Political philosopher, constitutional theorist, professor at Amherst College and contributor to First Things, Hadley Arkes was welcomed into the Catholic Church on Saturday in Washington, DC.
Mr. Arkes is widely known for his efforts to protect the unborn and was one of the chief architects of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act – the one that then-Senator Obama voted against 4 times.
Francis Beckwith, an author and professor of Philosophy at Baylor University, was at the Mass where Hadley was baptized, confirmed and received his First Communion. His account is here.
Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, writes in his blog about Hadley’s conversion and entry into the Catholic Church:
In remarks after the service yesterday, [Hadley] explained that his faith in Christ had come through the Church. The Church’s moral witness, especially on the sanctity of human life and on marriage and sexual morality—a witness that has in our time made the Church a “sign of contradiction” to the most powerful and influential elements of the elite sector of contemporary western culture—persuaded him that the Church is, despite the failings of so many of its members and leaders, fundamentally “a truth-teaching institution.” In teachings that many find to be impediments, Hadley found decisive evidence that the Church is, indeed, what she claims to be.
Hadley Arkes is Jewish and said this of his conversion:
Speaking of his Jewish identity, Hadley said that he neither would nor could ever leave the Jewish people. His entry into the Church was for him, he stated, a fulfillment of his Jewish faith, and in no way a repudiation of it. Invoking the testimony and authority of the late Cardinal Lustiger of Paris, he declared that he was and would always remain a Jew, though a Jew who, like the earliest Christians, had come to accept Jesus as ”the Christ, the Son of the living God.
He is right that the first Christians were Jewish and Catholics today retain quite a lot of the Jewish rites, rituals and traditions because of those early believers who were Jewish but were trying to incorporate their newfound faith in Christ into their Jewish faith.
So congratulations to Hadley Arkes and welcome home!
(h/t CatholicVoteAction)
