He died yesterday. He was 81 years old and died on the vigil of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

It has been four years since the death of Joseph Sobran.  Scott P. Richert has written a moving tribute at the Chronicles magazine website.

“For many Catholics of a certain age, Joseph Sobran will forever be remembered as one of the greatest literary defenders of the Catholic Church’s teaching on life over the past 40 years. From contraception to abortion, from euthanasia to just-war doctrine, Joe was an eloquent voice in the popular press for the teachings of the Catholic Church, and, in fighting for the truth, he wore himself out a few decades too early, dying at 3 P.M. on Thursday, September 30, 2010, at the age of 64.”

“Much of Joe’s best writing on life issues appeared in Human Life Review. Indeed, one might say that, for almost two decades, Joe Sobran was Human Life Review. As J.P. McFadden, the founding editor of HLR, wrote in his Introduction to Single Issues, a 1983 collection of Joe’s best essays from the Review, “we never dreamed how much he would have to say, or that he would become our most faithful contributor: his sharply-honed essays would have appeared in every issue over the past eight years [from the Review’s founding in 1975 until 1982, when McFadden was writing], but for a few missed deadlines.”

Yet after Bill Buckley fired Joe Sobran from National Review in 1991 he was also dismissed from Human Life Review (both publcations emanated from the same offices). When HLR subsequently celebrated a major anniversary – I believe it was their 25th – Sobran’s name was not mentioned. Indeed, when Sobran came out in opposition to the Republican party and its Iraq war, Human Life Review ran a hit piece written by James Hitchcock directed primarily against him:

“Sobran’s way of dealing with the life issues can then be seen as the conservative counterpart to the liberals’ “seamless garment”—an attempt to persuade pro-lifers to transcend their “narrow” outlook and support a wider agenda. …
(F)or some on the Catholic part of “the Right,” the life issues are no longer paramount, if they ever were.”

Sobran’s prior role at HLR was of course not mentioned in this shameless screed. It had become clear that supporting the agenda of the Republican party and of the neocons – especially as it related to the Mideast – had taken precedence over all other concerns at the publication that Joe Sobran had put on the map. It was also a particularly outrageous insinuation, for, as Richert writes, regarding life issues “Joe, better than any other Catholic conservative, argued forcefully for a truly consistent ethic of life, regarding the Church quite properly as Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher).”

We must concede, however, that in this question of authority Bill Buckley may have been somewhat more perspicacious than Joe: Mater si, Magistra no! Death spared Sobran the spectacle of a Bishop of Rome lecturing Catholics not to “obsess” about abortion, gays and contraception; of a new archbishop of Chicago who had discouraged pro-life vigils at his former diocese – this action being touted as one of his key qualifications – and, just the other day, of a Spanish Opus Dei priest raging against “fundamentalists” because “the stubborn defense of the right to life is plain and simple ideology.”

Sobran had to bear an extraordinarily amount of suffering in his last years. But his writings witness a true Christian acceptance of the various personal and health trials the Lord had sent him. I hope a younger generation rediscovers the man and his work. Scott Richert’s article is a good place too start.

The noted Italian Catholic writer Mario Palmaro died Sunday after suffering a long illness. He was 45 years old. He had become familiar to followers of the Traditional Catholicism throughout the world for his courageous and principled analyses of the current critical situation of the Catholic Church as it has developed since the abdication of Benedict XVI.

A full obituary with discussion of his works can be found HERE at the “Eponymous Flower.”

Mario Palmaro was just one of the many apologists for the Traditional Church in Italy today. Aside from the great exception of Romano Amerio, the intellectual leadership of Traditionalism previously had resided in France, later joined by Germany. Palmaro, along with his longtime colleague Alessandro Gnocchi, Roberto de Mattei, and many others have made Italy the new heartland of Catholic Traditionalism.

I was surprised to learn today that Msgr. Eugene Clark had died on April 11, 2012. At the Month’s Mind Mass celebrated at his old parish of St. Agnes, Fr. George Rutler preached this moving sermon:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/kathrynlopez/2012/05/remembering-a-priest-who-knew-christ-knew-the-cross/

Strange – we hear the surprising news of Monsignor Clark’s death just as we were reminiscing about the beginnings of the recovery of liturgical Tradition in New York City in the 1980’s.  If the Novus Ordo Latin Mass had debuted at Our Lady of Vilna and the Traditional Mass – deliberately scheduled outside of Sunday –  at St Ann,  it was at St. Agnes under Msgr. Clark that  the regular Sunday Traditional Mass returned to the city. It has been celebrated at that parish ever since. Now in the 1980’s at St Agnes Msgr. Clark had gathered about him a number of priests who in one way or another were laboring for the preservation and restoration of Catholicism in New York.  Father George Rutler was one of these priests.  The parish became the focus of  wide variety of initiatives and apostolates, Traditionalist or (mostly) otherwise. Dare I mention our own minor contribution:  a Catholic reading club that met a number of times in the St. Agnes rectory? Although I do not think that Msgr. Clark was himself a committed proponent of the  Traditional liturgy, he nevertheless made its recovery possible. Msgr Clark also  worked for the artistic restoration of St Agnes church and later for its rebuilding.

After Msgr. Clark moved to St Patrick’s  and made some very precise and provocative  statements about the moral ills afflicting our country today,  I knew he was a marked man. Disaster was not long in following. Msgr. Clark was quickly dropped by his neoconservative fan club. It was a tragic end to the career of a man who had certainly taken positions over the years not conducive to ecclesiastical preferment.

Now I would concede that there were serious issues about some of the personalities and policies at St. Agnes in the 1980’s. And the rebuilding of St. Agnes  fell short of what should have been accomplished. Nevertheless, with all its failings and mistakes, this was the beginning of a recovery of Tradition and even of the sacred within the New York Archdiocese itself.   And as the Germans say, Aller Anfang ist schwer. We owe Msgr. Clark an immense  debt of gratitude for that beginning.

Robert James Monahan passed away in his home on Thursday, April 7. His funeral, a Solemn Requiem Mass (Extraordinary Form) will be held at St. Mary Church, Norwalk on Monday at 10 am. Funeral arrangements are being taken care of by the Collins Funeral Home
http://www.collinsfh.com/obituaries.htm.
Bob was a member of our Society and dedicated supporter of the Traditional Mass. He was a major force behind the scenes in the restoration of St. Mary’s Church, Norwalk, to its original splendor. His commitment to the pro-life cause was also long-standing. Bob was a true New York gentleman of the old school – any conversation with him was a memorable pleasure.

We extend to his family our condolences and commend him to your prayers.