On Becoming Roman Catholic

We have some news: Elena (the Managing Edi­tor) and I, and our two children (Maria, age 12, and Pieter, age 11) plus, if you will, our third child (currently in Elena’s womb) have been received in­to full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. This is a cause of great personal joy, and we can say with Malcolm Muggeridge that we have “a sense of…responding to a bell that has long been ringing.”

I mention this for two reasons. First, I know that many New Oxford Review readers have been interested in the possibility of such a turn of events, and so, it seemed that telling all of you here would be a propitious way of communicating the news — because we could not possibly respond in­dividually to all who have written, phoned, or spoken to us in person about this matter, whether pro or con.

Secondly, what this means for the NOR is that we now consider ourselves to be a Roman Catholic periodical (though not, of course, an “of­ficial” voice of the Church). This does not mean, however, that the NOR will cease to be ecu­menical, for non-Roman Catholic readers and writ­ers will continue to be welcome here.

Because of the separation of the NOR from its former publisher (announced in our Sep­tember issue), we have incurred many additional expenses occasioned by the need to move our of­fices, the need to change our letterhead and office forms, the loss of access to a copying machine, at­torney fees required to establish New Oxford Re­view, Inc. (the new publisher of the NOR) as a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation, and the like. Thus, we now find ourselves in a somewhat precar­ious — though temporary, we hope — financial bind.

The NOR belongs to the Lord — it is, we trust, His instrument. If He wants it to thrive, He will provide for it, even in ways unforeseen by us. But sometimes — often — He works through hu­man hands. If you feel moved to help, please send your check made out to New Oxford Review to our new address: New Oxford Review, 1069 Kains Ave., Berkeley, CA 94706. (All dona­tions are tax-deductible.) We thank you for your consideration of our needs.