Final Thoughts

I thought I'd post my final entry in a series of reflections on William F. Buckley. A friend who knows of my admiration for Buckley forwarded to me an article by Father Raymond J. de Souza (linked below) on the influence Catholicism played in the life of WFB. He cites George Weigel's claim that “Bill Buckley may have been the most publicly influential U.S. Catholic of the 20th century; he would certainly be on any serious list of the top five.” Since Buckley's passing, I had been waiting for an article that touched exclusively on Buckley's faith. As a public figure, he deserves commendation for an unflinching embrace of his faith in a time in our national history when Catholicism still faced stubborn, vestigial prejudices of an older era. His son Chris said of his father's religious convictions: "Deeply, profoundly and sometimes exasperatingly Catholic." Sounds like my kind of guy. I remember watching a wide-ranging interview with Buckley on the Charlie Rose Show. It was probably conducted within the past couple of years. Buckley was asked by his interlocutor if he had any desire, if possible to do so, to be a 25-year-old again. "Absolutely not." snuffed Buckley. The aged Buckley confessed to being "tired of living." To some this might initially sound indistinguishable from despair and to be honest, the first time I saw the interview, I was taken aback by the lack of any pause between the question and the answer. Buckley wasted no time to reflect on what he would say. But the more I thought about it, I gradually came to the realization that he said this within the context of expressing total contentment with a well-lived life. As always, he chose his words carefully and any other answer would have been inappropriate. Even though he readily admitted that he was ready to go, Buckley remained a consummate Catholic who, till the end, enjoyed the finer pleasures of life: good wine and mixed drinks, Bach and the harpsichord. And even though greatly saddened by the loss of his wife, Patricia, in '07, he remained a source of encouragement for others. In the aftermath of his wife's passing, Buckley would frequently admonish his son not to give in to gloom: "Remember, despair is a mortal sin."

As this article points out, even when Buckley struggled with a particular teaching of the Church earlier on, for instance, that of the use of contraception, in the end, he always came down on the side of the Church, saying, “The answer, for a Catholic, has got to be: the position taken by the Pope, as spokesman for the magisterium.” I think this takes real courage and should be taken as more reason to esteem WFB. As I see it, to confess one's inner struggle or lack of perfect understanding is a sign of honesty and integrity, and to have the conviction to set that aside in an act of acceptance to something you know to be greater reflects, I think, humility.

And just a final thought on the oft spoken "future of conservatism." Much ballyhoo and speculation has been offered regarding the "future" of the movement that Buckley forged. Many in the mainstream media, barely able to conceal their glee, interpret Buckley's passing as a harbinger of things to come for a now leaderless movement, a flock without its shepherd. I'll leave the intricacies of discussing, or rather refuting such ludicrous claims for another day. Conservatism, to be sure, is in need of a leader and President Bush, I think it's fair to say, has been singularly disappointing in this regard- in that he never really cared to champion conservatism as a political movement and as its leader. As Buckley said of Bush's father: "He is conservative, but not a conservative." Like father, like son. But that said, I do not believe that conservatism is in its death throws. Perhaps it is true that it has become a victim of its own success and that at present, the cause is undergoing certain growing pains. Buckley himself noted that many in the movement had become "slothful." As conservatism has grown, ample room has surfaced for respected thinkers to disagree on various issues. But why is it that vigorous debate is an indicator of imminent collapse? Conservatism, if guided correctly, will be just fine. To be sure, Buckley's passing leaves a void. To tweak a compliment that Jefferson once applied to Hamilton: Buckley was a colossus to the Republican Party, a host within himself. He will be missed.

Rather, I am more concerned with what Peggy Noonan expressed in her wonderful tribute to Buckley, that, with his passing, we're losing a unique kind of person- as she put it so nicely, "the elegant, the cultivated, the refined...people who were deeply, broadly educated in great universities when they taught deeply and broadly, who held deep views of life and the world and art and all the things that make life more delicious and more meaningful. We have work to do as a culture in bringing up future generations that are so well rounded, so full and so inspiring." Indeed.

http://catholiceducation.org/articles/catholic_stories/cs0262.htm