A recent report from the St Barnabas Society in England gives the numbers of Anglican clergy who have gone over to the Catholic Church since the early 1990s. At present nearly one third of Catholic priests in England are former Anglicans. I was one of the Church of England priests who left and was received into full communion with the Catholic Church in 1995. At that time we reckoned nearly 700 Anglican priests became Catholic. Considering that at the time there were about 10.000 priests in the Church of England the numbers are extraordinary.

Why haven’t we heard about this incredible exodus before? Because (and I know this from the inside) both the Anglican and Catholic hierarchy were embarrassed by the large numbers of conversions and agreed to downplay the news as much as possible.  One of the reasons my own ordination never took place in England was because I edited a book called The Path to Rome which was a collection of conversion stories a bit like my friend Pat Madrid’s Surprised by Truth series. No one said so explicitly except for a sympathetic old Irish priest who commented on my failed application by saying, “Ye don’t understand lad,  Ye went and pooblished dat book about converts. They don’t want priests who write books ye know. Not books like dat”

So I learned a bit more about how the wheels of the Catholic Church are oiled!

Anyway–the reason the Anglican and Catholic bishops were embarrassed was because all the conversions contradicted the accepted ecumenical orthodoxy which is “We are all one already through our baptism. There is no need to convert to Catholicism.” Indeed, we have heard too many stories over the years of folks who have turned up at the local Catholic Church knocking on the door to be received or to learn more about the Catholic faith only to be turned away by a smiling and smug liberal bishop or priest who says, “You know, there’s no need to convert. God loves you and wants you to serve him where you are. Be one with us but in your own family and faith tradition.”

Really.

Meanwhile the same liberal goofballs lament the declining numbers and mouth platitudes about “evangelization” never coming up with anything more than another well-funded slick marketing program for supposedly getting people back to church.

So why did people like me decide to leave home, career, secure income, satisfying job–and launch out into the unknown and become Catholic? Was it merely women’s ordination? Are we misogynists as we were accused? Are we just old fashioned duds–stuck in the past? What?

I can’t speak for everyone, but I think my own explanation is the one most of my fellow converts would agree with. It was simply this: the issue of women’s ordination helped us to ask a more important question–and that question is what I call “the Protestant problem” and that is–“What do you do when good Christian people sincerely disagree?” There are only two options. Both sides say, “I guess it’s not really important. We can agree to disagree and we’ll stay together” or they say, “This really is important. We have to go our separate ways.” Thus the fissiparous nature of Protestantism.

In a nutshell this is the authority question. In other words, “When two Christians sincerely disagree who makes the call?” This dilemma brought me to ask the authority question and I simply realized and accepted that the Catholic Church (for all her human faults) had the muscle to make the call. They had a referee in the game–the pope. However it was more than papal authority. The Catholic Church also had an authority that was universal geographically and chronologically.  In other words she had an authority system that could weigh what impact a decision would have not only in England, but globally. Furthermore, that authority system had chronological reach. It stretched back 2 000 years to our Lord and his apostles. The Catholic Church was able to ask, (about women’s ordination for instance) “What does the church in Africa, Asia, South America, North America as well as Europe think about this?” Furthermore, “What has the Church universal thought about this and taught about this for the last 2000 years?”

That is why we became Catholic, and in the 30 years since then I have worked with numerous converts. In fact, during my time in England I worked for the St Barnabas Society–the charity behind the recent report–a charity that assists convert clergy. In my work with converts, if the reason for conversion I stated is not the reason they converted they too often do not persevere. So, if they became Catholic because they like traditional liturgy they go to an awful modernist Mass and get fed up. If they wanted conservative religion when they encounter some groovy rainbow priest they become disenchanted and disgruntled…I could go on.

What we need to do as Catholics–priests, bishops and laypeople–is take evangelization and apologetics seriously. Not proselytizing (if that is imposing our beliefs or being aggressive) but, as St Peter says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (I Pt. 3:15)

By the way, this is the approach I have tried to take in my book More Christianity and my collection of apologetics essays An Answer Not an Argument.