USPS places Catholic writer, public intellectual William F. Buckley on commemorative stamp

CNA Staff, Mar 8, 2025 / 10:00 am

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) this week announced that celebrated Catholic writer and public intellectual William F. Buckley Jr., who shaped U.S. political discourse for decades, will receive his own commemorative stamp for his contributions to American public life.

Hailing him as “one of the most influential public intellectuals in modern U.S. history,” the USPS said in an announcement that Buckley “defined the conservative movement of the mid-20th century and was one of its most recognizable spokesmen.”

Buckley, who died in 2008, founded the conservative commentary magazine National Review in 1955. Known for his unique northeastern accent and erudite commentary, he further served as the host of the public affairs television show “Firing Line” from 1966–1999.

Buckley was raised Catholic and was a member of the Knights of Malta. In his book “Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith,” he wrote that he was “baptized as a Catholic and reared as one by devoted parents” and that his faith had “not wavered” over his life.

The Catholic Church “is unique in that it is governed by a vision that has not changed in 2,000 years,” he wrote. “It tells us, in just about as many words, that we are not accidental biological accretions, we are creatures of a divine plan; that the God who made us undertook to demonstrate his devotion to us as individual human beings by submitting to the pain and humiliation of the cross.”

“Nothing in that vision has ever changed, nothing at all,” Buckley continued, describing it as “a mind-shaking, for some a mind-altering certitude.”

The Buckley stamp was created by artist Dale Stephanos. It was drawn “by hand with graphite and charcoal on hot-press watercolor paper, then refined digitally,” the post office said. It was designed by USPS art director Greg Breeding.