The Pelagian Herald

Will Gore, writer for the "Catholic Herald", gave us last week his take on John Pridmore's new book "A Gangster's Guide to God". Gore gives away his kind of faith when he says of the former gangster, John Pridmore, that "he turned around his life through faith." The rest of Gore's review of Pridmore's book is a rough scetch of how inadequately John did this. I'm sure John Pridmore would agree with him on that, but not on the abscence, in Gore's review, of any reference to Grace.

Indeed, Gore in this short piece presents faith as a human project - the classical Pelagian position. And with Pelagians discussing the faith in the public Catholic forum we are not going to get very far - not unless you spot them first and then re-focus your attention on Grace. Which is what John Pridmore did and continues to do. It isn't that John turned his life around, but that God turned John's life around.

You can't be a Catholic journalist unless you can "see" Grace first, and then speak about it in way which enables others to see what God is doing. Journalism is a God-given skill; we need journalists. It is a great shame that there are so few real journalists today, Catholic or otherwise. This is a project we need to foster.