I only met Bob Novak once and relatively recently, at my
daughter’s wedding, as he was a dear friend of the groom’s
family. After offering him my personal appreciation for his
writings over the years, the brief conversation turned to the
newlyweds, the Illini, and other pleasantries.
I had read his columns all my adult life and several of his
books. I was in complete agreement with him on issues ranging
from his strong anti-Communism and social conservatism,
supply-side economics, and his prescient opposition to the Iraq
war which earned him an unjustified insult from David Frum who
accused him of being part of a posse of so-called “Unpatriotic
Conservatives.”
Reading all the heartfelt tributes to Novak as a reporter,
controversialist and a human being, I am struck by the trajectory
of his life and thought which seem to have come to a kind of
Augustinian position, a place of rest, an angle of repose to use
an engineering term appropriated by Wallace Stegner for his
famous novel of the same name.
Bob Novak was an unsparing observer of the Washington circus, a
very unedifying spectacle of the works of the City of Man. In
later life he was drawn to the nearest thing to the City of God
on earth, Roman Catholicism, at least from his perspective.
As a Catholic I was both surprised and heartened by this
development. I was surprised because Novak’s public persona was
curmudgeonly and fierce. There is a great line attributed to the
late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) in which he said,
“Well, we’ve now made Bob a Catholic. The question is, can we
make him a Christian?” Only later did I read the testimony of so
many of his close friends who spoke of his kindness and sacrifice
on their behalf.
I was heartened by Bob Novak’s conversion, as I am with all
conversions, since, like many “cradle” Catholics, I sometimes
become too immersed in the culture of Catholicism as just part of
the furniture in your life, taken for granted, often losing that
sense of the power and glory of Jesus who lived, taught,
suffered, died and rose in untold love and mercy for us all. For
a mature adult to take the plunge into faith is always a
wonderful thing to behold and a jolt to a dormant spirituality of
other persons of faith, often distracted by the cares of daily
life and in need of spiritual rekindling.
As to this theory of mine that Novak developed a kind of
Augustinian sense that the City of God was not of this world,
recall Voltaire’s quip that the Holy Roman Empire was neither
holy, Roman nor an empire. Some fabulists in the Middle Ages
misread St. Augustine’s great text on the subject as justifying
such a thing, thereby rendering unto Caesar the things of God.
The City of God does exist, but not in the same dimension of time
and space as the Terrestrial City. It is a thing to be longed
for, strived for. As Richard John Neuhaus has written, we rely on
that hope even as we do what we can to serve and work for the
welfare of the city of our exile as the Old Testament prophet
counseled the Jews in their Babylonian exile.
Tim Carney, who worked for Novak at the Evans-Novak
Political Report late in the great man’s career, describes
his change over time:
Novak earned the nickname the Prince of Darkness for being so
pessimistic so young. Early in his career, his bleak outlook
stemmed from a fear that freedom would fall to Communism — a
worry he would shed by the time Ronald Reagan became president.
Later in his career, Novak’s pessimism and reputation as a
curmudgeon derived from something altogether different —
he had lost faith in politics to make the world
better.[Emphasis added]
Noting that Bob Novak was influenced by Whittaker Chambers,
author of Witness and an ex-Communist, Carney states,
“After Novak’s trust in politicians was steadily worn down by the
gritty facts of politics, the old man found faith in God. I
believe this is no coincidence.”
St. Francis of Assisi urged us to “Preach the Gospel at all times
and when necessary use words.” Bob Novak would, no doubt,
appreciate the irony that his very life itself, rather than his
outstanding reporting and written words, may be his greatest gift
to us all. May he rest in peace.
