{"id":1250,"date":"2018-09-08T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-08T09:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2018-09-07T00:05:54","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T00:05:54","slug":"malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/","title":{"rendered":"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Malcolm-Muggeridge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1342\" src=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Malcolm-Muggeridge-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a>Malcolm Muggeridge<\/strong>\u00a0was a famous English journalist born in 1903 and died in 1990, a lover of satire and of women. He lived as a declared atheist almost until his death, that is until his surprising <strong>conversion<\/strong>, occurred thanks to the Encyclical <strong><em>Humanae Vitae<\/em><\/strong>, of which we celebrate the fiftieth year in these days.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">He said that his look towards faith was that of a <em>gargoyle<\/em>: from the top of a spire, from the top of a cathedra, he sneered at the ridiculous behaviours and the <strong>wasted efforts<\/strong> by the believing humankind. But in 1969 and in 1982, around the age of 80, this contemptuous observer <strong>became Catholic<\/strong> together with his wife Kitty. The first spur seems to have come from Saint Teresa of Calcutta.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The journalist went to India to document the activities of the Missionary Sisters of Charity and spent much time with <strong>Mother Teresa<\/strong>: seeing her assist the last of the last, he then defined her a \u201clight which could never be extinguished\u201d and narrated his experience in his book <em>\u201cSomething Beautiful for God\u201d<\/em>, published in 1972. He wrote about her as about a \u201cliving conversion\u201d and said that one could not observe her with the people assisted by her, without being already in some degree converted: her love for Christ and treating everyone as if they were the Lord in person had <strong>more effect on him<\/strong> than anything else. While being in touch with that defender of life, Muggeridge\u00a0reported to have perceived the inestimable value of the Incarnation of the Son of God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Afterwards the journalist started also <strong>the study<\/strong> of the writings by Saint Augustine and edited and produced a TV series for the BBC in which he analysed the thought and the works of the Bishop of Hippo, Blaise Pascal, William Blake, S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He convinced himself that <strong>human life was sacred<\/strong>, thereby predicting the remarkable damages of contraception in the deterioration of the interpersonal relationships. Coherently with his statements, <strong>he resigned as Rector of the University of Edinburgh <\/strong>to protest against the students\u2019 campaign that asked the availability of contraceptive pills at the University Health Centre. His resignation was preannounced in a sermon at the Cathdral of St. Giles, subsequently published with the title \u201c<em>Another King<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On the 25th of July 1968, when <strong><em>Humanae Vitae<\/em><\/strong> was released, Muggeridge\u00a0restated his personal appraisal of the Catholic Church. Ten years later, on occasion of a symposium at the University of San Francisco, he, already converted to Christianity but not yet to Catholicism, delivered this speech:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00ab<em>I find myself in a most difficult position\u2026 <strong>After all, I am not a Catholic<\/strong>. I do not have that great satisfaction that so many Catholics enjoy. At the same time, I have a great love for the Catholic Church, and I have had from the beginning a feeling stronger than I can convey that this document\u00a0Humanae Vitae, which has been so savagely criticized, sometimes by members of the Catholic Church, is of tremendous and fundamental importance, and that it will stand in history as tremendously important. And I would like to be able to express <strong>this profound admiration that I have<\/strong> <strong>for it<\/strong>; this profound sense that it touches upon an issue of the most fundamental importance and that it will be, in history, something that will be pointed to both for its dignity and for its perspecuity<\/em>\u00bb.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Muggeridge\u00a0continued his passionate defence of <em>Humanae Vitae<\/em>\u00a0until 1978. Four years later, to his colleagues\u2019 and the media\u2019s general surprise, he and his wife <strong>embraced the Catholic faith<\/strong>. In 1988 he published his last book, dedicated to life change and titled <em>The Spiritual Journey of a Twentyeth Century Pilgrim<\/em>. He died two years later, on November 1990: the monster on the top of the Cathedral had come down and finally entered the House of God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/2010\/04\/06\/amministratori-del-sito\/#vanni\"><strong>Carla Vanni<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malcolm Muggeridge biography, famed British journalist who shocked to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He began to change hir life and he becames interested to Christianism. Four years after publication of Humanae Vitae he announced his conversion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[76,1088,1086,1090,1087,1091,1085,1089,205],"class_list":["post-1250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-catholic-faith","tag-catholic-journalist","tag-journalist","tag-journalist-became-catholic","tag-journalist-converted","tag-journalist-pro-life","tag-muggeridge","tag-muggeridge-conversion","tag-pro-life"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d - UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Malcolm Muggeridge biography, famed British journalist who shocked to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He began to change hir life and he becames interested to Christianism. Four years after publication of Humanae Vitae he announced his conversion.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-08T09:00:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Malcolm-Muggeridge-300x180.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Simone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Simone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/\",\"name\":\"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d - UCCR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-08T09:00:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"UCCR\",\"description\":\"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109\",\"name\":\"Simone\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/simone\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d - UCCR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d - UCCR","og_description":"Malcolm Muggeridge biography, famed British journalist who shocked to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. He began to change hir life and he becames interested to Christianism. Four years after publication of Humanae Vitae he announced his conversion.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/","og_site_name":"UCCR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/","article_published_time":"2018-09-08T09:00:44+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Malcolm-Muggeridge-300x180.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Simone","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Simone","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/","name":"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d - UCCR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2018-09-08T09:00:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/09\/08\/malcolm-muggeridge-the-journalist-who-converted-defending-humanae-vitae\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Malcolm Muggeridge, the journalist who converted defending \u201cHumanae Vitae\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/","name":"UCCR","description":"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109","name":"Simone","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/simone\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}