Catholic Matters

What an excellent title for a book about conversion, Catholic miscellany, and salvation in the church! Neuhaus quotes Chesterton at the end, and this jumped out at me:

"It was no flock of sheep the Christian shepherd was leading, but a herd of bulls and tigers...This is the thrilling romance of Orthodoxy."

Neuhaus portrays the dynamic in the Church not as liberals vs. conservatives, but liberals and conservatives who are in discontinuity with the rest of us. He speaks of the party of continuity, and here I think Chesterton's use of the term 'orthodoxy' finds a synonym. G.K. continues, "People have fallen into the habit of speaking of orthodoxy [continuity] as something heavy, humdrum, and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy." Or as Neuhaus puts it, "Orthodoxy is not stasis but the high adventure of fidelity to truth." Those who are in fidelity to Truth comprise the center, defined by Neuhaus as "a continuing and identifiable community that is the Catholic Church."

Well said. Stay with Peter, and you'll see how very much Catholic matters in the end.