Judge Bork, baptized at 76

It may be a little late to start for most, but Robert Bork, the former Supreme Court nominee who has written books decrying the decline of Western culture, has just been baptized. Rev. C. John McCloskey, who represents the conservative and activist Opus Dei arm of the Roman Catholic Church and oversaw the baptism, said, "I can confirm that he was received in the Catholic Church." Bork, a scholar with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, was raised a Protestant and had called himself a "generic Protestant." He was known more for his conservative legal views, which some Democrats used to shoot down his court nomination during the Reagan administration.

In a brief interview, he said that years of "conversations and reading" led him to baptism at McCloskey's small Catholic Information Center chapel on K Street near the White House. "There's more to talk about than you can put in a brief story." He called himself a regular Catholic who attends Sunday mass, not an Opus Dei member.

He said talks with and recommendations from the priest, as well as attending church with his wife, Mary Ellen Bork, a former nun, helped pave the way to the ceremony.

Bork's sponsors were Kate O'Beirne, a conservative media star, and John O'Sullivan, head of UPI.

Lots of other prominent Catholics were there, such as columnist and speechwriter Peggy Noonan, herself a convert.

McCloskey has made several other high-level conversions of conservatives, bringing into the Catholic Church conservative columnist Robert Novak and Republican Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas.

The best part of getting baptized at 76, said Bork: "If you get baptized at my age, all of your sins are forgiven. And that's very helpful."

According to Archdiocese of Washington Communications Director Susan Gibbs, Msgr. William Awalt, the longtime pastor of the Borks, baptized the judge, confirmed him and gave him First Communion. Father McCloskey celebrated the Mass, along with Msgr. Peter Vaghi, pastor of St. Patrick's.

Judge Bork Converts to the Catholic Faith

by Tim Drake

July 24, 2003 / Former circuit judge, U.S. solicitor general and 1987 Supreme Court judicial nominee Judge Robert Bork entered the Catholic Church on July 21 at age 76.

A senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, he researches constitutional law, antitrust law and cultural issues. He spoke with Register features correspondent Tim Drake about bork

his conversion and his forthcoming book, Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges.

Was faith important to your family growing up? In which denomination did you grow up?

Up until age 17, I was in Pittsburgh. I have no siblings. My mother was a schoolteacher up until she got married because at that time you couldn’t be married and teach. My father was in charge of purchasing for one area of a large steel company.

Until age 12, I was going to United Presbyterian Church. My mother and father belonged to two different Presbyterian denominations. Our faith wasn’t terribly important growing up. My mother was interested in spiritual matters, but she was somewhat eclectic about it.

What led you to pursue law?

It was either that or journalism. I would have been a journalist by first choice, but I had the wrong idea that you had to get a graduate degree to pursue journalism. I didn’t know any journalists or lawyers.

When I was about to graduate from the University of Chicago I wrote to the Columbia School of Journalism. However, because of the debate between John Dewey and University of Chicago president Robert Hutchins over the nature of education, Columbia wouldn’t accept a degree from the University of Chicago. They told me that if I would first go elsewhere for two years, then they would accept me. In a fit of pique I decided to go to law school and graduated from Chicago School of Law in 1953.

When were you married?

I was married in 1952. My wife died on Dec. 8, 1980. I remarried on Oct. 30, 1982.
I was introduced to the Catholic faith through my second wife, Mary Ellen. She had been a nun for 15 years. I didn’t know any priests or nuns. Although I had many Catholic friends, we never discussed religion. I had been to a Catholic Mass a couple of times with friends when I was in my teens and early 20s, but I hadn’t been to any church for years and years until I began going to Sunday Mass with my Mary Ellen.

What sparked your interest in the Catholic Church?
After I wrote Slouching Toward Gomorrah the priest at St. Anne’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., Msgr. William Awalt, told me that my views on matters seemed to be very close to those of the Catholic views, which was true. Not being religious, the fact that our views corresponded wasn’t enough to bring me into the Church, so it took me a while before I was ready to enter.

I had a number of conversations with Father C.J. McCloskey. He gave me some readings and he would drop by on his way home and we would talk for an hour to an hour and a half in my office. The one I liked best was Ronald Knox’s The Beliefs of Catholics. I’ve taught classes, but I didn’t feel like being taught a class. I wasn’t eager to be a student. Our time together was informative and highly informal.

Were there any misconceptions that you had to overcome?

When I was between 15 and 16, I was taught that the Catholic Church was highly authoritarian and that the priests had strict control over your thoughts and ideas. By the time it came to convert I had been around the world a while, so I no longer had those ideas. I knew too many Catholics to believe that.

Does it seem to make a difference converting at age 76 rather than when you were younger?

I don’t know that it has any effect. My mother is going to be 105 this fall. I don’t feel old compared to her. I haven’t spoken to her about it yet, but I assume she’ll take it well.

There is an advantage in waiting until you’re 76 to be baptized, because you’re forgiven all of your prior sins. Plus, at that age you’re not likely to commit any really interesting or serious sins.

Was there anything in particular that pulled you toward the Church?
I found the evidence of the existence of God highly persuasive, as well as the arguments from design both at the macro level of the universe and the micro level of the cell.
I found the evidence of design overwhelming, and also the number of witnesses to the Resurrection compelling. The Resurrection is established as a solid historical fact.

Plus, there was the fact that the Church is the Church that Christ established, and while it’s always in trouble, despite its modern troubles it has stayed more orthodox than almost any church I know of. The mainline Protestant churches are having much more difficulty.

Did your wife play a significant role in your decision?

Yes, although she never proselytized outright. She discussed things with me, but it was more her example than anything else. I don’t know whether it’s her faith or something else, but she is an extraordinarily fine woman. We received a note from Father Richard John Neuhaus saying that now all of the saints could get some rest from Mary Ellen’s importuning.

Where was the ceremony held?
Since I decided I wanted only a small group of people present, the ceremony was held at the Catholic Information Center chapel in Washington. There were three priests at the baptism. Msgr. Awalt did the baptism. Father McCloskey gave the homily and Msgr. Peter Vaghi, pastor of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, also participated. I didn’t talk about it to anyone beforehand.

My three children were as surprised about it as anyone. I told the sponsors, Kate O’Beirne and John O’Sullivan, only a couple of weeks before. I don’t know how surprised they were. I never discussed it with them, but they probably expected that I wasn’t far off.

In 1996, you published Slouching Toward Gomorrah. In light of the recent Supreme Court decision striking down Texas’ anti-sodomy law, do you think we are still slouching or are we already there?

Yes, we are slouching toward it if we haven’t passed the city limits already. I’m afraid that the Supreme Court is playing a large role in moving the culture in that direction.

The book is going to be reissued with a new chapter that will discuss the recent Lawrence decision, the affirmative-action cases and the decision regarding computer-simulated pornography.

That is the subject of your forthcoming book, Coercing Virtue, isn’t it?

Yes. It’s a slimmer book based on the Barbara Frum Lecture that I delivered at the University of Toronto. Its theme is that all of the Western world’s judges are taking issues of politics and morality away from legislatures. This can be seen not just in the United States but in Canada, Europe and Israel. It’s now making its appearance in international law.

In the United States we tend to think that what is happening is the result of a couple of bad appointments, but this is an international phenomenon. The cultural war is an international phenomenon and the courts have the power of judicial review to strike down statues or accept them. They have taken one side in the culture war — the side of the intellectual elite, or a term I like, the Olympians. They are those people who think they have a superior attitude in life and that those of us lower down the courts should be coerced into accepting their views.

What do you have planned next?

I’m going to edit a book with the Hoover Institution about courts and their effects on American values. I have five other authors that will be writing chapters. I have also promised to do a book on the freedoms´ paper trail examining the documents leading up to and including the Constitution.

After that I’m free to write what I want. I may write one on liberalism or I may write one on martinis.

Tim Drake is the managing editor of Catholic.net and the author of "There We Stood, Here We Stand: 11 Lutherans Rediscover their Catholic Roots." He writes from St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Reprinted with permission from the National Catholic Register. All rights reserved.

"In context, John 3 is not one of those passages, though. It's very much about baptism. Baptism is mentioned before, baptism is mentioned afterwards, and Jesus specifically demands that one be "born again of water and the Holy Spirit". I don't know what he's talking about, if it's not baptism, especially given the baptismal context before and afterwards."

Well it should be clear. Jesus explains it. Part of the problem here is you are misquote the scripture it says: Except a man be born ~~again~~ of water and of the Spirit. You added an again before the water that is not there in scripture. John 3:5 ...Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. The water baptism is of the flesh, it's the natural birth from your mother. The born of the spirit is the spirit baptism, that comes through faith in Jesus. Any one who has the spirit baptism is born again and has eternal life. And that happens before water baptism occurs.

God's word is a unified whole, not a collection of bits and pieces.

Agreed, that's exactly why it should be obvious that water baptism is not a critical part of the salvation process.

you seem to think there's some opposition between faith and baptism. There isn't. One leads to the other.

I don't think there is any opposition between faith and baptism. And I agree one leads to the other. But baptism is an act of obedience and testimony. That's why Jesus Himself was baptized, not because He was going through a salvation experience. Technically baptism isn't part of salvation. It should naturally follow salvation as the first act of obedience. And the exceptions to that are pretty rare.

But if you are on the cross next to Jesus or you are on your death bed and you finally get the motivation to accept Jesus, you don't have to worry about the lack of a baptism ceremony damning you to hell. It won't.

Love leads to marriage, marriage seals love in a sacred covenant. Faith leads to baptism, baptism seals faith in a sacred covenant.

Bad example. Marriage seals in a sacred covenant. When it comes to salvation, it's faith that claims God's promise that seals in a sacred covenant, not baptism.

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