Monday, March 03, 2008

An Introduction to St Thomas Aquinas


On Sunday 3rd March, Fr Bruno Witchells spoke to Forum Christi on "An Introduction to St Thomas Aquinas". He gave us a brief summary of St Thomas's life, from his birth in 1224, through being educated by Benedictines, and later Dominicans (whom he joined, although with initial disapproval from his family), to his death aged 49 in 1274, and his later canonisation in 1323, and instituition as a Doctor of the Church. Fr Bruno explained that the part of St Thomas's life that made him a saint was his thought, which shows us something of the mind of Christ. He then took us through a number of parallels between St Thomas and Pope Benedict XVI. He recommended reading GK Chesterton's "The Dumb Ox" as a good introduction to St Thomas, and "Salt of the Earth" (Paul Seeward and Joseph Ratzinger) as an introduction to the theology of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.