Richard Ingrams is annoyed that the Bishop of Northampton is to appoint a priest to look at whether local author GK Chesterton should be made a saint, following a campaign by the American Chesterton Society. Chesterton, famous for his Father Brown mystery novels, converted to Catholicism in the 1920s. Dale Ahlquist, president of the ACS, said Mr Chesterton’s writings had brought people to the Catholic faith, adding he was a “saint for our time”. But Oldie editor Ingrams, who converted to Catholicism himself only two years ago, thinks the proposal “would dredge up the debate about his anti-Semitism”.
Ingrams believes GK was not himself anti-Semitic, despite being on the record saying Jews were “foreigners” in this country and would be happier in the Middle East. His brother Cecil was, however, anti-Semitic. “GK never got over his death,” Ingrams tells me, “and it may have been his influence and his friend Hilaire Belloc’s which caused his reputation. But it would be counter-productive for the Catholic Church to rake the muck up all over again.”
