An “Old Spiritualist” on Catholicism
Recently, I was fortunate to spend an extended period of time at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal as my dissertation and book proposal on modern American political thought rounds the corner. Annette Kirk, from an old and very activist New York Catholic family, was extraordinarily generous with her time and with documents about her late husband. I’ll post from those insights periodically as material is continuously organized. One piece I found particularly fascinating was a genealogical history book, written by Russell Kirk’s great-grandfather. Although he converted to Catholicism in the 1960s, Kirk’s predecessors were what might be termed “Old Spiritualists” – quasi-Protestants – and some were known to retire after dinner to commune with the dead. Anyway, one Ebenezer W. Pierce, writing from unsettled northern Michigan in 1870, had great respect for Catholics. These were some of his reasons:
”Pre-infanticide has produced, and is still producing, immense physical as well as moral injury to society in enlightened, educated, progressive, Christian American, and with all its popularity is nevertheless – whether considered physically; intellectually or morally – an enormous crime. A few, very few, bold and honest spirits have not feared to “sound the slogan and wield the claymore” against this monstrous and degrading evil while many more Doctors in Divinity and Medicine have as yet only courage in the gristle, waiting for ossification to enable them openly to proclaim against this most revolting crime. A work entitled “Medical Communications of the Massachusetts Medical Society” adds: “In this connection it is but justice to say that the Catholic Church, in reference to Pre-infanticide and Spiritualism, is less derelict of her duty than the Protestant Church.” “Why it is so I will not here inquire or attempt to explain, but the fact is patent and undeniable, and Protestantism, especially in America, must bear the disgrace;” and thus we are brought to realize the singular and very remarkable fact that, in this land of common schools, and of knowledge greatly diffused, this land of bibles, books and newspapers, land of the pious Puritans, whose sons and daughters have never wearied or grown tired in denouncing the Catholic Church as the mother of harlots, all around, and even upon Plymouth Rock, the only form of Christian faith extant and the only religious organization whose creed controls its customs and manners to prevent the crime of murder for a cause wholly inexcusable and in its most revolting form, is the Roman Catholic Church; for in this Church, and nowhere else, is God’s command, “Thou shalt not kill,” sufficiently respected to be implicitly obeyed.
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That is a lovely reference. Ah, the days when Protestants knew how to think.
Annette Kirk is the reason I started my blog.
When my wife and I were corresponding, I sent her a copy of Annette Kirk’s memoir “Life with Russell Kirk,” and said that he was my hero. She said, “Then distract me for the rest of my life.”
In 2004, when our miscarriage (the previous year), the Terri Schiavo case, the development of the Stem Cell Bank, the Kerry campaign and reading the life of Gianna Jessen came together to inspire me to take the initiative in the pro-life activism I’d always dreamt of, I started contacting different people, both to offer my services as a pro-life writer or speaker, and to get advice from those who had built their own organizations and such.
Of all the people I contacted ,Annette Kirk was one of the only people who gave me the time of day, and she did quite literally. We talked on the phone for about three hours. I said I wanted to be like her husband, and she said, “Well these days, I guess the thing to do is to start a blog.” So I did.