Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. VII.

Becoming a Catholic after one has lived life as an Anglican is not an easy thing to do. The belief of many Catholic-minded Anglicans is that whatever the Catholic Church might express in the Catechism and the Missal, the appalling way in which so many of her priests celebrate the Liturgy, the lack of attention paid to the content of homilies, and the rebellion of so many Catholic adherents on so many crucial questions, contradicts, and ultimately undermines, her declared intentions.

And so I had always believed.

Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. VI.

There can be nothing in the world so likely to put a serious theological inquirer off the nature of Anglicanism than the mother of worldwide Anglicanism – the Church of England – herself. Before leaving Canada, I could not have imagined it possible that such a noble ecclesiastical experiment as Anglicanism could go so horribly wrong as it had among Blake’s mountains green. For all the brilliant minds that the Church of England had produced through the centuries, and for all the admirable examples of Christian faith and practice, it quickly became clear to me that this community might possibly have been destined to foster a few individuals in Catholic life, but it could never know any kind of real communion of belief.

Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. V.

There is enough to say about my Anglican past that I could probably dedicate an entire work to it. I am conscious, however, that it is all too possible to descend into unhelpful polemic, and so to undermine one’s own argument in the process. Besides, there is so much good material available on the history of Anglicanism and its theology that there is really no need for me to reiterate things. Works of particular relevance to me included that of Aidan Nichols, who, in The Panther and the Hind: A Theological History of Anglicanism, first caused me to realise that there might be more than one reading on the subject of Anglicanism than I had so far encountered. Like the Zahl book, whatever criticisms one could make of Nichols’ writing, it would still have to be admitted that he proffers significant points to ponder. Above all, I realized that everything I had heard of the Protestant - and of the English - Reformation, was heavily biased.

Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. IV.

As I suggested in part I, I become afraid when I talk about my experience of Anglicanism. There are so many brothers-in-ministry and living examples of a profound Catholic faith that I have left there, I would be loathe to think that any of them might consider these words an insult to their lives and various ministries. I can only re-iterate again and again that they are not. As I have tried to express in the preceding passages, it is simply a matter of me no longer being convinced that I could continue to live out an unapologetically Catholic life within the Anglican Church.

Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. III.

Ironically, it was precisely in the context of a place like the Diocese of Saskatchewan – a place where I was free (and encouraged) to be the Anglican I wanted to be – that I began to realize my time as an Anglican would necessarily come to an end.

Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. II.

As I have already expressed, to read Neuhaus’s words as if they were mine should be to understand that I am deeply thankful for my Anglican upbringing. Regardless of what I may now understand about the Catholic Church, I am cognizant that I would not be the kind of Catholic I am without the spiritual, theological, and aesthetical education I received as an Anglican. In fact, this is worth expanding upon at length, as so much of my religious identity depends on it.

Apologia pro mutatione mea, pt. I.

Apologies to those of you who expected something from me much earlier than this, but more than a year on, and numerous mitigating circumstances later, I think that I have finally come to a point where I might be able to say something helpful and interesting about my full, corporate entrance into the Catholic Church. This is something I hope to do in parts over the coming days and weeks. So bear with me, and enjoy….