I was aware that the above Wilde had some connection to the Catholic church, but had no particular idea of what. So this article was very informative.
"I am not a Catholic," said Oscar Wilde. "I am simply a violent Papist." This statement, like so many of Wilde's outrageous paradoxes, conceals a sober truth beneath its blithe wit. Another example would be his jest that, of all religions, Catholicism is the only one worth dying in. Looking back over his life more than a hundred years later, we can be forgiven for seeing the irony in such statements, for Wilde's fascination with Catholicism, its mysteries and rituals, did set the stage for his death-bed conversion. And we can certainly perceive justice in the fact that the man who cracked such jokes also believed that life imitated art: ultimately, then, the joke was on him.It comes courtesy of Eve Tushnet, who is, I gather, a gay Catholic. I don't seem to be able to verify this simply - there's no About Me section on her blog that I can see.
