{"id":6989,"date":"2014-07-18T22:49:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T22:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/catholic-cultural-renewal-advocate-stratford-caldecott-mourned-92619\/"},"modified":"2014-07-18T22:49:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-18T22:49:00","slug":"catholic-cultural-renewal-advocate-stratford-caldecott-mourned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/07\/catholic-cultural-renewal-advocate-stratford-caldecott-mourned\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic cultural renewal advocate Stratford Caldecott mourned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Oxford, England, Jul 18, 2014 \/ 04:49 pm (CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Stratford Caldecott, a Catholic cultural thinker dedicated to literature, theology, and the \u201csecond spring\u201d of Catholicism, passed away Thursday, weeks after Hollywood stars took to Twitter to support him in his struggle with cancer. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\tThose who mourned his death included his friend Michael J. Lichens, editor of the U.S.-based website Catholic Exchange.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI don't know anyone who has encountered Stratford Caldecott and not been changed, whether that was by his writing or meeting him in person,\u201d Lichens told CNA July 18.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHis words, his example of love and charity, and his absolute gratitude for life shined through in his writings and also made him an absolute joy to encounter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cHe was, without a doubt, the most powerful voice for Catholic culture in the Anglophone world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tCaldecott, known to his friends as \u201cStrat,\u201d died in Oxford, England, on July 17 of prostate cancer.<\/p>\n

\tLeaders with the U.K.-based Catholic Truth Society praised his \u201cencyclopedic knowledge of the faith\u201d and his \u201cauthentic talent for spotting gifted writers who, like himself, could explain the riches of the faith to all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tAmong his many roles, Caldecott served as commissioning editor of the Catholic Truth Society\u2019s Compass magazine.<\/p>\n

\tCaldecott wrote on the importance of Catholic culture, education, aesthetics, and theology. He drew inspiration from the luminaries of English-speaking Catholicism: Blessed John Henry Newman, G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Christopher Dawson.<\/p>\n

\tHis wrote various books about the sacraments, Catholic education, Catholic liturgy, aesthetics, and the spiritual vision of Tolkien in \u201cThe Lord of the Rings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tCaldecott was the founder of the Second Spring journal, which takes its name from a sermon by Cardinal Newman that encouraged a Catholic revival in England.<\/p>\n

\tHe founded the Centre for Faith & Culture at Westminster College in Oxford, and later became the G.K. Chesterton Research Fellow at St Benet\u2019s Hall, Oxford.<\/p>\n

\tHe served as an editor for many journals, including the U.K. and Ireland edition of \u201cMagnificat\u201d and The Humanum Review, the journal of the Center for Cultural and Pastoral Research at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

\tHe served on the editorial boards of the journals Communio, The Chesterton Review, and Oasis.<\/p>\n

\tCaldecott was born in South Africa and raised in London. He became interested in mysticism and religion as a teen. He studied philosophy and psychology at Oxford, and later converted to the Baha\u2019i religion. He became involved in Buddhism<\/a>, but his interest also grew in Christianity.<\/p>\n

\tHe recounted his conversion story in an essay in the collection \u201cThe Path To Rome \u2013 Modern Journeys to the Catholic Church,\u201d published in the U.K. by Gracewing and reprinted on the Patheos blog \u201cStanding on my Head\u201d by Father Dwight Longenecker.<\/p>\n

\tCaldecott had a dream about the Holy Grail that made him realize the importance of stories from his childhood, such as the King Arthur legends, Tolkien\u2019s works, and the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cAll along, my imagination had been built on a Christian foundation, and I had never noticed it before,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\tHe then began to study the Catholic faith. He said that he recognized in Catholic teaching \u201cthe God of my interior horizon,\u201d described by St. Thomas Aquinas as \u201ccloser to the soul than the soul is to itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cTo reject the invitation of that God would have been to deny my true self,\u201d Caldecott wrote.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI had not expected this. I had intended not to \u2018fall in love\u2019 but simply to test Catholicism for its persuasive power, and then break the news gradually to my family, completely prepared in advance to answer all the inevitable objections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tHe was baptized in 1980. His wife Leonie entered the Church two years later.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI began to realize that no matter how much grace is present in the other religions, it is only Christianity that knows the secret of how grace enters the world,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout the cross, no \u2018religion\u2019 would suffice \u2013 were it founded on the Beatitudes themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cChrist came not primarily to teach, but to do. He came to die for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWhile deeply admired by Catholics and others around the world, Caldecott gained his greatest worldwide prominence in his final months due to his lifelong appreciation for comic books about super heroes.<\/p>\n

\tBecause of his cancer, Caldecott was too ill to go to the movie theaters to see the Marvel Studios film \u201cCaptain America: The Winter Soldier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tIn May, Caldecott\u2019s daughter Sophie took to the social media site Twitter to ask Marvel to send her father a copy of the movie so he could watch it at home. She enlisted the help of the general public and of\u00a0 Hollywood movie stars under the hashtag \u201c#CapForStrat\u201d, to encourage Stratford in his final days.<\/p>\n

\tThe stars of Marvel Comics films, including Robert Downey, Jr. and Samuel Jackson, posted \u201cselfies\u201d with signs supporting Caldecott. Their photos joined hundreds of other messages of support that Sophie presented to her father.<\/p>\n

\tMarvel then arranged a showing of the movie.<\/p>\n

\tSophie Caldecott in a May blog post said that her father loved comic heroes \u201cbecause they inspire hope, and encourage people to fight for the greater good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI think we\u2019ve witnessed a bit of that child-like purity of spirit and good intentions over the past few days,\u201d she added, voicing hope that the hashtag campaign will encourage men at risk of prostate cancer to undergo the proper tests.<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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