Many converts were drawn by the doctrinal and moral certainty of the Catholic Church
- From November 2 to 4, Madrid hosted the 6th international congress Path to Rome – a gathering, an initiative of the Catholic institute Miles Iesu– at which several converts recounted their spiritual journey into the Catholic Church.
The congress highlighted the abundant conversions taking place in our day. In the United States, for example, 171,000 adults converted last year, and in recent years close to five hundred Protestant ministers have been received.
In England, the Catholic Church receives an average of five to six thousand new adult faithful each year. Over the last decade a total of three bishops and around three hundred Anglican priests converted.
In France, where 9,000 adults are baptized every year, the first Lutheran “inspector” has just converted, Michel Viot (see article).
Adult conversions and baptisms remain very abundant in Korea (140,000 a year), while Africa is already reaching a million new members annually.
By Enrique Carlier
Alongside the testimonies of Msgr. Leonard Graham –former Anglican Bishop of London– and of John Gummer, a British Member of Parliament and former minister in the Conservative governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, another notable address at the Path to Rome congress was the one submitted by Linda Anne Poindexter, an American who converted recently (in 1999) and who, in her earlier Episcopalian stage, came to be “ordained” a priestess in 1986.
Born in Indianapolis in 1938, she was baptized in the Disciples of Christ, a Protestant branch to which she belonged until 1959.
Catholic influence
As a child she came under a certain Catholic influence (friends, films, the chapel where her aunt and uncle were married, a Catholic boy she dated), “but it never crossed my mind to convert”.
During her courtship with the man who would later become her husband, John, she attended the Episcopalian service with him at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. “There we both grew accustomed to the Episcopalian liturgy. Later it felt natural to make that our spiritual home. Our five children were baptized in the Episcopalian faith”.
In 1980, Linda Poindexter felt an urge to help actively in her church, which from 1976 on had been “ordaining” women. The bishop admitted her to the “seminary” in Alexandria, to which she traveled daily for three difficult years.
On being “ordained,” she explains, “I found myself facing conflicting obligations: the needs of my family and the needs of my community. It was hard for me to attend to both. My children no longer lived at home, but I realized that motherhood never ends. When the grandchildren arrived, it was hard not to be able to be with them. That is when I began to understand the logic of priestly celibacy as a true blessing from God”.
MORAL QUESTIONS
Linda Poindexter says that never in her life did she feel anti-Catholic, “but at that time I had a typically Episcopalian outlook. I took pride in our liturgy and believed our services were more poetic and beautiful than the Catholic ones. I was also proud of being able to decide doctrinal matters on my own, with an individualism very characteristic of the American mentality. I refused to receive the interpretation of the Word of God from any one person or institution”.
However, all of that began to fall apart when “I saw that the convention of the Episcopal Church always came out against any legislation restricting abortion. The 1997 convention refused even a partial condemnation of abortion. I was deeply troubled by a church that would not openly censure the killing of innocent children”.
“At first I mistakenly held that I could not impose my own morality on anyone, but I began to realize that voluntary abortion is always contrary to God’s will. That I came to this conviction was due in part to the courageous witness of the Catholic Church and of certain leaders, such as President Reagan”.
ill at ease
At that time, debates over sexuality dominated the attention of the Episcopal communion. “I came to feel very ill at ease with quite a few Episcopalian clergy who spoke out in favor of the ordination of homosexuals and of homosexual unions being blessed by the church. Those of us who disagreed were branded as unchristian and lacking in charity.”
“An Episcopalian bishop, an unconditional champion of gay rights, began to write very strange things that left no truth of the creed standing. No one censured him or officially refuted him. I realized where all that subjectivism was leading”.
“I often thanked God for the Catholic Church’s consistent witness in matters of morality and doctrine, and I began to feel enormous respect for the Holy Father and to pray for him”.
“There came a point when I could not pray in the church where I worked: there were too many unresolved questions”.
IN SEARCH OF PEACE
“Seeking refuge and peace, I went to a nearby Catholic church. I went in, genuflected and knelt down to pray. From the first moment I felt an enormous peace and well-being. I asked myself whether I ought to become a Catholic”.
“I began to go there often to pray. I would also slip in secretly to the midday Mass. I was falling in love with Catholicism”.
“I also bought several books about Our Lady, and the idea came to me of praying the rosary. It did me great good.
I also bought myself a Catholic catechism. What a great gift that clear exposition of the faith was! We Anglicans have three sources of authority: Scripture, Tradition and Reason. Yet I was coming to hold the Church’s Magisterium in great esteem. In the Apologia Pro Vita Sua of Cardinal John Henry Newman I read that it comes as no surprise to any intelligence that God should deem it fitting to establish an authority invested with the prerogative of infallibility in matters of faith”.
“I began to attend Mass once or twice during the week, and I went on reading, praying and reflecting on my possible conversion. On Sundays I still went with my husband to the Episcopalian church, but the liturgy was becoming tedious to me. I felt no devotion at all. On the Sundays my husband did not want to go to church, I would slip away to Mass”.
STORIES OF CONVERTS
“I read a great many stories of converts. I watched a video by Scott Hahn and his conversion impressed me deeply. I then spoke with my Episcopalian spiritual director. He could not share my enthusiasm”.
“I thought of my children (two have remained Episcopalian and the other three are Protestants) and wondered whether God wanted me to stay where I was and try to reform it. I had doubts about the ordination of women, contraception and the validity of Anglican orders”.
“Then I did something that proved decisive: going to Mass every day of Advent 1998. I experienced a flood of grace.”
“There then came into my hands a magazine edited by the convert and now priest Richard John Neuhaus. In it, Jennifer Mehl Ferrara, a former Lutheran pastor, now a Catholic, recounted her conversion. Among other things she cited the passage from Lumen Gentium which says that whoever, knowing that the Catholic Church was instituted by God as a means of salvation, refuses to enter her or to remain in her cannot be saved. This made me think and gave me a positive reason to convert. I was convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was the true Church founded by Christ, but I wanted to wait until my husband was ready so that we could convert together. In the end we reached an agreement, with the blessing of the parish priest. I was received at the Easter Vigil. John began going to Mass with me and was received and confirmed in the Catholic Church on August 14 of this year”.
FROM RAP TO THE FAITH
Another moving conversion story is told to us by David. He was born 25 years ago in Chicago, into a family with a Muslim father and a Baptist mother.
“Apart from my maternal grandmother, no one in the family was religious. We never went to Sunday services and, to avoid conflict, we did not celebrate Christmas. But one year my mother insisted on putting up the tree and celebrating it. My father then left home and, shortly afterward, my parents divorced”.
—What was your first contact with Christianity?
—My maternal grandmother died of cancer and, in her honor, my mother began taking us to Sunday services. I believed in God, but I knew nothing of Christian doctrine, nor how to pray. The Baptist pastors baptized me at the age of eleven, but no catechesis was given.
After a few months, my sister stopped going to church. Since she was 16, my mother did not force her.
It made me angry to have to go to church. Besides, it gave me terrible migraines. Finally, after much protesting, I stopped going.
During my last four years of school I devoted myself to having fun, going to parties, and performing in a rap group.
—When did the change in religious direction take place?
—I began to realize that something was wrong. Without having any notion of sin, I was unhappy with the life I was leading and with my poor grades.
One day, while walking, an inner voice urged me to leave all that behind. I was 17. From then on I wanted to do things right, but I did not know how. My ignorance was complete. For example, I thought the book of Job was about how to get a job or something like that.
But God helped me. On one occasion, talking with two friends, the conversation turned to what people were saying at the time: that the world was going to end in the year 2000. One of those friends asked me if I had read in the Book of Revelation about the tremendous events that would take place.
All of that frightened me greatly. I believed in the Bible, but I did not read it because at home we had a version in archaic English that I could not understand.
It was then that, while changing channels on television, I came across a Protestant televangelist. He caught my attention because of his “afro” hairstyle, but I ended up taking in what he was saying. I grew fond of listening to those explanations by the televangelists and began reading the Bible when I got home from school. I had left the rap group and the parties.
—And the encounter with the Catholic Church?
—I was 17 and everything happened very fast. The cable television company changed the channels and, when I was looking for my favorite classical music channel, there appeared the EWTN of Mother Angelica. A priest was showing some well-known Catholic churches while classical music played. I stayed tuned to it, and that was when I learned that there were different kinds of Christians.
Shortly after I started watching that channel, I began to like what was Catholic more than what was Protestant. But I was a Baptist and had to defend my family’s religion. So I set about carefully analyzing Catholic teachings.
Above all, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist gave me much to think about. When I read the Lord’s words in the Gospel of Saint John, I realized how radical they were. I took the Catholic side. Those words left no room for doubt. I even began to feel a great desire to receive the Lord.
Reading about the history of the Church also gave me great light. I could not accept that Protestant doctrine was the true one, when it had begun to be spread fifteen centuries after Jesus Christ.
I was impressed by the rosary when I heard it on EWTN. Then I surprised myself repeating Hail Marys. Perhaps my fondness for rap led me to repeat those phrases from memory. I could hardly get them out of my head.
special light
—Did you notice any supernatural grace?
—It was all providence, but after a year of reasoning, at the New Year’s celebration of 1994 I received a very particular light to understand everything more easily. As if I had suddenly crossed the threshold toward communion with Rome. Then I realized that I believed in the Catholic Church, and no other.
With my mother’s permission, I went to the nearest Catholic church. It was the feast of the Epiphany. I spoke with the priest and they took me to another parish, where I immediately began catechesis. At Easter I went through the rite of admission into the Church. I was 18 years old.
—How were you received by that Catholic community?
—It was normal. I was surprised by the coldness with which some lived the faith. I thought they did not realize what they had. It also saddened me to see so few young people.
CUBAN CONVERT
Another conversion is recounted to us by Tania, a young Cuban woman from Camagüey. Her parents were baptized as children, but abandoned all religious practice after the revolution. Her father, moreover, was a member of the Communist Party.
—What was your first step toward the faith?
—I was not baptized, nor did I have any religious formation whatsoever. I did not know how to pray at all. I left home to do my pre-university studies. It was the 1991-92 school year. There I met two Catholic friends. One of them invited me to go to Mass. At that time you could go to church freely, but Catholics were kept under watch.
When I went to Mass I realized that Catholics were different: they were well-educated, courteous people, refined in their way of speaking. I noticed a great human and cultural difference between the Catholic and the communist.
need for forgiveness
—What contributed most to your coming closer to Christianity?
—Above all, finding answers to the questions that had troubled me since adolescence: the meaning of human suffering, the paradox of injustice in the world, what was happening in my country… Also other family problems.
My conversion was also influenced by a very special moment that I will never forget. It was decisive. Clearly the Holy Spirit was already at work in my soul. It was the 92-93 school year. I was coming back from the university, reading on the bus, which was completely packed. A very poor woman was carrying a cup with a chocolate milkshake. In Cuba, products like that are a luxury. When we reached my stop, this woman helped me with the bundles I was carrying and, without meaning to, as I moved to get off, I knocked over her cup. By the time I realized it, I was already off the bus. I did not even have time to ask her forgiveness. The feeling I experienced then was incredible. It had gone straight to my heart. I went home crying and when I arrived, alone, I began to write, because I needed to talk to someone. I felt a very keen need for someone to forgive me. And not only because of the milkshake episode; for other things as well. I needed forgiveness. I did not know the sacrament of penance, but I was looking for some way to find forgiveness.
—How did your conversion finally come about?
With my Catholic friend I had begun the process of my conversion. In the parish she took me to, I did not feel worthy of belonging to that group, because I knew nothing and believed in nothing. I did not even know the Our Father or the Hail Mary.
I was looking for a place where I could fit in and, back in my hometown, I began going on my own to a Protestant church. After attending a few times, I saw that it did not suit my way of being. From my point of view, those scenes of commotion, the faintings, the din of the music, all seemed strange to me…
At the time I was studying Defectology (what in Spain is called Special Education). I loved reading the classics. And that had a great influence, because it helped me gain a deeper appreciation of the truth about man as a spiritual being.
I began going to another Catholic church farther from my house. Finally I noticed that there was a small, old one very close to where I lived, which I had never discovered. It was the parish of Saint Anne. I began going there regularly and taking catechism classes.
That Catholic community had an enormous influence. I was drawn by its open and transcendent outlook, as well as by the simplicity of the people.
last obstacle
—Were there any difficulties in your conversion?
—My father was a member of the Communist Party. He did not like the idea of my conversion. It was not convenient for him. I told him nothing about my interior process, just in case.
I spent a year attending catechesis and on July 26, 1994, the feast of Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, I was baptized, together with several other adults. It turned out to be a very moving ceremony. My mother, who had already begun to practice the faith, attended, along with one of my brothers, who was also in the process of conversion.
Afterward I became quite involved in my parish youth group. I felt a great fervor and a great desire for everyone I knew to be converted, because I felt completely in love with the Lord, and I still am.
BISHOP LEONARD: A CONVERSION TO THE MAGISTERIUM AND TO THE SACRAMENTAL LIFE
Graham Leonard, former Anglican bishop of London, converted on April 6, 1994, after almost 73 years as a member of the Church of England and almost 30 as an Anglican bishop.
—What is your current work, and that of other Anglican ministers who have converted?
—I have specialized in giving spiritual retreats to diocesan clergy. Not long ago I also gave a retreat for the Benedictine monks of England.
Others work in parishes, as university or hospital chaplains, as teachers, etc. One convert is now the vicar general of the Catholic diocese of Westminster.
—How did your wife view your decision to convert?
—She wanted to become a Catholic before I did, but she never told me, so as not to pressure me because of my responsibility within Anglicanism.
—What led you yourself to convert?
—I came to the conclusion that what the Roman Church announces and declares is true and, that being so, obedience to the truth of the Gospel commanded me to convert.
—Was your decision not a reaction to the ordination of women in the Church of England?
—The decision I made was a positive one; it was not based solely on the fact that I could not in good conscience accept the ordinations of women in the Anglican communion. That was only the trigger.
—But the situation of Anglicanism must have had an influence, did it not?
—What had been happening since the late sixties had a considerable influence. Some no longer regarded the Gospel as Revelation demanding obedience. Cultural relativism (nothing has permanent validity) and the very deism of the eighteenth century (God does not reach down to the concrete) were taking hold in the Church of England.
Finally, the attitude toward doctrinal questions seemed to me untenable. In 1974 the General Synod of the Church of England was granted great authority in the interpretation of The Book of Common Prayer and of the Thirty-nine Articles, the texts on which the Anglican distinctiveness is founded. From then on, the doctrine of the Church of England depended on the resolutions of the Synod.
I could not go on teaching and proclaiming the Gospel in the name of a church whose teachings varied according to the outcome of votes, as if it were an athenaeum or a debating society.
—But why your approach to the Catholic Church?
—Two aspects of Catholic truth had a profound influence on me: seeing the Church as the witness of Revelation, and the Sacraments as sources of life.
I have never had the slightest doubt that the Gospel was revealed by God and is not a product of the human mind. Therefore there exists an obligation of obedience to the Gospel.
If the meaning of Revelation is sought in whatever emerges from a majority in a debate, or in the desires and aspirations of future generations, then there is no obedience to that Revelation.
The need for the Magisterium was already expressed very aptly by Cardinal Newman. If there is a Revelation, there must also be a Magisterium, entrusted with the authentic interpretation of the Word of God. And a tradition that provides us with the true meaning of Scripture.
—And the other reasons?
—The second reason for my conversion was coming to a deeper and more objective understanding of the sacramental economy. The sacraments do not carry much weight in the Church of England. They depend on the value each person gives them. In the Catholic Church they are fundamentally divine action, efficacious signs of the grace they signify, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church.
I wanted to convert in order to be set free and led into that new sacramental life.
Yet another reason for my conversion was our present Holy Father and his proposals concerning the Petrine ministry, which has its origin in the mercy of God.
—What was your first impression upon entering the Catholic Church?
—A deep feeling of relief, peace and gratitude, together with an immense joy, at finding myself part of a family that extends across time, space and eternity.
Source: PALABRA, no. 451, December 2001
