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Documentation
A magnet drawing people to Christ
Joseph Pearce
Joseph Pearce during the interview in Rome, April 2010
What do you know about St Josemaria and his writings?
Pearce: I have been familiar with St Josemaria and his writings for many years, ever since the earliest days of my life as a Catholic following my conversion to the Faith in 1989. I found the spirituality of The Way particularly inspiring. The robust spirituality of The Way served as a priceless guide to the spiritual life as I set out on my life as a Catholic and it remains one of the most valued of all the spiritual works that I know.
What aspect of St Josemaria’s teachings has meant the most to you?
Pearce: As intimated above, it is the robust orthodoxy and uncompromising candour of St Josemaria’s teaching that most inspires me. In an age of secular fundamentalism and nihilistic doubt, the courageous life and teaching of Opus Dei’s founder rings out like a bell of truth in the desert darkness of the modern world.
If you could have met St Josemaria, what would you like to tell him? Or ask him?
Pearce: I think I’d be struck dumb by the awe-inspiring experience of his presence! If I did manage to say anything, it would be an expression of my fathomless gratitude for all that he’s done to help revitalise the Church in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
You have written about many well-known people, all of them very different. Which of them do you think would most have appreciated St Josemaria and his teachings?
Pearce: All of the people that I’ve written about would have benefited from knowing the works of St Josemaria. I think, however, that the poet, Roy Campbell, of whom I have written a biography (Unafraid of Virginia Woolf: The Friends and Enemies of Roy Campbell, published by Intercollegiate Studies Institute), would have been particularly inspired by St Josemaria’s life and work.
His books
St Josemaria lived in the 20th century. Does he have something to say to people in the 21st century?
Pearce: Like the works of all the greatest saints in the Church’s history, St Josemaria’s work is timeless. It springs from one particular age and generation but speaks to all ages and to every generation.
Do you think St Josemaria’s message contains something for people who are not Catholics? Might they help people who were thinking of converting to Catholicism? How?
During a conference at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, March 2010
Pearce: Since St Josemaria speaks and preaches the Gospel of truth and life, he has something to say to everybody, as long as they are willing to listen. Those who are open to the profundity and truth of his words will find themselves attracted to the Church, which, as the Mystical Body of Christ, is the source of St Josemaria’s wisdom. As G. K. Chesterton said, most memorably, when people stop fighting against the Church they can’t help feeling drawn towards it. St Josemaria is a magnet drawing people to Christ and His Church.
What is the relevance of Opus Dei in English-speaking countries, whose cultural background may be very different from what St Josemaria was familiar with?
Pearce: Opus Dei, like the Church of which it is a part, is universally relevant. It may have sprung forth from the rich soil of one particular culture but it speaks to all cultures with a ringing clarity.
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