June 15, 2009
Young Fogey has blogged that most of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor are soon to become Catholic. Two sisters will remain Episcopalian for the time being, although the rest have apparently made the commitment to swim the Tiber. It turns out that the chaplain of the sisters is a former pastor of mine, Fr. Warren Tanghe, from when I attended an Anglo-Catholic parish in Atlanta. Word is that he too is coming Romeward, which is not surprising given his theology (although I do recall him having a discussion with a supply priest from the parish, who eventually swam the Tiber himself, about the role of the pope, and Fr. Tanghe was not the “anglo-papalist” that this supply priest was). The sisters have a rich history, and a very traditional understanding of themselves and their vocations; they also make and sell holy cards, if you are interested in their products.
YF also mentioned rumors about the Vatican setting up some sort of generous plan for Anglican parishes worldwide that wish to become Roman Catholic. This falls under the “I’ll believe it when I see it” category, but I think Anglicans, when they are traditional, do liturgy very, very, very, well, and we will be much richer if even a few Anglicans take us up on such an offer.
UPDATE:
Here are a few links that provide more information on the All Saints Sisters becoming Roman Catholic:
Home to Rome
Anglican Convent of All Saints Sisters to be Received in Full Communion
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Anglican and Episcopal, Converts and Conversion | Tagged: Anglican, conversion, Religious | 
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Posted by David Bennett
June 8, 2009
I just read, via A Conservative Blog for Peace, that Fr. Jeffrey Steel, Anglo-Catholic Anglican priest, is swimming the Tiber. I am not surprised, As Fr. Steel has leaned in the Romeward direction for some time. From Fr. Steel’s post:
My PhD studies really set me on my Catholic journey in a deep theological way though I did not realise it at the time. I have been looking at Bishop Lancelot Andrewes as a catalyst for ecumenism with the Catholic Church in the area of Eucharistic sacrifice. Andrewes was in regular dialogue with S. Robert Bellarmine SJ and it is in this dialogue and Andrewes’ other writings that I saw how Catholic he was with regards to the Eucharist being the Christian offering which consisted of more than a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It was and is propitiatory as well as other things.
Through my time of study in Catholic sacramental theology and viewing my own priestly ministry within this theological framework the question of communio began to frequently come to mind. I had fully embraced Catholic sacramental theology and believed that I could be a Catholic in the Church of England and planned on retirement from the C of E later in life. With all that is going on around the Anglican Communion presently, and particularly within the C of E and how she makes decisions on matters of doctrine, I began to ask questions about authority. As a theologian praying for reunion with the Holy See the question I was now asking was, ‘on whose terms does this reunion take place?’
What I became aware of was that it was almost impossible to say ‘the Church teaching is’ within the Anglican church because there are so many various opinions on matters of sacraments, liturgy, morality, scripture etc. What I did not want to experience anymore was proclaiming the teaching of the Church only to end up defending myself rather than the Anglican church defending me. This has become an ever-increasing impossibility that is no secret to the entire Anglican world. My preaching would always be seen as a matter of personal opinion rather than having the authority of the Magisterium that backs up what I teach publicly. Of course there is dissent in the Catholic Church but it is always that, dissent towards what Mother Church proclaims as authoritatively true. It is the truth of Mother Church that I embrace as my own deep personal faith.
In January of this year I began to seriously pray about my journey and was moving deeper into the question of communio. What was God saying to me and why did he bring me all the way to England to have me consider the possibility of becoming a Catholic? What about the last 19 years of my life and the pursuit of serving him in full-time ministry? What do I do about the ever-increasing reaffirmation and sense of call to vocational priesthood? These items I took to prayer with Ss Bede and Cuthbert at the Durham Cathedral each Friday during Lent. There I prayed for requests given to me by people from around the world and my own spiritual journey was a part of this prayer ministry. I gave myself to Mary and her Son and said ‘please lead and guide in the way you want me to go either by remaining a priest in the C of E or a move to the Catholic Church’. At this time I scheduled my retreat during Easter week to make a spiritual journey and pilgrimage to Rome. I had a number of meetings there with priests and a former Episcopal bishop (Father Jeffrey Steenson) who had converted from Anglicanism as well as an American Catholic priest who is in Rome finishing his PhD on the Pastoral Provision of the late Pope John Paul II.
In my heart, I knew that I had grown to love and believe the Catholic faith as it was taught in the Catholic Catechism. On my final day in Rome on 17 April 2009 I went to the tomb of S. Peter and knelt and prayed for quite some time. I knew in my heart I was a Catholic and asked what it was that was keeping me from converting. All sorts of fears ran through my head and I felt very restless there and at times just knelt quietly asking S. Peter to pray for me because I didn’t know how or the way to go. At the end of this time I went over and knelt at JPII’s tomb and asked him to please pray for me as I was scared to make a journey like this with a wife and six children not knowing how God would provide for us.
After praying with JPII, I got up and went to S. Peter’s tomb again and there with conviction of heart signed the Roman Catholic Catechism stating ‘This is the Faith of the Church and this is my Faith’, and signed my name with the day’s date. Before leaving the Basilica I walked over to the statue of S. Peter with the key in his hand, rubbed his foot, and said, ‘I am going out to find the way, open the door and make this happen and pray for me as I make this journey.’
One week later I was in a meeting with a couple of Catholic bishops in London. I had made the commitment in my heart that coming home to the Catholic Church was God’s plan for me. I have now made the biggest jump I have ever made in my life and I am trying really hard not to struggle too much as I fall while waiting for God to catch me. The one thing that has not changed in my heart but has only grown over the past nine years is my desire to remain in England as a Catholic. This desire has been confirmed through much prayer and discernment and all signs point to us remaining in England for the entirety of our lives. For numerous reasons, I am discerning God calling me to the southern region of the country, which has been my plan for three years. London will be our new home and if I am ever to be priested in the Catholic Church it is where I will be incardinated…
Maybe we’ll call it an [un]even exchange for Fr. Cutie…
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Anglican and Episcopal, Converts and Conversion | Tagged: Anglican, conversion, Convert, Jeffrey Steel | 
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Posted by David Bennett
March 6, 2009
Christ’s passion is the remedy for sin (John 1:29). Christ’s passion, however, is at the same time the prime example of how Christians should live in this world. Christ’s passion, in other words, powerfully tells us the “secret” or the key to living a virtuous, successful life. “How so”, one might understandably ask. How does Christ’s Cross reveal to us the way by which we can live a successful life?
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us in his Catechism: “Whoever wishes to live perfectly need do nothing other than despise what Christ despised on the cross, and desire what Christ desired.” What did Christ despise on the cross? WEALTH, WORLDLY HONOR, PLEASURE, BEING PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE, PRIVILEGE, ETC. What did Jesus Christ love on cross? DOING THE WILL OF THE HEAVENLY FATHER!
Of course, given our fallen natures, it is not always exactly easy to do the Father’s will. It is not easy to die to oneself so that Christ will live in us. For this reason, then, it is absolutely necessary that we ask God, who is love (1 Jn 4:16), to help us live for Him alone, to grant us the necessary graces to accept and do His holy will in love. Surely, God will never reject our petition if we ask Him in faith and humility.
Most High, glorious God,
enlighten the darkness of my heart.
Give me true faith, certain hope
and perfect charity, sense and
knowledge that I may carry out
Your Holy and true command.
- Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi to discern God’s will
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Posted by Jorge Flores
March 2, 2009
In today’s First Reading the Lord tells us: “You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him.“
I think that we should all ask Our Lord to help us have the courage to correct our brothers and sisters, to help us choose the right words, and to do so in a truly charitable manner. Fraternal correction is a matter of precept, according to the Angelic Doctor.
Fraternal correction may be omitted in three ways:
1) MERITORIOUSLY. Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 9): “If a man refrains from chiding and reproving wrongdoers, because he awaits a suitable time for so doing, or because he fears lest, if he does so, they may become worse, or hinder, oppress, or turn away from the faith, others who are weak and need to be instructed in a life of goodness and virtue, this does not seem to result from covetousness, but to be counselled by charity.”
2) INCURRING MORTAL SIN. “when” writes Augustine ” one fears what people may think, or lest one may suffer grievous pain or death; provided, however, that the mind is so dominated by such things, that it gives them the preference to fraternal charity.”
3) INCURRING VENIAL SIN. Aquinas writes: “such an omission is a venial sin, when through fear or covetousness, a man is loth to correct his brother’s faults, and yet not to such a degree, that if he saw clearly that he could withdraw him from sin, he would still forbear from so doing, through fear or covetousness, because in his own mind he prefers fraternal charity to these things.”
We ask Our Lord to put people in our lives that are willing to correct us!
4 Comments | Catholic, General, Converts and Conversion, Growth, Prayers and Requests, Scripture | Tagged: Charity, Fraternal correction, Leviticus, Sin | Permalink
Posted by Jorge Flores
February 11, 2009
Lent encourages us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and thus to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what road to take in life. And thus, the Season of Lent offers us an ascetic and liturgical route which, while helping us to open our eyes to our weakness, opens our hearts to the merciful love of Christ. BENEDICT XVI, GENERAL AUDIENCE, 1st March 2006.
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The liturgical season of Lent is fast approaching. The Lord is giving us yet one more opportunity to work on ourselves, on our souls. For this, I thank Him!
As you are well aware we are living in a very tumultuous time; a time of financial distress, war, and a time in which radical politicians –and presidents–boldly undermine the sanctity of life. This time in which we live demands conversion, a radical turning away from sin to God. But unless we ourselves begin this conversion process, the world will continue getting worse and worse by the minute.
I warmly encourage each and everyone reading this post to take advantage of Lent, to make it the best Lent you ever had, the most spiritually fruitful. Let us enter into this holy season with a deep desire “to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,” so that we “may be filled with all the fullnes of God” (Ephesians 3:19).
Please realize that God has given us everything we need to experience the conversion of our own hearts and minds, if we but humbly accept His Divine Grace. Let us ask our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary, to plead our cause before the Lord, to teach us how to be good sons and daughters of the Most High, to protect us from all harm. Let us also ask our Brothers and Sisters who dedicated their lives to the fulfilment of the Christian vocation, and who now enjoy the Beatific Vision, to come to our aid in times of temptation so that we may be strengthened and may come off unharmed after the battle. Finally, let us be mindful that, through Baptism, we are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, and so we all have the responsibility to look out for one another, especially for the poor (Philipians 2:4; Matthew 25:40). Let us, then, pray for one another during Lent!
Lenten Resources:
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Posted by Jorge Flores
January 18, 2009
For my Topics in the Philosophy of Religion (Philosophy 441) class, we have to write an informal, one page, reaction paper for each of the reading assignments.
Here is my first reaction paper for you to read and critique!
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Abortion, Apologetics, Books, Catholic Social Teaching, Catholic, General, Converts and Conversion, Creeds, Culture Wars, Devotions and Spirituality, Education, Evangelization, Growth, Islam, Martyrs, Morality and Moral Issues, News, Persecution, Politics, Popular Culture, Pro-Life Issues, Saints and Sainthood | Tagged: Atheism, Belief, Faith, God, Philosophy, Reason, religion | Permalink
Posted by Jorge Flores
December 30, 2008
This is an interesting story! According to this article in the Times, father and son Anglican priests, Father Dominic Cosslett (36) and Father Ron Cosslett (70), now serve as Catholic priests in England. Fr. Dominic was just ordained, while Fr. Ron was ordained as a Catholic priest in 2005. The article explains some of the reasons the pair became Catholic:
“Both of us were in the Catholic tradition of Anglicanism,” said Father Dominic. “Like a lot of us in that tradition, we had always felt the Catholic Church was the rock from which we were hewn. It was always part of our journey, our faith, to seek unity with Rome. We came to the point where we felt we could not exercise our understanding of Catholicism within Anglicanism. It was time for us to go home. “
Under the guidelines agreed in the Catholic Church for the reception of Anglican clergy who wish to become Catholic priests, Father Dominic, who studied theology and Lampeter and trained for the Anglican priesthood at the high church Mirfield College of the Resurrection before being priested in 1997, underwent a shortened training as to be a Catholic priest. He spent a year in the Spain at the Royal English College at Valladolid and then went to seminary at St Mary’s Oscott…
Read the entire article
1 Comment | Anglican and Episcopal, Converts and Conversion | Tagged: Anglican, Catholic, Convert | Permalink
Posted by David Bennett
October 3, 2008
This post is not about what you think.
Keith Toepfer, a regular contributor to Anglican blogs under the handle “Martial Artist” is starting RCIA. He recently wrote a letter to his Episcopal rector over at Stand Firm explaining why he decided to leave the Episcopal church. Below is an excerpt from his letter, but the whole thing is certainly worth reading (he even adds footnotes!). Note that he does not mention starting RCIA in his letter, although a comment at Stand Firm verifies he is starting RCIA.
Keith H. Toepfer
Sunday, 28th September 2008
Rev. ______,
Since moving to ______ in May of 2005 and shifting my parish membership to ______, I have become increasingly aware of what has appeared to my eyes as an increasing departure on the part of the Episcopal Church from many of the teachings of the faith. Although I found many of the details of these apparent changes disturbing, and continue to do so, I felt insulated from them by the focus on Christ by you and within the parish family at ______. Increasingly over the past year and one half, I have observed the direction of the Episcopal Church through the actions of General Convention and the leadership of the denomination, as well as many statements by the latter, only to find myself ever more troubled and distressed by their words and actions.
Among the more troubling actions to which I refer, I find the following, listed in approximately chronological order, to be four of the most troubling:
• In the Diocese of Virginia in 2006, several parishes voted to withdraw from the Episcopal Church. They had first voluntarily participated in a process of discernment and then voted on the issue, following a protocol established by their diocesan bishop, the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee. By December of that year, still in accordance with the protocol, at six parishes voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Episcopal Church. A total of eleven parishes, having followed the protocol and voted to leave entered into good faith negotiations into the terms for retaining their real property following their departure. According to published accounts of testimony in November 2007, Bishop Lee was prepared to accept the agreed terms. The Presiding Bishop, however, stepped in and essentially ordered Bishop Lee to sue the parishes. Disregarding the not insignificant question of whether she had the authority to do so, the more significant fact is that in an interview with Forbes.com shortly before Lambeth 2008 she asserted that her choice was between a lawsuit and “giving away” the properties. The public disingenuousness of this false dichotomy on her part is something I would consider at minimum duplicity, if not outright prevarication…
I wrote a similar letter to my Episcopal bishop a few years ago, when I resigned from postulancy. It is difficult to do, but I think it adds closure to the process. I hope Martial Artist finds RCIA more substantial, and less flakey, than his previous experience.
6 Comments | Anglican and Episcopal, Converts and Conversion | Tagged: Anglican, Episcopal, RCIA | Permalink
Posted by David Bennett
August 20, 2008
Be sure to listent to Chad on Sirius Catholic Radio (channel 159) tomorrow, August 21, at 7:30 AM.
He will be interviewed on the “Seize the Day” radio program with Gus Lloyd. If you get satellite radio, be sure to have a listen!!
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Posted by David Bennett
April 17, 2008
For those of you who are fans of the Busted Halo podcast, I want to let you know that the cantor on the Kyrie, Gloria and Prayers of the People for the Papal Mass at Nationals Park is Paulist Deacon Stephen Bell. He’s the guy who sometimes sings the theme to their “Church Search.”
I had the distinct honor of singing for his ordination mass to the transitional diaconate last year in the Crypt Church at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (pics found in the link above). Of note to Per Christum readers, he’s a convert from the Church of Christ. He’ll be ordained to the priesthood this June.
6 Comments | Catholic, General, Converts and Conversion, Religious Vocations, Seminarians | Tagged: Converts, Paulists, Stephen Bell | Permalink
Posted by jaybird68
April 14, 2008
This post is just a quick note to let you know that former-Southern Baptist and current-”Southern Papist”, Andrew McNutt, will be on the EWTN’s “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi tonight (April 14, 2008) at 7pm Central/8pm Eastern time.
Andy’s got a great story and his prayers and emails were very helpful when I was making that same Baptist-to-Papist transition. Say prayer for him and give it a peek if you can.
7 Comments | Converts and Conversion | Tagged: Andy McNutt, EWTN, The Journey Home | Permalink
Posted by Jason S
April 7, 2008
Avery Cardinal Dulles, an agnostic during his college years, returned to the Christianity of his youth upon seeing the budding of the trees around the springtime. Later, he converted to Catholicism. Here are his own words (from “A Testimonial to Grace”):
I was irresistibly prompted to go out into the open air … The slush of melting snow formed a deep mud along the banks of the River Charles, which I followed down toward Boston … As I wandered aimlessly, something impelled me to look contemplatively at a young tree. On its frail, supple branches were young buds … While my eye rested on them, the thought came to me suddenly, with all the strength and novelty of a revelation, that these little buds in their innocence and meekness followed a rule, a law of which I as yet knew nothing … That night, for the first time in years, I prayed.
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Posted by Jonathan B
