In mere months, the research report on whether or not the cause for the canonisation of G.K. Chesterton should be opened will be submitted- If you have a devotion to Chesterton, there is still time to give your support.

The works of G.K. Chesterton have been responsible for bringing untold numbers into the Catholic Church, as well as earning legions of Chesterton disciples outside of it. Many believe Chesterton a mystic for his profound ability to describe reality. His prophetic statements predicting the errors of our current age have caused commentators to state he would be the saint for our time. In our cynical societies, Chesterton’s Theology of Gratitude is needed more than ever. Many find his work spiritually edifying in addition to the intellectual formation it provides.

If you wish to make a submission, address it too Fr John Urdis, the investigator for Chesterton’s ’cause for a cause’ email: chesterton@oscott.org

The simple guidelines set by Fr John:

How has Chesterton been an influence in your life, and in what way? (examples through personal testimony).

Have you been seeking or sensing the intercession of Chesterton, and for how long has this been the case?

Do you think it would be a good thing for the Church to open his cause now? Why?

To many in the Personal Ordinariates, created for Anglican converts (but open to everyone), the likes of G.K. Chesterton and Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman are forerunners of the Ordinariates, which, like them, have a lot to offer the Catholic Church: hence why Benedict XVI referred to them as “A Gift for All”.

Many people are aware Chesterton was an Anglican writer who converted to the Catholic Church: but that is only half the story. To a vast majority ‘Anglican’ automatically means ‘Protestant’, but while Chesterton wrote many of his great works while a member of the Church of England, fewer are aware he was a member of the Anglo-Catholic section of that institution and highly critical of Reformed Theology. Faith shapes one’s world-view, and Anglo-Catholicism is more than just liturgy, it is also an intellectual school and holds the ancient English spiritual tradition which includes the veneration of the British saints. So when we talk of Chesterton’s conversion: it was not to ‘Catholicism’ as he already held Catholic belief, but to its fullness in the Catholic Church. It would be proper to say that the Personal Ordinariates were not just created for “Anglicans”, but specifically as an ark for Anglo-Catholics in the One True Church.

Where will Chesterton’s cause for Canonisation end up? Will be eventually be found to be a Venerable, a Blessed or eventually be declared a Saint? We will not know unless it is opened.