Former Chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen: Why I'm Becoming Catholic

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catholic03

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I think we have already seen threads about the former chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, an Anglican priest, becoming Catholic. This article is written in The Catholic Herald of London, by the priest, Gavin Ashenden himself.

My English Catholic grandparents grew up in 1930s and 1940s England, where being Catholic was seen by many as presupposing disloyalty to the British Empire and the monarchy. This image no longer exists, and I am proud to say that I am a Catholic loyal to the monarch.

I still wait for St Dominic Savio’s vision of the conversion of England to be fulfilled. Let’s hope it happens soon.

catholicherald.co.uk

Gavin Ashenden: Why I'm becoming a Catholic - Catholic Herald

In the early 1980s, as a young Anglican priest I became a smuggler. I crossed the Iron Curtain with Bibles, books and medicines for Orthodox and Catholic Christians deprived of them all. My trips to Prague in particular involved carrying suitcases of theological books to furnish an underground...
catholicherald.co.uk catholicherald.co.uk
 
Sounds like Our Lady got through to this bishop. I personally can’t imagine being part of any church where one didn’t have a daily relationship with Mary and the saints.

I too pray daily for St. Dominic Savio’s vision to come true.
 
I am quite sure that anyone of any religion or no religion “can” have a relationship with Mary and the saints, as in, it is possible. They don’t just intercede for Catholics.

Whether such things are encouraged by the person’s religion depends very much on which religion and perhaps which branch of which religion you are in.

In any event, it is Mr. Ashenden himself who said, regarding his conversion,
“It is a relief to celebrate an unembarrassed relationship with Our Lady and the saints (especially in my case companions that include St Padre Pio, St Faustina and St John Vianney).”
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The implication being that he was somehow having, or being subjected to, some embarrassment about having such relationships in the previous faith that he was in. It is not something I personally just came up with.
 
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I can’t say I have ever heard of anyone brought to faith in the Church through an interest in Marian apparitions.

Good for him though.
 
Feanor2 said:
I can’t say I have ever heard of anyone brought to faith in the Church through an interest in Marian apparitions.
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There are people in the parishes I frequent who have joined the Church because of various mystical Catholic stuff they got into, whether it’s Marian apparitions or Padre Pio or Luisa Piccaretta. I just discovered one guy was a Methodist for 60 years before he got into some of the above and became enthusiastically Catholic.

As Jharek pointed out, a relationship with Mary is not unusual for certain groups of Anglicans. It would be much more unusual for, say, a Baptist to be converted through Marian apparitions, although it’s probably happened.
 
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