[Jaded]

for later

[ccmay]

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

That seems a very Christian sentiment to me.

-ccm

[quadrant]

Lets not forget that Lord Alfred Douglas (Wilde's lover and the man for whom Wilde sacrificed everything) refused to send Wilde any sort of financial assistance when the writer was impoverished and dying. So much for homosexual love.

[Suzy Quzy]

Deathbed conversion to Catholicism....I had NO idea!!

[IronJack]

Wilde's Ballad of Reading Gaol is a microcosm of the man. It contains an occasional gem when it manages to escape from the sordid muck of self-pity.

Wilde brought all of his troubles on himself. Not only was he queer, he reveled in it, wallowed in it, flashed it at cocktail parties from behind his greatcoat. Then he has the unmitigated gall to suggest that "society" is somehow wrong for being offended.

A brilliant man, perhaps, although I tend to agree that he was more gadfly than eagle. However, his tragic devotion to iconoclasm does give rise to some apothegmatic ideals that are worth considering.

[Spok]

I saw this in a priest's office: Celibacy is not hereditary.

[July 4th]

It would have been odd to not include his quotes. Look at the title of the book:

Provocations: Aphorisms for an Anti-conformist Christianity

[BlessedBeGod]

"Embraced" him just because he's quoted in a book?

Oh, pul-eeze...

[Cicero]

Oscar Wilde is a mixed bag. Anyone who takes him for a role model is an idiot. But the signs of his attraction to Catholicism run through his work. "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" is a splendid work.

Perhaps the greatest work from a religious standpoint is his late work, "De Profundis." The title is a good indication of how Wilde is best understood as a religious writer, as its title echoes Psalm 130, the great psalm of despair, repentance, and forgiveness:

---

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.

Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

[Ciexyz]

Wilde came to a tragic, sad end. Hopefully he found some solace in his religion.

[Salvation]

**deathbed convert to Catholicism,**

I wonder how often this happens?