Fr. Schall's Final Rest

Being asked to write a brief tribute to Fr. James V. Schall, SJ (1928-2019) reminded me of a passage from G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy, one of Fr. Schall's favorite books. If you asked an ordinary person why he preferred civilization to savagery, Chesterton wrote, “he would look wildly round at object after object, and would only be able to answer vaguely, ‘Why, there is that bookcase…and the coals in the coal-scuttle…and pianos…and policemen.' The whole case for civilization is that the case for it is complex.” The case for Fr. Schall is complex. He is widely revered as a teacher, a scholar, a writer, a friend, an uncle, and a priest. He was a loyal son of St. Igantius Loyola.