An Adventure and a Very Catholic Counter-Revolutionary Weekend in Chicago

Twenty seven years ago this week, I was an invited speaker at the Catholic Voice International conference in Chicago. I had had a few articles published in Catholic reviews. One or two had been translated and published in France and Brazil. I was also publishing a little 'review' of my own called 'The Ultra Review'. The name was taken from the Ultras of Restoration France who were 'more royalist than the King'. At any rate, I had made somewhat of a name for myself as a Catholic Monarchist, and I was invited to speak on Christ the King and Monarchy.

The conference organisers were unable to pay the speakers, except for the keynoter, Michael Davies, but our travel, hotel rooms, and food were paid for.

I lived in Lawrence, KS at the time so I was flying out of Kansas City International to O'Hare. Another speaker, a lady who lived in Wichita, KS, was flying to KCI and we were to be seatmates on the the flight to Chicago.

The flight was my first on an airliner. My total flying experience at that point consisted of a short hop and back in a Beechcraft Sundowner, a three seater aircraft. I was nervous to say the least. Mary Ann, my seatmate, checked her luggage, whilst (being a man!) I had just a small carry-on, when it was announced our flight had been canceled. I called my wife to let her know what was going on, and Mary Ann retrieved her luggage.

After an hour or so of waiting to see what would happen, the airline announced that our flight had been reinstated. As we boarded the aircraft, I mentioned to the stewardess that it was my first flight in a big plane.

The flight proceeded uneventfully until we were approaching Chicago, when the captain came on the intercom and announced that we couldn't land in Chicago so we were going to Detroit. As we approached Detroit, he came on the intercom again and said we couldn't land there either, so we had been diverted to Indianapolis.

At that point, Mary Ann turned to me and said she certainly hoped we could land in Indianapolis. I asked her why. She informed me that she was a former stewardess, that she had flown in this model of plane, and we would run out of fuel if we were diverted again! Oh boy! First flight in an airliner and I was going to die!

Well, since I'm sharing this, we obviously landed in Indianapolis. I saw the Brickyard as we flew over it, and Vice President Dan Quayle had come home for the weekend so Air Force Two happened to be parked on the runway next to us as the we were refuelled.

The rest of the flight was uneventful until we approached O'Hare. My total experience of large airports was Kansas City International and Wichita Mid-Continent, where the Beechcraft had taken off and landed. Both were on the outskirts of the city. Not O'Hare! I'm still convinced, whether it's true or not, that I saw streets crossing runways, with stoplights to halt traffic when planes were taxiing. As I was deplaning, the stewardess asked if I would ever fly again? I replied that it was a long walk back to Kansas City. She laughed and said she meant after my return flight on Monday. I have.

At any rate, we landed safely, only to find out that our excursion around the Old Northwest was caused by a radar outage at O'Hare. Not something to give a tyro flyer great confidence.

We rushed to the hotel, where I was informed that my room was not ready. I told the desk clerk that it was not a problem, because we were leaving for Mass and dinner, but they upgraded my room. My single bed in a small room became two king sized beds in a large room with several easy chairs. This turned out to be a boon.

As I related in my post, Two All Saints Day Masses last night, we were on our way to St John Cantius for the Vigil Mass of All Saints. After Mass we adjourned to a restaurant called Das Deutsche Ehre for a German dinner. The sauerbraten was delicious, but for me the high point was that I was seated at the table with Michael Davies (R+I+P), the well known writer and lay theologian, who was shortly to become the President of the International Federation Una Voce.

In my dealings with foreign groups and individuals, I had come across a review called The Scorpion, a journal of the Nouvelle Droit, a pagan, neo-fascist movement. One of the writers for the review was Adrian Davies. I had written him, asking if he was related to Michael. He replied that he was Michael's son.

So, as we were eating dinner, I asked Michael what he thought of what Adrian was doing. He rolled his eyes and indicated that he didn't know and didn't want to know!

After dinner, we returned to the hotel. One of the fellows, upon seeing my room, announced, 'Weismiller's room is party central', and so it became.

The next day, Saturday, the conference met in the hotel. The opening speaker started his speech with the words, 'The Counter Revolution begins here!'. I doubt that he was familiar with the first meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World, an anarcho-syndicalist labour union, held in the same city in 1905, which was opened by Big Bill Haywood saying, 'the revolution begins here!'

He introduced Mr Davies, who gave a talk entitled, 'The Reign of Christ the King'. Whilst you won't hear his wonderful Welsh-English accent, you can read the transcript here.

I gave my talk on Christ the King and Monarchy and listened to some very good presentations from other speakers. The high point of my day was assisting at the Mass of Fr Nicholas Gruner (R+I+P), the 'Fatima Priest', and having lunch with him. To all of his detractors, I say, 'Fie!' He was one of the holiest and most humble Priests I have ever been privileged to know.

In the afternoon I was supposed to be on a panel discussion of the subject of my talk. Unfortunately, there was some confusion, and the organisers rearranged the panels and it became a panel on monarchy in general. One of the panel members was John F. McManus, President of the John Birch Society. 

Whilst I and other panel members were pointing out the Freemasonic, deist, and anti-Catholic character of the US Constitution, he was pounding the old 'the US was founded as a Christian nation' line. Ignoring, of course, the fact that there were very few Christians amongst the traitors (oops, sorry, I meant 'Founding Fathers'). The rest of us pointed out how the Constitution violates the Magisterium of the Church on several points. He just kept blathering on.

Finally, I brought up the Treaty with the Bey of Tripoli, signed by President John Adams and confirmed by the Senate in 1797 by a unanimous vote of the 23 Senators actually present of the 32 members of the Senate. It was read aloud to the Senate before the vote, so I don't think there's any doubt that they knew and approved of Article 11 which states, 

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;...

When I pointed out that under Article 6, Paragraph 2, 

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

the Treaty thereby became the law of the land, he blustered that it had been changed, that that clause was not in the next treaty made with Tripoli. I chuckled, and pointed out that there was no need to include it in subsequent treaties, the point had already been made!

After the talks and a quick supper, my room did, indeed, become 'party central'. Someone had bought ample wine, and Charles Coulombe, Gary Potter, Roy Moore, several others, and I gathered to solve the world's problems in a Catholic fashion! Unfortunately, Mr Davies, an American football fan, couldn't make it because he was at a Bear's game! We definitely came up with the solutions, if only we could convince the elites (in both State and Church, unfortunately) to implement our brilliant ideas!

We finally broke it off quite late, despite the fact that we all had to be up for Mass in the morning. Sunday's Mass was in a convent chapel, austere but beautiful in it's own way. We then adjourned to a community college campus for more talks. That ended early enough that we moved to a Knights of Columbus hall, if I remember correctly, in a Polish neighbourhood. Various Traditional organisations and vendors had booths set up. 

I was a poor man, and I'd brought only enough money for emergencies, so I spent most of my time just looking. However, the fine people at Rose Scapular gave me the first Five Fold Scapular I ever had. (I was enrolled in all five shortly after getting home.) And Father Gruner's Fatima Crusader gave me a couple of books for nothing when I indicated I'd love to read them but couldn't afford them.

At the end of the day, the wives of the Knights of the Council gave us a delicious Polish dinner. Then we went back to the hotel, where the gathering of Saturday night was repeated, tho' with fewer people.

Monday, we all flew back home, with my flight being absolutely uneventful. Upon getting home, I discovered, to my dismay, that the furnace in our house had gone out, and my Dear Wife had no idea how to relight it. Whilst I had been enjoying myself, out of reach of phones (no cell phones yet!), she and the children had been shivering.

It was that weekend, the talks, and the long chinwags with solid Catholic Integralists that tipped me over into full blown integralism, where I have remained ever since. I will never forget that counter-revolutionary weekend in Chicago!