Father Percy vs. Mister Francis: Apostasy and Liturgy in Lord of the World | Dorothy Cummings McLean
Fr. Robert Hugh Benson's 1908 novel is remarkably prophetic, especially regarding apostasy
In a homily last November, Pope Francis referred to a novel by Fr. Robert Hugh Benson called Lord of the World. Fr. Benson was the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury. He made headlines when in 1902 he became a Catholic and again in 1904 when he was ordained a Catholic priest.
Father Benson, who died aged 43 in , spent his last decade preaching, counselling and, above all, writing sermons, apologetics, and novels. As a high profile Anglican who had become a Roman Catholic priest, he defended not only the Catholic faith but Catholic liturgical practises deplored by Protestant Britain. The challenges of a Catholic minority despised by the non-Catholic majority caught his imagination: both his apocalyptic Lord of the World (1908) and historical Come Rack! Come Rope! (1912) explore the choices of English Catholics suddenly enveloped by violent persecution.
The Holy Father’s attention was caught by the prophetic nature of Lord of the World, and indeed there are some startling parallels between the 21st century envisioned by Fr. Benson and our own. When the novel begins, the competing powers are the American Republic (which, manifesting its destiny, has swallowed the whole continent), a Europe Union, and an Eastern Empire dominated by China/Japan and Islam. Monarchy has been abolished in Europe; both America and England are socialist republics. The religion of the ruling classes, and indeed of the majority of the people in the West, is atheist humanism. And as there exist bombs that can wipe out entire cities, the West fears very much a war with the East. Oh, and a junior senator rising suddenly to prominence in America may well be the Anti-Christ. I kid you not.
Benson is at his most generous when he describes the atheist humanism of his European dystopia.
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