Denver Catholic

10 APRIL 25-MAY 1, 2015 | DENVER CATHOLIC Perspectives " Wolf Hall," the BBC adaptation of Hillary Mantel's novel about early Tudor England, began airing on PBS's "Masterpiece Theater" Easter Sunday night. It's brilliant television. It's also a serious dis- tortion of history. And it proves, yet again, that anti-Cathol- icism is the last acceptable bigotry in elite circles in the Anglosphere. The distortions and bias are not sur- prising, considering the source. Hillary Mantel is a very talented, very bitter ex-Catholic who's said that the Church today is "not an institution for respect- able people" (so much for the English hierarchy's decades-long wheedling for social acceptance). As she freely con- cedes, Mantel's aim in her novel was to take down the Thomas More of "A Man for All Seasons"—the Thomas More the Catholic Church canonized—and her instrument for doing so is More's rival in the court of Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell. Hillary Mantel does not lack for chutzpah, for Cromwell has long been considered a loathsome character and More a man of singular nobility. In the novel "Wolf Hall", however, the More of Robert Bolt's play is transformed into a heresy-hunting, scrupulous prig, while Cromwell is the sensible, pragmatic man of a• airs who gets things done, even if a few heads get cracked (or detached) in the process. All of which is rubbish, as historians with no Catholic interests at stake have made clear. Thus the pres- ident of the U.K.'s National Secular Society, historian David Starkey, fi nds "not a scrap of evi- dence" for Mantel's retelling of the More- Cromwell tale; Man- tel's plot, he claimed, was "total fi ction." And as Gregory Wolfe pointed out in a fi ne essay on "Wolf Hall" in the Wash- ington Post, historian Simon Schama has written that the documentary evi- dence he examined "shouted to high heaven that Thomas Cromwell was, in fact, a detestably self-serving, bullying monster who perfected state terror in England, cooked the evidence, and extracted confessions by torture." So why did Hillary Mantel win Brit- ain's most prestigious award for fi ction, the Man Booker Prize, not once, but twice, for "Wolf Hall" and its sequel, "Bring Up the Bodies?" Because the books are terrifi c novels. Because well-crafted novels that make a hash of history for the sake of defaming the Catho- lic Church and one of its English icons are, in today's literary culture, quite all right, thank you very much. And because Britain's literary high culture is still in thrall to the Whig view of British history, and seems oblivious to the deep transformation that's taken place in English Reformation studies since Eamon Du• y's extraordinary book, "The Stripping of the Altars," was fi rst published in 1992. There, Du• y demonstrated beyond cavil what Simon Schama alluded to in his Financial Times article on the BBC version of "Wolf Hall:" that Henry VIII was a pro- to-totalitarian who, with his Protestant heirs, imposed his version of Christi- anity on England against the will of the great majority of plain folk, who stub- bornly clung to the old faith until the overwhelming power of the state extin- guished most of English Catholic life, and "anti-popery" got set in cultural concrete as modern nation-building went forward in Britain—often funded by expropriated Catholic properties. Protestant anti-Catholicism in the U.K. has long since been superseded by secular anti-Catholicism, but the cultural afterburn remains virtually identical: to the Hillary Mantels of 21st-century Brit- ain, Catholicism is retrograde, priggish, obsessive, fanatical, and, well, un-English. Where all this could lead was made clear in the run-up to Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Great Britain in 2010, when just about every hoary anti-Catholic bromide in the playbook was dusted o• and deployed in the media—and with a few notable exceptions, the British Catholic hierarchy proved itself incapable of rising to the defense of the Church and the pope, a task that was left, in the main, to laity. Which is fi ne, but was unhappily reminiscent of the English bishops' performance under Henry VIII, when all but John Fisher truckled to the spirit of the age and joined in declaring Henry "Supreme Head of the Church in England." Thus "Wolf Hall," while bad history, is also a cautionary tale for today. 'Wolf Hall' and upmarket anti-Catholicism George Weigel is a distinguished senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The Catholic Di erence GEORGE WEIGEL S even years ago, I was having the worst thoughts about the one I was supposed to love the most, Matt. We were headed for a weekend away to watch our older girls' volley- ball matches. A discussion took place on what time we needed to head to the airport. I was up, showered, packed and ready to go. Matt was so looking forward to a weekend away, he was already in "relaxation mode" just taking his time (whistling, in fact), not aware he was running a bit behind with packing and being ready to go. We headed out, 20 minutes later than planned, and as we drove to the airport, I started feeling anxious; having an inte- rior battle inside. Matt started to have somewhat of a sense that I wasn't thrilled with him when he notifi ed me that the car needed gas—which meant an even later arrival. I surrendered my pride and said: "Matt, I need to ask for forgiveness." "For what?" he asked. "For the negative thoughts that have been exploding in my head all morning long. Will you forgive me?" "Yes, I forgive you." Then he proceeded to ask forgiveness for his selfi shness. If I hadn't asked for forgiveness, our entire weekend might have been spent arguing and growing distant from one another. The foundation of our marriage coaching process is built on forgiveness—stating what we are sorry for and saying the words, "Will you for- give me?" As one another's authentic helpmate, we are saying, "Will you help me when I am weak? Will you help me be a better husband/father or wife/mother?" Unfortunately, with a lot of the couples we meet, their hearts are so hardened, they come in pointing the fi nger at their spouse, never taking a look at themselves and how they have contributed to the disagreements. Some couples carry around resentment and hurt and pain for years. The important piece is to take an interior look and ask ourselves: "How did I contribute to that argument? Could I have spoken in a more charita- ble manner? Was I stu§ ng my feelings, not sharing my heart?" ("Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?" Mt 7:3) God, give me the grace to ask for for- giveness so that I can grant my spouse forgiveness. Pope Francis says it well, "The per- fect family doesn't exist, nor is there a perfect husband or a perfect wife, and let's not talk about the perfect mother- in-law! It's just us sinners. If we learn to say we're sorry and ask forgiveness, the marriage will last." You want your marriage to last? Go seek forgiveness from your spouse and grant them forgiveness as well. Matt and Mindy Dalton can be reached at matt@marriagemissionaries.org, 303-578-8287 or at www.marriagemissionaries.org. Marriage Missionaries MATT & MINDY DALTON Four little words to make your marriage last interests at stake have made clear. retelling of he claimed, fi ction." And as Gregory Wolfe pointed out in a fi ne twice, for "Wolf Hall" and its sequel, "Bring Up the Bodies?" Because the books are terrifi c novels. Because well-crafted novels that make a hash of history for the sake of defaming the Catho- lic Church St. Thomas More

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