Florida GOP Primary-GO NEWT GO

Caput Mundi Blog endorses Roman Catholic, Speaker Newt Gingrich to be the standard bearer of the GOP, in terms of the Florida primary, for candidate to the Presidency of the United States of America...

Newt's Papal Moment

Gingrich & Pope Benedict XVI:

When Newt Gingrich was received into the Church last March, the reactions were predictable. The former Speaker of the House was simultaneously welcomed, jeered, and cynically accused of positioning himself to run for president in 2012.

When I spoke to him last Friday in his Washington, D.C., office, Gingrich was humble and soft-spoken about his new faith. He was also excited about his forthcoming documentary, Nine Days That Changed the World, recounting Pope John Paul II's first trip home to Poland in June 1979 after being elected to the see of St. Peter. Gingrich's wife, Callista, a cradle Catholic, is a co-producer of the film.

The Gingriches first got the idea for the film five years ago on a trip to Rome, where Callista, as part of the choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, was making a recording at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. Conversations during the trip with Msgr. Walter Rossi, pastor of the basilica in D.C., combined with his recent reading of George Weigel's Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism, provoked thoughts about the parallels between Communist-ruled Poland and the growing secularism of the United States.

Gingrich hopes his film will be an "evangelical vehicle" to combat the "secularist moment" in our culture. Telling the story of how John Paul's visit led Poland to overthrow Communism, Gingrich said the film will contain a clear message: "Our true humanness is found only in a relationship with God." Added Gingrich, "I hope people will see the film and think about their relationship to Christ and the importance of courage." The projected release date is November 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

There is another Polish connection in the Gingrich family: Callista's grandmother, on her father's side, was from Krakow. Gingrich told me that his wife never pushed her faith on him, but by her example "it was clear it meant a great deal to her." He went to Mass with her at the basilica and wherever they traveled -- including Hawaii, where they were treated to a hula dance. "We've been able to see the extraordinary range of the Church," he told me.

Gingrich explained that his wife "created an environment where I could gradually think and evolve on the issue of faith." Reading and conversations with various friends, primarily Monsignor Rossi, fed that process until the moment of decision arrived.

The moment came when Pope Benedict XVI visited the United States in April 2008. Gingrich was seated in the basilica, where his wife's choir was to sing vespers for the Holy Father, when he was suddenly able to see the pope up close. He recalled, "It was clear he [the pope] was having the time of his life, and the joy in his eyes belied his reputation as an austere German. As he walked past me, I knew I wanted to become a Catholic."

"I knew that I belonged here," he went on. "No -- as a Catholic, I should put it: Here is where I belong." As Gingrich parsed his sentence, his eyes teared up, and he excused himself for getting emotional. He changed the subject, but the emotion remained in his voice as he talked about Benedict's visit to New York City.

"It was extraordinary," he told me; "we were so blessed." As he and Callista tried to get close to the pope's entourage driving up Fifth Avenue, they ended up on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral and were invited to stand at the back for the Mass. Then they were told that the pope would pass by their spot near the rope and bless a young boy in the wheelchair sitting next to them. They were overwhelmed when "Benedict XVI blessed the boy directly in front of us!"

Gingrich comes from a Pennsylvania Lutheran background, though he became Southern Baptist while in graduate school. From his mother's mother, he told me, he received a pronounced sense of "good versus evil in the world." He regards it as something of a mystery that, when his father went to Gettysburg College, "he had a copy of St. Augustine."

Gingrich thinks the first time he felt the tug of the Church might have been when he visited Notre Dame in Paris at age 13, but he clearly remembers the impact of visiting St. Jacob's Stone United Church of Christ in Glenville, Pennsylvania, where the effect of the organ "swept me away" as he heard his mother sing Handel's Messiah.

Since Gingrich often brings up the power of great churches and sacred music, I asked him about beauty. "Beauty comes from giving up our weakness and realizing you don't have to impose anything on the universe," he replied. "You accept that it comes from a higher being."

Secularism rejects and ridicules this acceptance of our creaturely status. Gingrich sees it gaining more and more of a foothold in the United States, as it already has in Europe. Further, it is antithetical to the history and culture of the United States. As Gingrich explained, "This country is heir to a Scottish and English Enlightenment that did not reject God, unlike the atheism of the French Revolution." "In the face of the secularist threat," Gingrich mused, "along with that militant Islam, endurance is what really matters."

At 66, Newt Gingrich has endured the travails of a very public life to discover a new faith and new mission to reinvigorate the Christian roots of our nation and our civilization. Nine Days That Changed the World will tell the story of John Paul's return to Poland, but its subtext will be the moment Benedict walked by with a smile on his face.

'Rediscovering God in America'

Gingrich Productions website here.

Newt's Catholic Faith

H/T: Da Mihi Animas

Moreover, Father Steve Leake has penned a list of recent Catholic converts, both living and dead:

Robert Bork
Sam Brownback
Jeb Bush
Laura Ingraham
Bobby Jindal
Lawrence Kudlow
Robert Novak
Ramesh Ponnuru

Notice that they're all conservative?

A few of the influential opinion shapers on the right who died recently also were Catholic converts:

Richard John Neuhaus
Tony Snow
Paul Weyrich

The one high-profile Catholic convert on the left who occurred to me is former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Benedict XVI Led Newt to Convert

Newt Gingrich opens up about his conversion:

I don't know that it's much different. That's part of what led to my conversion is the first time we [he and Callista] went to St. Peter's together. It's St. Peter's. I mean, you stand there and you think, this is where St. Peter was crucified. This is where Paul preached. You think to yourself, two thousand years ago the apostles set out to create a worldwide movement by witnessing to the historic truth they had experienced. And there it is. The last time we were there we were allowed to walk in the papal gardens and you get this sense that is almost mystical.

The moment that finally convinced me [to convert] was when Benedict XVI came here [to the United States] and Callista in the church choir sang for him at the vespers service and all the bishops in the country were there. As a spouse, I got to sit in the upper church and I very briefly saw [Benedict] and I was just struck with how happy he was and how fundamentally different he was from the news media's portrait of him. This guy's not a Rottweiler. He's a very loving, engaged, happy person.

I'd first seen Pope John Paul II when he came to the U.S. when Carter was president and I was a freshman congressman. And I [later] met him as Speaker.

The other sense is that the church has had two of its most powerful popes back to back, in their intellectual ability to engage the secular world on behalf of Christ. And the weight of all that, and going with [Callista] to church every Sunday to the Basilica [in Washington, D.C.], a magnificent church with a wonderful mass. In that sense I felt differently a long time ago, which is why I converted.

And part of me is inherently medieval. I resonate to Gothic churches and the sense of the cross in a way that is really pre-modern. (Read entire article)

Hat Tip: The Ignatius Press Blog

Newt's Catholic Conversion-Video

Hat Tip: Da Mihi Animas

Plus, The Weekly Standard denotes Newt's aggressive critique of the Obama Administration:

The U.S. is at greater risk of terrorist attack because of the Obama administration's actions, Newt Gingrich said Monday.

In a chat with POLITICO readers, Gingrich also called the administration’s response to the North Korean missile launch a “vivid demonstration of weakness in foreign policy.” He said Obama’s proposals for a resumption of nuclear arms limitation talks reflected “a dangerous fantasy that runs an enormous risk. ... Not since Jimmy Carter have we had an administration this out of touch with reality.”

“Dick Cheney is clearly right in saying that between the court decisions about terrorists and the administration actions, the United States is running greater risks of getting attacked than we were under President Bush,” said the former speaker of the House and Georgia congressman.

Welcome to the Faith Newt Gingrich

This Sunday Newt Gingrich will officially become a member of the Roman Catholic Church!!!

Hat Tip to A Catholic View which has more detailed information.

Both Opinionated Catholic and First Things have further analysis.

Photos courtesy of NY Daily News & Time Magazine.