The Vatican’s top protocol officer has drawn widespread media attention by publishing a book that quotes extensively from the aphorisms of Oscar Wilde.The inimitable witticisms of Oscar Wilde are being embraced by the Vatican in this new book intended to ‘reawaken’ Catholicism within the wider public.
Fr Leonardo Sapienza, a Rogationist priest and director of protocol for the pontifical household, has produced a work entitled Pro-vocations – Aphorisms for an Anti-conformist Christianity. The work contains about 1,000 quotations regarding matters of moral character, featuring the works of Wilde and containing many of the controversial Irish poets well known maxims.
Oscar Wilde, a flamboyant Irish writer of the 19th century, fell into disgrace when he was convicted of gross indecency by a British court as the result of a homosexual affair and was sentenced to two years of hard labour. Fr Sapienza explained his fascination with Wilde by saying that he had been a ‘writer who lived perilously and somewhat scandalously but who has left us some razor-sharp maxims with a moral.’
Despite being a homosexual, Wilde converted to Catholicism at the end of his life and Fr Sapienza said that the decision to reproduce his work in the book was made because he was a ‘writer who lived perilously and somewhat scandalously but who left us some razor sharp maxims with a moral,’
He added: ‘Our role is to be a thorn in the flesh, to move people’s consciences and to tackle what today is the number one enemy of religion – indifference.’
Oscar Wilde is certain to have appreciated St Augustine's famous imprecation: 'Lord, grant me chastity and continence - but not yet.' And we feel sure he would have appreciated the Vatican's decision to use some of his scalpel-sharp quips in this new publication .
The editor, Fr Leonardo Sapienza, argues that Wilde is remembered chiefly for his plays and not for his promiscuity.