (literally ‘Mother, Yes; Teacher, No’) was not his, and while he even published in a book his difficulties with some doctrines, he proved Newman’s point that a thousand difficulties do not make one doubt. By his own admission, the Lourdes pilgrim never knew one moment of lost faith and was precise in moral obedience, as when he wanted to do exactly the right thing about extraordinary care when Pat was dying.” (Pat was his wife of 56 years.)

I should acknowledge that I, like other avid Buckley readers, always knew he was Catholic. I began reading National Review as an agnostic and then as a Protestant. I noticed immediately the unmistakable Catholic presence, from Buckley’s own abiding interest in the Catholic faith to that of regular writers like Richard John Neuhaus before he became the Father Neuhaus of First Things, EWTN and the public square. References to the Church in National Review came naturally and thoughtfully and were a jolt to my non-Catholic sensibilities; alien as they were, they brought me my first respect for the Catholic Church. Later, I also read Buckley’s spiritual autobiography, Nearer, My God (Mariner Books, 1998), which explored his faith in some detail...

In Edwards’ book, we see the influence of certain Catholic conservative intellectuals on Buckley, such as Willmoore Kendall, James Burnham and Russell Kirk, all the way to the impact of Catholic teachings like subsidiarity. As for the latter, subsidiarity was fundamental to Buckley’s brand of conservatism; it seems to explain certain policy positions better than laissez-faire or libertarian philosophy.

This is no small fact. It would mean that the Catholic faith has been influential in undergirding the domestic-economic thinking of the entire postwar conservative movement. Stated another way: Thanks to William F. Buckley, the Catholic faith played a far greater role in shaping America’s political dialogue than most Americans realize...

All along, whatever the politics and problems of the day, Buckley’s faith seemed the one constant. “My faith has not wavered,” he declared. It didn’t waver even as he grappled with challenging issues, doctrines and councils.

To be sure, Buckley admitted an uneasiness with the changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. Every bit the conservative, he preferred the long-standing traditions and rites and the Mass the way it had been. Edwards touches on this to a degree; Buckley himself addressed it at length in his autobiography.

Buckley also struggled to accept the Church’s teaching on contraception, and did so openly, prompting Catholics to question his fidelity and orthodoxy. As Edwards notes, however, Buckley worked through this teaching, finally submitting himself to the Church. “It is true that he favored contraception early on,” Edwards says, “but changed his position to acceptance of the Holy Father’s teaching.”

Indeed, Buckley addressed this too, in Nearer, My God, notably in Chapter 12, which concerns marriage, priestly celibacy, divorce, abortion and birth control. Again and again, even when he personally struggled with the teaching, Buckley chose to think with the Church:

On marriage and divorce: “I see the Church as echoing the word of the Lord on marriage.” On contraception: “My own incomplete understanding of the natural law balks at the central affirmation of Humanae Vitae, even as I’d of course counsel dutiful compliance with it.” On fidelity in general: “Which side to observe? But the answer, for a Catholic, has got to be: the position taken by the Pope, as spokesman for the magisterium.”

In a nutshell, that’s faithful Catholicity. It’s also honest. Buckley openly admitted his struggles, doubts and misgivings, but, in the end, he submitted his conscience to the Church’s teachings because he believed that the Church is what it claims to be...

Requiescat in pace.