Writing
about a saint whose language was love
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
A Catholic confessor-saint, a Lutheran philosopher, a Confederate general.
You wouldn’t think St. John Vianney, Søren Kierkegaard and
Stonewall Jackson have very much in common.
Atherton C. Lowry, chair of philosophy at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary,
does, however, and he’s written plays about all three, weaving in
the common thread of forgiveness.
The ability to forgive and to be forgiven is central to the Kierkegaard
and Jackson plays. And St. John (Jean-Marie) Vianney, “The Curé
of Ars” and patron of parish priests, was renowned in the confessional.
It might seem unusual that a seminary professor would write a play about
St. John Vianney, whose difficulties with his studies almost prevented
his ordination. But he is the subject of “Deliver Us From the Evil
One,” a play by Lowry that was performed by St. Charles’ students
last week.
“Jean-Marie was a farm boy with very good native intelligence,”
Lowry explained. In the seminary, though, “everything was in Latin,
and he simply could not handle Latin.”
But after the young farm boy was ordained, his charismatic holiness as
a priest was such that more than 2 million people visited his parish in
Ars during his lifetime.
In fact, Lowry believes St. John, more than anyone, was responsible for
the revitalization of the Catholic Church after it had been virtually
destroyed in France during the revolution.
“His love of his fellow man was rooted in his love of God,”
Lowry said.
Lowry is a convert to Catholicism. He was raised in the Washington, D.C.,
area in a family that prized education; both his parents had doctoral
degrees and his father was a respected Episcopalian minister.
In his youth, it never occurred to him that he would become Catholic.
In fact, when he discussed his conversion, he quoted the great Catholic
convert and apologist G.K. Chesterton for emphasis: “‘If someone
told me I would become Catholic, they might as well have told me I would
become a cannibal.’”
Lowry began his college years at Washington and Lee University, then switched
to Exeter University in England. There he was deeply influenced by the
writings of Cardinal John Newman. But chiefly, his 1962 conversion “was
a miracle of God’s grace,” he said.
Returning to the United States, he finished his college degree at Georgetown
University, then entered the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and for two years
taught European history at the formerly Jesuit-run Al-Hikma University
in Baghdad, Iraq. Afterward, he obtained his doctorate in philosophy from
Fordham University and taught at Marymount Manhattan College in New York
and La Salle University. He joined the St. Charles faculty in 1984.
Lowry and his wife, Karen, are the parents of two grown children, Atherton
and Suzanne.
“Teaching, for me, has always been a love,” he said. “It’s
helping people to grow in knowledge and character.”
Of course, his chosen field, philosophy, means the love of wisdom. “Philosophy
opens into theology,” he explained. “A love of wisdom in its
fullness is [love of] Jesus Christ.”
Now, getting back to St. John Vianney: Could he make the grade at St.
Charles today?
Yes, Lowry is certain — especially because its examinations aren’t
in Latin.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.