You have to understand that I have a Mennonite in me. I can't help it. He lurks there in his black hat and chin beard watching me and nodding knowingly. He's one of my ancestors. They were all Mennonites and Amish and various sorts of Pennsylvania Protestants. Go to Pennsylvania Dutch country today and see how [...]
I tell the boys in school that they should be a priest because every boy wants to wear a cape and a cool hat and do amazing things, and what other profession is there today in which you can wear a cape (except being a French policeman) So capes and hats and feats of derring do [...]
I was brought up as an Evangelical fundamentalist Christian and when we read the verses in the Bible that spoke of Jesus' "brothers and sisters" we concluded that they were the other children of Joseph and Mary. What I didn't know is that this idea was unheard of in the early church, and that even the [...]
Calling Mary the "Queen of Heaven" seems to most non-Catholics a title too far. How can the simple girl from Nazareth be "Queen of Heaven"? Isn't that a pagan term? In fact, isn't the "Queen of Heaven" actually condemned in the Bible? In Jeremiah 44 the Hebrews are blamed for turning back to false gods and [...]
Is now posted at the Why I'm Catholic website. Go here. You can also read other versions of my conversion story at the Archived Articles section of this blog here, and you can download audio versions of My Journey to the Catholic Church and the story of how I ended up as a Catholic priest at [...]
I had been on the path to becoming a Catholic for nearly twenty years. Coming from an Evangelical, Protestant background I had become an Anglican priest, learned to pray the rosary, understood and accepted the Catholic understanding of the Church, the sacraments and the priesthood. I spent a lot of time in Catholic Benedictine monasteries and [...]
The Catholic faith has been around for a long time, and believe it or not, these questions have been asked before.
The Irish Independent reports that the majority of Catholics in Ireland want married priests and women priests. Why I don't understand is why they don't just nip along and become Anglicans. They will immediately have all their wishes fulfilled. There will be other benefits as well: They won't be expected to attend Mass every week. They [...]