William F. Buckley Jr.: Catholic Faith Was Central to His Life
Bill Buckley
Nine years after  Bill Buckley âs death  reflecting on his Catholic life
William F. Buckley Jr. died nine years ago today. When I announced his death on the website  a stream of e-mails poured in testifying to what an impact he had on people âs  lives by his presence â in print  on television  and in person. Person after person told of the one time they met him  and in each case the story was nearly identical:  Bill  treated them like they were the most important person in the world. Priests and at least one religious sister shared the influence his public Catholicism had on them. Others said that while their own father wasnât in the picture when they were growing up   Bill  was a reliable presence in their lives with wisdom  even if only via Firing Line.
When I interviewed  Bill  for Crisis back in the mid Nineties   he  inspired me with two comments: One  that  he  prayed the Rosary every day. Two  that  he  had had a love affair with Jesus Christ since his childhood  when He answered his prayers about his mother  who was going through a very difficult pregnancy.
Following the interview  I began describing  Bill  as the Saint Paul of the modern conservative movement. Saint Paul because (a)  Bill  was a true believer in  his  faith and philosophy  spreading both wherever  he  traveled; and (b)  he  was an apostle of caritas. âThough I speak with the tongues of men and angels  and have not love  I am no better than a clanging gong or a brass bell.â So many  many acts of charity throughout his life. He proselytized for conservatism for nearly 60 years  sustained by his deep faith.
 Bill  was the opposite of ostentatious in  his  religious observances. But any close friend could see that prayer occupied an important place in the spiritual economy of  his  life. I think  he  would have liked what the novelist Anthony Trollope had to say about such matters. In the late 1850s  Trollope wrote:
I suppose we might cavil over the deflationary phrase âamuse himselfâ â perhaps âengageâ or âoccupyâ would have been better â but in essentials  I think  Bill  would have smiled on Trollopeâs enumeration of duties. And it was the prelude  the recognition that our sojourn here on earth is ineluctably short  be it full of years or  like that of Lessingâs son  numbered in hours only  that distributes weight to the obligations articulated.
Pascal expresses the discomfiting aspect of this humbling recognition  the side that pushes people into graduate seminars in philosophy and the therapistâs couch.  Bill  did not have much time for this allotrope of existential anxiety.  He  recognized  as  he  put it in  his  magnificent account of  his  visit to Lourdes  that âfrom the day of birth  we are on our deathbed.â But if  he  found in it a private inspiration to prayer   he  publicly embraced it as a goad to action and enjoyment  not paralysis.  His  focus was adamantly outward  blissfully with the particularities of  his  latest adventure. Socrates may or may not have been right that âthe unexamined life is not worth living.â  Bill  indisputably demonstrated that the unexamined world just wonât cut it. âThe entertainment committee â  he  liked to say  ânever sleeps.â
Our secular age is unfriendly to Catholics  to religion generally  but the irony is that secularists are often less jubilantly worldly than their Jewish and Christian compatriots. âGod made the world and saw that it was good.â That bulletin from Genesis might have been the motto of  Bill Buckleyâs  life.  He  certainly did everything  he  could to broadcast it among  his  many friends. I have never known a more generous person. I do not mean only materially generous  though Billâs largesse in that department was legendary. I mean spiritually  constitutionally generous as well.
Billâs generosity was perhaps most solicitous in matters touching on religious faith. I think of  his  account  alternately moving and amusing  of the last days of  his  National Review colleague Frank Meyer. In  his  last illness  Meyer struggled with the momentous decision of whether to convert to Catholicism.  Bill  was a tireless emissary between Meyer and various confidants.  Bill  reports that Meyer  from his bed of woe  complained that âthe only remaining intellectual obstacle to his conversion was the collectivist implication lurking in the formulation âthe communion of saintsâ in the Apostlesâ Creed.â Two days before the end  Meyer somehow overcame that final obstacle  partly  I like to think  with the help of Billâs armory of arguments.
Another anecdote: Everyone knows that  Bill  commanded a formidable vocabulary. It was significant  therefore  that he should have telephoned us once in search of a word. âIt means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others â he said to my wife. âSchadenfreude?â she ventured. âThatâs it!â he said and rang off. How perfectly Buckleyesque that he should have forgotten it. It named an emotion that was as foreign to him as joy was native.
When I met  Mr. Buckley   I was a sophomore in college  and even at a distance of all these years  I know that what most struck me about  him  then was what might be called a certain Catholic matter-of-factness: not in the sense of nonchalance in approaching matters of faith  but just the opposite. From  his  lifetime of familiarity with the Lord came an ease of conversation about  Him  and a givenness that  his  life was firmly situated within the context of a lived discipleship in the middle of the Church.
 Father Gerald E. Murray
Bill Buckley  went on pilgrimage to Our Ladyâs shrine in Lourdes a few years before  he  set out on the final pilgrimage to eternity. I was a chaplain on that trip and spent time with  Bill .  He  remarked that at Lourdes  he  felt completely free from the ordinary sense of time and schedules.  He  must have experienced the heavenly sense of Lourdes. When the Blessed Virgin Mary came down to speak with Bernadette Soubirous in 1858  eternity entered into time and left a lasting mark on a faraway corner of France. Time is a measurement of change; eternity is beyond change  for it is the perfection of everything we seek when we pursue the true  the good  and the beautiful.
 Bill  spent  his  lifetime resisting those who impossibly sought to âimmanentize the eschatonâ by violence  deceit  and deception. The eschaton is reserved for the next life. A sweet foretaste  however  is offered when and where God chooses to intervene in human history. Lourdes is such a place  and  Bill  knew by conviction  and now by experience  that Catholicism blesses her children with such joyful experiences of the fundamental truth that God is good. That joy transports us  if only for a moment  out of the limited horizon of daily life. That joy allows us to return to our daily schedule knowing it all has a meaning and higher purpose as we journey to eternity.  Bill Buckley  was a pilgrim who sought and upheld truth and goodness in the great struggle against the 20th centuryâs promoters of lies and evil. We are all in his debt. Requiescat in pace.
â  The Reverend Gerald E. Murray   J.C.D.  is a canon lawyer and the pastor of Holy Family Church  in New York City.
Nine years after   [TGT]  âs death  reflecting on  [TGT]  Catholic life
William F. Buckley Jr. died nine years ago today. When I announced his death on the website  a stream of e-mails poured in testifying to what an impact he had on people âs  lives by his presence â in print  on television  and in person. Person after person told of the one time they met him  and in each case the story was nearly identical:  Bill  treated them like they were the most important person in the world. Priests and at least one religious sister shared the influence his public Catholicism had on them. Others said that while their own father wasnât in the picture when they were growing up   Bill  was a reliable presence in their lives with wisdom  even if only via Firing Line.
When I interviewed  Bill  for Crisis back in the mid Nineties   he  inspired me with two comments: One  that  he  prayed the Rosary every day. Two  that  he  had had a love affair with Jesus Christ since his childhood  when He answered his prayers about his mother  who was going through a very difficult pregnancy.
Following the interview  I began describing  Bill  as the Saint Paul of the modern conservative movement. Saint Paul because (a)  Bill  was a true believer in  his  faith and philosophy  spreading both wherever  he  traveled; and (b)  he  was an apostle of caritas. âThough I speak with the tongues of men and angels  and have not love  I am no better than a clanging gong or a brass bell.â So many  many acts of charity throughout his life. He proselytized for conservatism for nearly 60 years  sustained by his deep faith.
 Bill  was the opposite of ostentatious in  his  religious observances. But any close friend could see that prayer occupied an important place in the spiritual economy of  his  life. I think  he  would have liked what the novelist Anthony Trollope had to say about such matters. In the late 1850s  Trollope wrote:
I suppose we might cavil over the deflationary phrase âamuse himselfâ â perhaps âengageâ or âoccupyâ would have been better â but in essentials  I think  Bill  would have smiled on Trollopeâs enumeration of duties. And it was the prelude  the recognition that our sojourn here on earth is ineluctably short  be it full of years or  like that of Lessingâs son  numbered in hours only  that distributes weight to the obligations articulated.
Pascal expresses the discomfiting aspect of this humbling recognition  the side that pushes people into graduate seminars in philosophy and the therapistâs couch.  Bill  did not have much time for this allotrope of existential anxiety.  He  recognized  as  he  put it in  his  magnificent account of  his  visit to Lourdes  that âfrom the day of birth  we are on our deathbed.â But if  [TGT]  [TGT]   found in  [TGT]  a private inspiration to prayer    [TGT]   publicly embraced  [TGT]  as a goad to action and enjoyment  not paralysis.   [TGT]   focus was adamantly outward  blissfully with the particularities of   [TGT]   latest adventure. Socrates may or may not have been right that âthe unexamined life is not worth living.â  Bill  indisputably demonstrated that the unexamined world just wonât cut it. âThe entertainment committee â  he  liked to say  ânever sleeps.â
Our secular age is unfriendly to Catholics  to religion generally  but the irony is that secularists are often less jubilantly worldly than their Jewish and Christian compatriots. âGod made the world and saw that it was good.â That bulletin from Genesis might have been the motto of   [TGT]  [TGT]   certainly did everything   [TGT]   could to broadcast it among   [TGT]   many friends. I have never known a more generous person. I do not mean only materially generous  though Billâs largesse in that department was legendary. I mean spiritually  constitutionally generous as well.
Billâs generosity was perhaps most solicitous in matters touching on religious faith. I think of  [TGT]  [TGT]   account  alternately moving and amusing  of the last days of   [TGT]   National Review colleague Frank Meyer. In  his  last illness  Meyer struggled with the momentous decision of whether to convert to Catholicism.  Bill  was a tireless emissary between Meyer and various confidants.  Bill  reports that Meyer  from his bed of woe  complained that âthe only remaining intellectual obstacle to his conversion was the collectivist implication lurking in the formulation âthe communion of saintsâ in the Apostlesâ Creed.â Two days before the end  Meyer somehow overcame that final obstacle  partly  I like to think  with the help of Billâs armory of arguments.
Another anecdote: Everyone knows that  Bill  commanded a formidable vocabulary. It was significant  therefore  that he should have telephoned us once in search of a word. âIt means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others â he said to my wife. âSchadenfreude?â she ventured. âThatâs it!â he said and rang off. How perfectly Buckleyesque that he should have forgotten it. It named an emotion that was as foreign to him as joy was native.
When I met  Mr. Buckley   I was a sophomore in college  and even at a distance of all these years  I know that what most struck me about  him  then was what might be called a certain Catholic matter-of-factness: not in the sense of nonchalance in approaching matters of faith  but just the opposite. From  his  lifetime of familiarity with the Lord came an ease of conversation about  Him  and a givenness that  his  life was firmly situated within the context of a lived discipleship in the middle of the Church.
  [TGT] 
went on pilgrimage to Our Ladyâs shrine in Lourdes a few years before   [TGT]   set out on the final pilgrimage to eternity. I was a chaplain on that trip and spent time with  Bill .  He  remarked that at Lourdes  he  felt completely free from the ordinary sense of time and schedules.  He  must have experienced the heavenly sense of Lourdes. When the Blessed Virgin Mary came down to speak with Bernadette Soubirous in 1858  eternity entered into time and left a lasting mark on a faraway corner of France. Time is a measurement of change; eternity is beyond change  for it is the perfection of everything we seek when we pursue the true  the good  and the beautiful.
 Bill  spent  his  lifetime resisting those who impossibly sought to âimmanentize the eschatonâ by violence  deceit  and deception. The eschaton is reserved for the next life. A sweet foretaste  however  is offered when and where God chooses to intervene in human history. Lourdes is such a place  and  Bill  knew by conviction  and now by experience  that Catholicism blesses her children with such joyful experiences of the fundamental truth that God is good. That joy transports us  if only for a moment  out of the limited horizon of daily life. That joy allows us to return to our daily schedule knowing it all has a meaning and higher purpose as we journey to eternity.  Bill Buckley  was a pilgrim who sought and upheld truth and goodness in the great struggle against the 20th centuryâs promoters of lies and evil. We are all in his debt. Requiescat in pace.
â   [TGT] is a canon lawyer and the pastor of Holy Family Church  in New York City.