I was pleased to read Kevin O’Brien’s recent post in which he waxed lyrical on the rambunctious splendour of this year’s Chesterton Conference in Seattle. My reading of his article was not, however, untainted by a degree of wistfulness bordering on envy. I have always had such a great time at this annual Chestertonian cornucopia and fiesta that the year almost seems incomplete when I’m unable to attend it. This year, however, I had the consolation of attending a conference of the New York C. S. Lewis Society, which was held in Queens on the same weekend as the Chesterton gathering. If one is unable to spend the weekend with Chesterton, it is hardly a major sacrifice if one is able to spend the weekend with Lewis instead! I spoke on “Narnia and Middle-earth: When Two Worlds Collude”, ensuring that the weekend was spent with Tolkien as well as Lewis. Although I arrived too late to enjoy all the talks on offer, I managed to catch the tail-end of an excellent talk on Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, a power-point presentation on the wonderful art that has been used to illustrate the work of George Macdonald, and a lecture by the formidable Jesuit and StAR contributor, Father Koterski, on Lewis’ Till We Have Faces.

As the Lewis conference drew to a close, I left for JFK airport to fly to Chile, the purpose of which was una cruzada por G.K. Chesterton (A Chesterton Crusade), organized by the Universidad Gabriela Mistral (UGM), a Catholic university in Santiago. Flying overnight, I arrived in Santiago on Monday, August 10th. Over the next four days, I spoke on the campus of UGM, at two high schools, at the auditorium of the Military Academy (twice), and at the Naval Academy in Valparaiso. Most of the talks were on the theme, “G.K. Chesterton and the Key to Happiness”, though I also gave a talk on Narnia and Middle-earth to an enthusiastic audience of high school students, and a lecture on “Chesterton and Education” to a gathering of literature professors and teachers.

I was privileged to be able to say a few words at the official launch of Red Cultural (Culture Net), a new full-colour magazine of Catholic culture similar to StAR, edited by Magdalena Merbilhaa. Articles in the first issue were on topics such as King Arthur, Tolkien and the First World War, The Mystery of the Pyramids, The Art of the Sistine Chapel, and two articles on Chesterton. Spanish translations of two of my own articles were published in the first issue: “The Resurrection of Chesterton” and “Shakespeare’s Shocking Catholicism”, both published originally in Catholic World Report.

Sandwiched between the talks were a radio interview and an interview with El Mercurio, the largest circulation newspaper in Chile. The latter interview was published last Friday and included discussions of Chesterton, Tolkien, Shakespeare, Wilde and literary converts in general. I flew home on Saturday, exhausted and exhilarated, and very grateful that I had managed to serve as a humble knight in the Chesterton Crusade.