People

What is a spiritual classic? Theologian David Tracey says it is a book that transforms the reader, who recognizes in it something essential and true. Its longevity follows from its power to inspire lives.

Christians today are fortunate to be heirs to a revival of these classics, many of which have now been translated and republished. This revival, stimulated by the Second Vatican Council, had earlier antecedents, one of which was Mysticism: A Study of the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness, published in London and New York in 1911.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein of Indianapolis suffered a mild stroke March 18 and was admitted to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis.

As of March 22, the archbishop remained hospitalized but was resting comfortably. He was alert and talking with his doctors and has been visiting with a few priests of the archdiocese.

According to The Criterion, the archdiocesan newspaper, the archbishop became dizzy while at home March 18 and called 911. After undergoing tests at St. Vincent, doctors determined that he had suffered a mild stroke.

The archbishop said the day-to-day operations and ministries of the archdiocese would continue as normal while he recuperates. He said he would appreciate everyone's prayers.

Archbishop Buechlein, 72, has suffered a series of health problems over the past three years. In 2008, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and underwent several weeks of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The treatments were successful and he is cancer free.

In 2009, Archbishop Buechlein had shoulder replacement surgery and in 2010 he had surgery to remove a benign tumor from his stomach.

TRAPPIST, Ky. -- Trappist Fr. Matthew Kelty, a monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani known for his talents of writing and speaking, died Feb. 18 after a brief illness. He was 95 and had been a priest for 64 years.

An announcement about his death on the abbey's website, www.monks.org, said, "Father Matthew was one of the community's most prominent members, who touched many retreatants over the years with his compline talks, and many more people around the world with his writings."

Father Kelty, it said, "was an Irishman with, as he put it, the 'gift of the gab.' He once said, 'I can talk and I can write,' which he considered nothing special. They were gifts, but he used them to reach and help other people."

Born Charles Richard Kelty Jr. in South Boston, Mass., Father Kelty joined the Society of the Divine Word as a young man and was ordained a priest in 1946. He served as a missionary in Papua New Guinea from 1947 to 1951, and then worked for the society's magazine in Techny, Ill., from 1951 to 1960.

WASHINGTON -- On Jan. 29, the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution held a symposium on “Addressing (and Redressing) the Silence: New Scholarship in Sexuality and American Art.”

Gathering in the Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, which boasts Robert Rauschenberg’s great lithograph triptych “Autobiography” (1968) at its entrance, 11 scholars, some well-established figures in the field, some now entering it, held their audience amazingly fast from 9 in the morning to 8 at night.

One might have thought the symposium was an act of public penance for the removal of David Wojnarowicz’s video “Fire in the Belly” from the gallery’s Oct. 30-Feb. 13 exhibit “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.”

G. Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian, succumbed Dec. 1 to the two-pronged attack of John Boehner and Eric Cantor from the House of Representatives and Bill Donohue of the Catholic League. (Wojnarowicz’s AIDS-themed video contains a brief passage showing a crucifix crawling with ants.)