THE
P RTAL
September 2018
Page 3
P ortal Comment
The Fragility
of Orders
Some thoughts by Ronald Crane
“I
think there’s an iron law built into the relationship between Christianity and modernity,
Christian communities that maintain a strong sense of their doctrinal and moral borders survive
and even thrive in modernity and post-modernity, while Christian communities whose doctrinal and moral
borders become porous (and even invisible) wither and die.”
This is a quote from one of
America’s most prominent Catholic
public intellectuals, George Weigel. It
is Weigel’s answer to a question posed
by The Tablet’s Christopher Lamb. It
was published in The Tablet for 21st
April 2018 in Lamb’s “View from
Rome” column.
The occasion was the launch of
a book by Weigel, The Fragility of
Order. Weigel’s words need to be
taken seriously, as he has spent
thirty-five years in Washington
and Rome analysing the turbulence
that characterises world politics,
American public life, and the
Catholic Church in the early twenty-
first century. Of course, it is America, but as they say,
“America coughs and the UK catches a cold”.
The book is a collection of essays, in which Weigel
reads such events as the First World War, the
collapse of Communism, and the Obama and Trump
presidencies through a distinctive cultural and moral
lens, even as he offers new insights into Pope Francis
and his challenging pontificate.
In them, George Weigel brings into focus two key
convictions—that ideas have consequences for good
and ill, and that the deepest currents of history flow
through culture—illuminate political and economic
life, and the life of the Church, in ways not often
appreciated or understood.
Many of the chapters in this book originated in
George Weigel’s annual William E. Simon Lecture,
which since 2001 has become a major event in
Washington, D.C. They are unique in their application
of philosophical and theological
perspectives to the issues of history
and politics, enabling the reader to
see current events in a deeper way.
I am indebted to the Ignatius Press
web site for these insights.
In Lamb’s Tablet article he
continues, “The same, the author
(Weigel) argues, is true for
Catholicism, which he says is
‘living’ in parts of the world that
have ‘embraced the magisterium of
John Paul II and Benedict XVI as
the authoritative interpretation of
Vatican II’, but dying where there
is an attempt to make ‘Catholic-lite’
work”.
To those of us in one of the Ordinariates, Weigel’s
words certainly strike a chord. Are not these the very
reason’s why we joined the Catholic Church in the
Ordinariate in the first place? Not only do we need to
take the words seriously, but we need to find ways of
making them real and alive.
The Fragility of Orders
Ignatius Press - ISBN/UPC: 9781621642374
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