A Tribute to Robert Novak and Thomas More College
by Father John McCloskey
Greetings to President Nelson of Thomas More College and Mr. Robert Novak, his wife Geraldine, and his close friend and colleague Fred Barnes (hello, Fred!) I write from Chicago where the Sun-Times has for close to fifty years syndicated the column Bob (can I call you Bob in public?) first co-wrote with Rowland Evans and then wrote alone on politics and the state of the nation. Bob wrote most of those columns from my hometown—in fact, from right across the street where I was born. Little did I know then that some forty years later I would have the opportunity to get to know well my good friend and his wonderful family. I regret that I am not able to attend this wonderful occasion in person, but my pastoral duties keep me here exposed to the balmy breezes of Lake Michigan, from which I direct these few words.
As a result of the recent publication of his autobiography, The Prince of Darkness, many tens of thousands of readers have gotten to know the real man behind the words and innumerable media appearances that have made Bob Novak Washington's leading political pundit. Make that hundreds of thousands of readers, because I am sure that copies of his great tome (still only half of what he wrote--I hope some day soon we will see the rest) have been passed from hand to hand, from family member to family member, from friend to friend. I can testify to this, as I made the mistake of passing my own inscribed copy on to others and now have little expectation of ever seeing it again.
The Robert Novak I have gotten to know is clearly a man of high intelligence and great erudition—not all of which can be credited to the excellent education he received at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. By the way, let him tell you about the great football feats of the incomparable Red Grange, whom he claims never to have seen in person. I must mention that Bob is a sports fan nonpareil whose award-winning journalism, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, has often been transmitted from FEDEX Field, courtside of the Maryland Terrapins, and from box seats at the Wizards home games, as Fred Barnes can testify.
However, in addition to this passion for sports, Bob is also one of the best-read men in our country, particularly in the areas of biography and world and American history. He also has profited from the privilege of knowing personally many of the men whose biographies he has read. How many men do you know who had a future President of the United States throw a party for his wedding reception?
But one of the deepest influences on Bob's thought has been someone outside the seats of power and the Washington political scene. I am speaking of an author, former Communist and somewhat reluctant Alger Hiss nemesis, Whittaker Chambers. Read Bob's book for details, but Chambers, as you all should know, wrote perhaps the greatest autobiography of the 20th century, entitled Witness. The latest edition carries a foreword by Bob. Chambers (like myself a Columbia grad, I should mention), served for some years as an underground Communist spy, but came to his senses and, at the cost of reputation and employment, spoke the truth about Communist infiltration at the highest levels of the U.S. government. He did this as a Man of the West who believed he must be true to God and his conscience even at tremendous cost. By the closing decades of the 20th century, the West appeared to have won the war against Marxist Communism; today, however, we are under attack from without by radical Islam and from within, well, perhaps we can quote our recent visitor Pope Benedict XVI, whose Mass Bob attended with Geraldine at Nationals Park (surprisingly, the papal visitation to the freshly finished stadium did not propel the Nats to a pennant this season, but there is always next year). Pope Benedict identified "a dictatorship of relativism" with its many manifestations in our culture as the greatest enemy from within.
That brings us to the purpose of this evening. Bob and Geraldine have established a scholarship fund for students from the TAP program here in the district to attend Thomas More College in New Hampshire. Why? Well, I am sure he can tell you himself, but I think he knows that the best hope for our country and for the West is having young men and women who know and love the tradition of the West and the Faith that produced it--the Catholic Faith into which both Bob and Geraldine were received some years ago now. They realize that even one well-formed, faith-filled person can change history, although at the moment Western civilization may appear moribund.
Whittaker Chambers never received the fullness of the Catholic faith; however, he was true to his conscience even though his own grim conviction was that the West was unlikely to survive, and not only on account of Communism. A much earlier prophetic voice in public life, St. Thomas More, lived and died for his Faith, the unity of the Church, and the supreme authority of the papacy in matters ecclesial while at the same time dying "the King's good servant." He was celebrated in his own time for his friendship, wit, family life, and legal, literary and diplomatic abilities. More had much in natural terms to lose by bravely and conscientiously crossing Henry VIII's dynastic desire to wrest control of the English church from Peter's successor; however, he went to his death knowing that his heavenly reward was only one chop of an executioner's axe way. For this reason Pope John Paul the Great named him patron saint of statesmen and politicians. Yes, Bob and Fred, a camel can pass through the needle of an eye, and even a politician can be a saint!
The many young men who will attend Thomas More College from the District of Columbia in the future, thanks to the generosity of the Novaks, will receive a core curriculum similar to what both More received at Oxford and the Inns of Court and Chambers received at Columbia University, preparing them to become outstanding citizens and men of the West who can make a difference in the challenges that face our country, our culture, and our society in the decades ahead.
Thomas More is a small Catholic college that has a nationwide reputation. Perhaps the words that Daniel Webster once said in a famous Supreme Court case in a famous case about another then-small college in New Hampshire will one day be applied to Thomas More College as its graduates play an important role in this country's future and in the new evangelization of America that Pope John Paul II foresaw:
"This, sir, is my case. It is the case not merely of that humble institution, it is the case of every college in our land... Sir, you may destroy this little institution; it is weak; it is in your hands! I know it is one of the lesser lights in the literary horizon of our country. You may put it out. But if you do so you must carry through your work! You must extinguish, one after another, all those greater lights of science which for more than a century have thrown their radiance over our land. It is, sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it!"
It is right that the names of St. Thomas More and Bob Novak be joined in this special scholarship fund that will help young men from our Nation's capital to be formed and educated in the culture and Faith of the West at Thomas More College in Hew Hampshire, one of the few shining educational institutions that provides hope for the survival and flourishing of our country.
