William F. Buckley - Nearer, My God

God and Man at Yale
McCarthy and His Enemies ( WITH L. B RENT B OZELL )
Up From Liberalism
Rumbles Left and Right
The Unmaking of a Mayor
The Jewelers Eye
The Governor Listeth
Cruising Speed
Inveighing We Will Go
Four Reforms
United Nations Journal: A Delegates Odyssey
Execution Eve
Saving the Queen
Airborne
Stained Glass
A Hymnal: The Controversial Arts
Whos On First
Marco Polo, If You Can
Atlantic High: A Celebration
Overdrive: A Personal Documentary
The Story of Henri Tod
See You Later Alligator
Right Reason
The Temptation of Wilfred Malachey
High Jinx
Mongoose, R.I.P.
Racing Through Paradise
On the Firing Line:
The Public Life of Our Public Figures
Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country
Tuckers Last Stand
In Search of Anti-Semitism
WindFall
Happy Days Were Here Again:
Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist
A Very Private Plot
Brothers No More
The Blackford Oakes Reader
The Right Word

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Buckley, William F. (William Frank), 1925
Nearer, my God : an autobiography of faith / by William F. Buckley Jr.
p. cm.
1. Buckley, William F. (William Frank), 1925 . 2. JournalistsUnited
StatesBiography.
3. Buckley, William F. (William Frank), 1925 Religion.
I. Title.
PN4874.B796B83 1997
282.092dc21

[B] 97-6219

eISBN: 978-0-307-80302-3
Copyright 1997 by William F. Buckley Jr.
All Rights Reserved

v3.1

In memory of
Alose Steiner Buckley
18951985

I n the text, I acknowledge persons to whom I am indebted for material I have used, some of it previously published, some of it written privately, some in letters to me. I acknowledge also the one-page cartoon from Punch magazine, with thanks.

Fr. Kevin Fitzpatrick, to whom I owe so very much, was with me at every point during the five years since I began this book. He gave me guidance and help. Fr. Fitzpatrick is a doctor of moral theology (Pontifical Lateran University, 1996). He is, at this writing, a parish priest in Stamford, Connecticut. If anywhere in this volume heterodoxy lurks, the fault is in my transcriptions, not in his learning, or recommendations.

Faithful readers will expect my customary prostration at the feet of Samuel S. Vaughan. But the pains he went to, and the devotion he paid to this enterprise, require me to acknowledge, yet again, with everlasting gratitude, his contributions.

Several friends read the manuscript. Lance Morrow, as the narrative will reveal, permitted me to quote from an essay he had written for Time magazine and from a correspondence that ensued. I opportunized on his interest by sending him the manuscript. I was astonished by the generosity of his response, a twenty-page letter of suggestions and commentary. I am deeply indebted to one of Americas finest writers.

I am indebted, also, for careful readings by (Professor) Chester Wolford of the State University of Pennsylvania, and (Fr.) Richard John Neuhaus of First Things. My brother (Judge) James, and sisters Patricia Bozell, Jane Smith, and Priscilla Buckley read it, as also my wife Pat, with great profit to me.

Doubledays Eric Major came a little late to the project, succeeding as he did Tom Cahill as Director of Religious Books for Doubleday. My thanks to him for his fine and useful work.

And my thanks to Dorothy McCartney and John Virtes of National Review for great help with research, and to Joseph Marcello for his enterprising work on religion in private schools.

I am as always grateful, yet again, to Joseph Isola for copyediting, as also to Bill Betts.

As ever, Frances Bronson of National Review was indispensable; with thanks also to Tony Savage for his work on the computer, and for his counsel.

Wm. F. Buckley Jr.

Stamford, Connecticut

April 1997

APPENDIX A
Further Commentary on the Millbrook Christmas Celebration

APPENDIX B
A Listing of Religious Activities at Various Schools

I t was over ten years ago that I was asked to write a book whose title would be Why I Am Still a Catholic. I demurred, using as an excuse that I had books charted for two book-writing seasons ahead. But after a month or so, I thought to accept the commission, provided I could put off work on the book until 1992.

When I sat down in Switzerland (which is where I write my books) to begin the project, one thing occurred to me quickly, something else later. The first was that the proposed title had in it an unnecessary word; moreover, a word that implied something I would not have been honest in implying, namely that to continue as a Catholic is in some way remarkable, as in Why I Am Still a Whig. That reservation didnt turn out to be important. The publisher was vaguely unhappy (he had conceived a series, Why I Am Still a Protestant, etc.), but he understood my problem, whereupon the working title became simply Why I Am a Catholic. But the truncation of the title reinforced the second reservation, which was that for me to write a book about my faith would be to put my faith at a fearful disadvantage.