Malcolm Muggeridge, John Vennari, and the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg
Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), the great English journalist and Catholic convert, noted that the essence of humor lies in the recognition of the gap between man’s goals and his efforts to achieve them. What this means is that there can be no real humor without acceptance of two basic truths: on the one hand, that there are indeed precious goals towards which human beings should be striving, and, on the other, the fact that people regularly do fail to live up to their promise. Where there is insistence only upon commitment to some supposedly unquestionable dream or prediction only of the inevitable slip on the banana peel on yet another hopeless path to yet another deluded fantasy there is room for grim ideological dogmatism or nihilistic cynicism alone. But where there is faithful and rational appreciation of the supremely true, good, and beautiful goal of all of Creation, and a simultaneous realization that everyone repeatedly stumbles in their pilgrimage towards it there is the greatest sense of humor that one can imagine.
Our dear departed friend and colleague, John Vennari, was a man of enormous good humor; a seemingly unceasing cheerfulness that made its unfailing presence known in his tireless writing and speaking---not to speak of his conversation at after conference dinners and over a good cigar. This is no surprise, given what has just been noted above. John was the happy warrior of Christ, the King of the Universe, in whom he had a total faith, and whose goals for mankind---the goals of the Incarnation---gave to all men the truthful, good, and beautiful purpose that cannot be surpassed. And he was this happy warrior because he also always recognized that Christ, his Redeemer, knew his sheep, their weaknesses, their constant stumbling in faith, hope, and charity, on their path to eternal union with the Trinity through Him.
In case you have not noticed, perhaps I should point out that our times are not exactly the most joyous in Church History. The consequence is that anyone casually encountering John by stumbling unwittingly into the ordinary Traditionalist conference or inadvertently picking up an issue of Catholic Family News would most likely have heard or read him rendering an account of appalling betrayal of Catholic teaching on faith and morals with behavior following suit, and no villain, cleric or lay, left untouched. What else could he, masterful observer of the times and journalist to boot, be expected to do? And how could he not deliver his Philippic without that talented combination of zealous outrage and wit that left the condemnatory conclusion he wished to be drawn doubtful only to someone truly invincibly ignorant?
But, once again, John could only accomplish his professional duty with inner pain. His need to attack was rooted in his much deeper sorrow over the damage done to Faith, Reason, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty by those either consciously or childishly ripping all of them to shreds. Catholic realism and journalistic responsibility demanded Blitzkrieg against the Modernist enemy; John’s Catholic spirit desired the peace that passeth all understanding and is only satisfied when allowed to do what it really is supposed to do: exalt the Triune God, together with His saints. The desire and the responsibility were answered by going about his business in this valley of tears with the good humor defined by his English Catholic colleague.
The great Catholic historian, Ludwig von Pastor, also comes to mind in this regard. Anyone familiar with von Pastor’s forty volume History of the Papacy knows that he is not the man conservatives or sedevacantists, both incapable of imagining a “true pope” doing something wrong, would wish to keep on their bookshelves. Too good a scholar to mince words, von Pastor presents the reader with an account of failures to live up to Catholic truth over which even Traditionalists, all too familiar with fumbling from the Holy See, would blush. But this chronicler of case after case of ecclesiastical woe also was aware of the reality of Faith, Reason, Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and the historical fact of many proofs of loyal commitment to them, from the top on down, popes as well as peasants. And that is why Professor Dietrich von Hildebrand, standing beside him at a canonization ceremony one day in Rome, saw tears streaming down von Pastor’s cheeks as another Catholic saint was raised to the altar. The man who knew the sinner knew the saint. I could easily picture John reacting in exactly the same way, with his tears of joy falling upon an issue of Catholic Family News with a lead article by him attacking one or the other contemporary fall from grace .
Allow me to finish this brief piece with an at first glance seemingly strange digression; a detour to the city of Bamberg, in Upper Franconia, a part of present-day northern Bavaria. Barely touched by the ravages of the Second World War, this extraordinary place was once one of the great Prince-Bishoprics of the Holy Roman Empire, home to some of the Emperors themselves.
The visitor to Bamberg already thinks he is in a magical kingdom when strolling towards the center from the train station. But then he arrives at the lively Regnitz River, making its way to the greater River Main and filled with boaters paddling under a splendid bridge adorned with grand, Baroque religious statues. This bridge ushers the traveller through the splendid city gate into what can only be described as a Catholic Oz. His steps take him through one breathtakingly charming narrow street after another, up to the medieval cathedral that houses the tombs of the Emperor St. Henry II and his wife, St. Cunigunde of Luxemburg. Higher still, above the lovely palace gardens across from the cathedral and overlooking the city, the former Benedictine Abbey of the Michaelsberg irresistibly beckons the tourist. Its Michaelskirche offers incomparable Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo riches, with the grounds providing a glorious view of much of the Prince-Bishopric, and, along with it, perhaps even a glimpse of yet another nearby Baroque-Rococo gem: Balthasar Neuman’s pilgrimage Basilica of the Vierzehnheiligen (the Fourteen Holy Helpers), a short distance away.
If readers of Catholic Family News want an “historical” photo analogous to the soul of our dear departed friend, John Vennari, they will find such a photo in the city of Bamberg and its surroundings. This Bavarian Catholic Oz, built upon a solid, orthodox truth, productive of incalculably diverse riches artistically, everywhere exudes a joyous Easter spirit that makes one want to lift a glass of Franconian wine in honor of all the great men and women who made the place possible---two of whom, Saints Henry and Cunigunde, continue to pray for the conversion of those inhabitants who inevitably continue to “slip on banana peels” and soil its promise.
It was his own personal Bamberg that John was building in his soul, and, through his faithful soulful work, along with his music and delightful stories, in the world that he helped to construct for his wife, his children, and his friends. It is his own personal Bamberg, united with that of all the other servants of Christ and the cities of God that they have built and are building, that we pray his soul will reflect into eternity. It was the outrages done to this Catholic Oz and faithfulness to the message of the Incarnation that made its construction a possibility that alone made John---like Henry and Cunigunde in their own time and place---into the Soldier of Christ that duty demanded he become in his earthly existence. It is John Vennari as an ideal Prince-Bishop of Bamberg---fearless in his defense of Orthodoxy, eager for his subjects to benefit from Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, sorrowfully aware that they needed a serious verbal thrashing for their failure to do what alone could make them happy in this life, while saving them in the next, and maintaining his good humor throughout his chastisement---that will live on in my mind’s eye, my prayers, and my memory of this fallen comrade.
Return to main page.