March 4, 2012

Once a Nominal Catholic, Now a Clarion of Faith

Rick Santorum and his wife Kare Santorum
Credit: Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 2.0)
I have no idea what the average NYT reader thinks, or might think, about this piece. Nor do I have any idea what my non-Christian readers’ opinion is. What I’m sure about is that I found the story it tells very inspiring and, in a certain degree, familiar. It’s about how Rick Santorum, once a “nominal Catholic” became a “clarion of faith” and a conservative icon. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” This is true for everyone—Panta rei, everything flows…—or at least me! And here is wow the article concludes:

To listen to Mr. Santorum speak to an audience of the faithful is to hear a man for whom God is at the center of everything. In his talk to the anti-abortion group last October, as his presidential campaign was just beginning to heat up, he likened himself to his special-needs daughter, Bella — a child capable, he said, of nothing but love.

“I think, ‘That’s me with the Father,’ ” Mr. Santorum said then. “I am profoundly disabled in his eyes. I can do nothing for Him, except love Him.”