In remembrance of the ten year anniversary of the passing of Stratford Caldecott, a Catholic writer, scholar, ecumenist, environmentalist, and so very much more, a number of people have written letters to him, including myself. You can find them here. I’m also posting it here (but read the other letters on the Second Spring website!)
Dear Strat:
I’ve been gazing at a photo – taken circa 1990 – of two young Catholic literary couples. It’s more or less a mirror image: the two couples with our not-yet-complete complement of children. Getting to know you meant so much to us – and being separated by an ocean for most of our adult lives was a genuine heart-ache, so much did we take away from the soul-communion we always felt with you both.
When we gazed into the mirror of your family – and your theological/cultural vision for renewal – we were better able to bear the kind of sacrifices and self-doubts that attend all true quixotic/redemptive enterprises. We had such respect for the way you, like us, haunted the edges of academia while knowing that the real work is often done outside of academia. We know better than most how hard that life is, but we never heard a complaint from you.
As for me personally, there was so much I wanted to talk to you about, Strat. I wanted to spar with you about aesthetics, and try to convince you there was more of value in the modern era than you might realize. But I also wanted to learn from you – I always learned from you – about so much, including the richness of the Islamic tradition (knowledge we desperately need these days).
I think all four of us – committed as we were, to conserving the traditions of Church and society — had mixed feelings about the downsides of the soi-disant traditionalists. We knew this was our community of origin but we wanted to fight against the tendency to reductive ideologies and gnostic moralism among our compatriots.
Strat, your vision was truly a magnificent exemplum of Catholic Humanism – without sacrificing anything essential, your mind and heart were more capacious than many have yet to realize. Like the Pope, you, too, were a Pontifex Maximus, a bridge-builder. You inspire us still. We miss you with an almost unseemly ferocity. Pray for us.
Yours,
Greg (& Suzanne) Wolfe
