Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val’s example of humility, statesmanship, and a profoundly supernatural approach to public life reminds the faithful that the Church’s first allegiance is not to any nation or party, but to truth itself. This was the key theme of Italian Church historian Roberto de Mattei at the recent launch of the English edition of his biography A Cardinal for the Ages: Merry del Val and His Enduring Influence on the Church. Speaking at the Brompton Oratory in London, de Mattei argued that the key to understanding Cardinal Merry del Val, the author of the famous Litany to Humility, is to recognize that he possessed the deeply Catholic concept of Romanitas: a Roman spirit that is at once universal, doctrinal, liturgical, and profoundly supernatural.
