/// Weekend by: Vic Matus May 23. -24 2026 ---------------------: /// Weekend by: Vic Matus May 23. -24 2026 ---------------------: Speaking of the need for constraints, Edwin Carlson reviews Converts: From Oscar Wilde to Muriel Spark, Why So Many Became Catholic in the 20th Century by Melanie McDonagh. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!msGy!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F22df4c20-e3d3-417c-bc79-c488fa32d377_695x491.jpeg “Converts tells a well-researched story of several prominent—and sometimes scandalous—figures who found their way to Rome. Each entry includes snippets of personal letters or diary entries by the converts and quotations from people who knew them in life. You may even know some of the stories already, like those of Oscar Wilde and G.K. Chesterton. Others, such as that of decorated World War I veteran and acclaimed poet Siegfried Sassoon, were entirely unknown to me before reading this book. I am reminded of Archbishop Fulton Sheen saying, ‘There will be three surprises in Heaven. First of all, I will see some people whom I never expected to see. Second, there will be a number whom I expected who will not be there. And—even relying on God’s mercy—the biggest surprise of all may be that I will be there.’ “Consider that ‘gross indecency’ landed Oscar Wilde in prison doing hard labor, where his health deteriorated. After his release into what amounted to exile, Wilde asked the Jesuits for their permission to go on a retreat, ‘if not actually entering a monastery,’ according to McDonagh, ‘but the priests’ response made him cry.’ He was turned away, but persisted. McDonagh writes of how Wilde ‘returned to the themes of salvation, sin, forgiveness and Christ, again and again’ in his writings until his death. Wilde, on his very deathbed in 1900, was received into the Catholic Church. ‘What is more remarkable,’ McDonagh writes, ‘is that so many of his circle had, or were to, become Catholics too.’” “Other converts mentioned in McDonagh’s book, such as G.K. Chesterton, ... came to the Church for intellectual reasons. Chesterton was a longtime Catholic apologist before he submitted to Rome in 1922 at the age of 48. McDonagh writes, ‘There can be few converts who so obviously signalled their sympathies in advance.’ Chesterton put the reason for his conversion very well in a French newspaper, saying, ‘Catholicism gives us a doctrine, puts logic into our life. … To be a Catholic is to put all at rest!’” https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jlNP!,w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8649dcb6-cd3e-4ad3-8839-6d22df19e041_695x491.jpeg + “The core dynamic of the Stones is a series of murderous love triangles. It was a commonplace of the ‘60s that the electronic saturnalia was a pagan revival. ... In the Stones’ case, it produced a cult of triangulated sacrifice and substitution of the kind that the French literary theorist René Girard described in Violence and the Sacred, which Girard wrote while the Stones were recording their 1972 anthropological study Exile on Main St., at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Nice. “The Stones are a story of Girardian mimetic desire, in which erotic competition leads to scapegoating and then, because ‘it’s just a kiss away,’ murder. This is obvious to anyone who watches the two films that came out in 1970 and form the hinge between the first version of the Stones, the English R&B band founded by Brian Jones, and the second, the American country-rock band refounded by Jagger and Richards: Nicolas Roeg’s Performance or the Mayles brothers’ Altamont movie, Gimme Shelter. “At first, it’s Brian and Keith and Mick. These adolescent lovers of the blues are pure in heart and joined by a desire to mimic black blues singers. But mimetic desire leads them from Muddy Waters to deeper waters. Brian is the first leader, but he gets deleted from the love triangle when Keith betrays him by becoming Mick’s songwriting partner and writing pop hits like ‘Satisfaction,’ which does not satisfy Brian’s blues purism. The dark triads begin in 1966, as the band starts to sound like itself. Now, it’s Brian, Keith, and Brian’s girlfriend Anita Pallenberg. Brian becomes the fall guy for the second time when he loses Anita to Keith, or is it the other way round? Brian cannot tell because he’s taking so much acid.” Not only is it Pentecost Sunday (see Edwin Carlson’s review of Converts), it is also Memorial Day weekend. Here are a few links to reviews commemorating the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform and a reminder that freedom isn’t free, there’s a hefty ... fee. Allen C. Guelzo on On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain by Ronald C. White Peter Mansoor on The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines by Jonathan Horn Stanley Goldfarb on Wings of War: The World War II Fighter Plane that Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly by David Fairbank White and Margaret Stanback White Victorino Matus on Cassino ’44: The Brutal Battle for Rome by James Holland Jonathan Horn on Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy by Chas Henry Mark Greenblatt on Unremitting: The Marine “Bastard” Battalion and the Savage Battle that Marked the True Start of America’s War in Iraq by Gregg Zoroya Happy Sunday. Vic Matus Arts & Culture Editor Washington Free Beacon Thanks for reading the Washington Free Beacon! Subscribe for free to receive new posts.