"Converting England -- and us too"

George Weigel takes a look at Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' neighborhood, in "Today's Catholic," August 15, 2008.

Weigel starts off by telling us that when Pope Pius IX "had restored the diocesan hierarchy in England" -- in 1850 -- "The Anglican archbishop of York warned that Rome was plotting Anglicanism's captivity and ruin."

He then adds:

"As things turned out, Anglicanism proved quite capable of arranging its own sad ruin.

"Into that slough now rides Father Aidan Nichols, the distinguished English Dominican theologian.

"His small book, The Realm: An Unfashionable Essay on the Conversion of England, makes a bold claim about the past and a bold wager about the future:

England is in fact inseparable from Catholicism, unimaginable without it.

"Moreover, Father Nichols argues, to preach, teach, propose and invite the conversion of England is not bad manners, but true courtesy."

Weigel then quotes Fr. Nichols yet again:

"...if Catholic Christianity conveys in human form the divine revelation which is the greatest truth, goodness and beauty man can know, then all the elements of truth, goodness and beauty in the theory and practice of other forms of Christianity and indeed in other faith traditions would attain their crown in this (Catholic) context, [and within the Catholic Church] would come to their intended fulfillment."

A good read!