Easter Tuesday! We welcome goodies and drinks!  The time and place are the usual – St. Stephen Parish, classroom 2 after the 6 PM Mass (approx. 7 PM). Socializing and nibbling until 7:30 (or so) and then discussion of our readings until 9 PM.

   Our readings this month will be Chapter 9 of the Autobiography – The Case Against Corruption. This chapter deals with GKC’s brother, Cecil, who had a huge influence on Gilbert. He was also a journalist, like his brother, but his temperament was much more like that of Hilaire Belloc – feisty and volatile. Gilbert goes into quite a bit of detail on the Marconi case, a case of governmental corruption dealing with an insider trading scheme. The whole ordeal was very significant to GKC and left a mark on him and his writing for many years. The case is almost unknown today, except through the writings of GKC. Cecil also left a mark on GKC, as you will read in this chapter.

   The second reading this month will be the essay What Is Right With the World.  Chesterton’s Autobiography is good reading, but it isn’t the type of material we expect from him. This essay is, IMHO, one of his finest. It starts slow. He hits his stride after about two pages. The last few pages are so good, I think they may rank within some of his most eloquent writings. He answers the question as only Chesterton can. He gave the same answers I would have given, but he gave them much more profoundly and eloquently than I ever could. If you can only read one of the readings this month, make it this one. If you get this email but don’t come to the meetings, read the essay anyway.

   This essay is also found in the book, In Defense of Sanity, beginning on page 365. This is the book of “the best essays of G. K. Chesterton”.  We used it a couple of years ago, so you may have it in your library at home.