September Meeting

Well, we had our first meeting in the St. Peter Parish library, The Holy Family Library. Several folks attended, which was a nice change from the last couple of meetings which were held in our previous venue. We read a couple of essays aloud from What's Wrong With The World and then commented on them. I fielded a question on Distributism and felt fairly comfortable with my answer.

We agreed to read and discuss Lepanto at our next (October) meeting. We're going to use Christopher Check's "Lepanto: The Battle and the Poem" CD as a major part of the meeting.

Finally, the folks who manage the library have asked if we could put together a display having G.K. Chesterton featured as the "Author of the Month" and also put a notice about it in the Parish Bulletin.

Draft Article for the St. Peter's Parish Newsletter

Chillicothe Chesterton Society

The Chillicothe Chesterton Society will now meet in the new Holy Family Library of St. Peter’s Parish Hall. While the previous meetings of the Society have been held at Schlegel’s Coffee House, all future meetings, beginning on September 15th, will be held in the new Library. Meetings are held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, at 7 p.m. The meetings are scheduled for an hour.

The Chillicothe Chesterton Society is a group of people who are interested in the writings of British author Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936). Here is some information on Chesterton which is taken from the web site of the American Chesterton Society. This was written by the President of the Society, Dale Ahlquist.

Chesterton argued eloquently against all the trends that eventually took over the 20th century: materialism, scientific determinism, moral relativism, and spineless agnosticism. He also argued against both socialism and capitalism and showed why they have both been the enemies of freedom and justice in modern Society.

And what did he argue for? What was it he defended? He defended "the common man" and common sense. He defended the poor. He defended the family. He defended beauty. And he defended Christianity and the Catholic Faith. These don’t play well in the classroom, in the media, or in the public arena. And that is probably why he is neglected. The modern world prefers writers who are snobs, who have exotic and bizarre ideas, who glorify decadence, who scoff at Christianity, who deny the dignity of the poor, and who think freedom means no responsibility.

The Chillicothe Chesterton Society was formed a couple of years ago as a local Society of the American Chesterton Society. The goals of the national society and the local societies are the same: to reintroduce people to the writings of G.K. Chesterton. Last year, as part of that effort, St. Peter’s and the Society sponsored presentations by Dr. John C. Chalberg in “An Evening With G.K. Chesterton” and “Old Thunder: An Evening With Hilaire Belloc.” Fans of EWTN recognized Dr. Chalberg as portraying G.K. Chesterton on “The Apostle of Common Sense” and Kevin O’Brien, President and Artistic Director of The Theater of The Word, as having portrayed just about everybody: Belloc, Father Brown, Stanford Nutting, etc.

For more information on the Chillicothe Chesterton Society check out our blog at chillicothe-chestertonian.blogspot.com or find us on Facebook at Chillicothe Chesterton Society. There are links on those sites to the American Chesterton Society.

Subject for September 15, 2010 Meeting - What's Wrong With The World

The 29th Annual Chesterton Conference has just ended (Aug 7, 2010). The Conference celebrated the 100th anniversary of Chesterton's book What's Wrong With The World. You can still see the Conference agenda here. You can read WWWTW at Project Gutenberg here. While it was not listed on the agenda, we had a great treat when G.K. himself made a special appearance. Yes, Chuck Chalberg (pictured above) attended the Conference and donned his wig, cape, hat, pince-nez and swordstick, as he provided a short visit from Mr. Chesterton. The crowd loved it.

At any rate, all that was simply to alert potential meeting attendees to the fact that the initial subject of discussion at the meeting will be selected essays from WWWTW. I'll suggest these three; The Emancipation of Domesticity, The Modern Slave, and Folly and Female Education. I'll have copies of those available. We can, of course, discuss anything and everything.

Society Meeting Location to Change

Effective with the September 15, 2010 meeting, we'll be meeting in the newly created Library of St. Peter's Parish Hall. This (above) is a view of the Parish Hall from Water Street. However, here (below) is the entrance we'll be using. It's back the walkway on the side of the Hall. I'll have signs posted on the night of the meeting.
















Here (below) is the newly painted, and as-yet-un-carpeted Library. Carpeting is scheduled for Monday, August 30.
















Fr. Hahn will also allow us to publish a meeting notice in the Church Bulletin. I plan to contact Fr. Hummer at St. Mary's to see if he would be willing to do the same.

A Look at Knott Auditorium, Mount St. Mary's, Emmitsburg, MD

Here's a couple of pictures of Knott Auditorium. It will be full of Chestertonians beginning this Thursday.

Emmitsburg, MD 21727

After having dinner in Emmitsburg, at Otts pub, my wife and I drove out to Mount St. Mary's University. It's only a 5 minute ride. You can't miss it. It's quite visible from the road (Rt 15 South). The buildings are well marked and we drove right to Knott (Marion Burke Knott) Auditorium by following the signs. The auditorium is the site of the Chesterton Conference. There are some obviously older buildings further up the hill that are quite attractive. You can view a campus map here.


I found St. Joseph's Church right in Emmitsburg for Mass tomorrow. I couldn't find any pictures of the inside of the church. Maybe I'll take some tomorrow. Here's a drawing of the church from the church's web site.

ChesterTones to Perform at ChesterTen Banquet

The about-to-be-formed Barbershop Quartet, The ChesterTones, will perform at the ChesterTen Banquet. Members of the quartet are: Kevin O'Brien (Lead), Bob Cook (Bass), Joe Grabowski (Tenor), and Don Brady (Baritone). All, of course, are Chestertonians. We've all been working on the music independently (Kevin, just since the first of this week). Our first time singing together will be a a yet-to-be-determined practice at the Conference. It should be exciting.