Has there ever been a lifelong anti-Catholic who converted?

[Abira]

A lot of Evangelicals are embarrassed by the stereotypes they are labeled with because of the tv evangelists.

phew! in my head I meant to say erm…outlandish evangelicals but I type too fast for my own good… I should have clarified

Someone before mentioned that Oscar Wilde converted…

how do they know this? he was very against religion for much of his life in his correspondence and in his actions towards the institutional ‘powers that be’ including the government and the church…a bit of a rebel.

I didn’t know he’d converted on his deathbed before that post.

S

 

[az_4_faith]

As for others who have posted Scott Hahn or Tim Staples, those are good, but they were still fairly young…Hahn I think in his 20s and perhaps Tim too, or 30s.

As flattered as Scott Hahn would be to have you think that he’s in his 20’s, his almost grown children would tell another story . . .

He was born in 1957, so that would make him 50 this year.

 

[Abira]

As flattered as Scott Hahn would be to have you think that he’s in his 20’s, his almost grown children would tell another story . . .

He was born in 1957, so that would make him 50 this year.

I think he means in his 20’s at the time of his conversion…as the OP asked for lifelong anti catholics…I think he was 29 when he converted in 1986…so he wasn’t a lifelong anti catholic as he converted at a relatively young age

 

[MarcoPolo]

I think he means in his 20’s at the time of his conversion…as the OP asked for lifelong anti catholics…I think he was 29 when he converted in 1986…so he wasn’t a lifelong anti catholic as he converted at a relatively young age

Correct!

 

[MarcoPolo]

Yeah, I guess you could say I paid a price for my conversion.

Godspeed, friend.

 

[mgrfin]

I don’t know about that ‘lifelong’ anti-Catholic who converted. I don’t think it really matters when good-thinking Christians join us, and they are welcome.

On that list of notable converts there were a few suprises for me:
Jeb Bush. (brother of the President).
Bob Novak.

Deo Gratias!!!

mgrfin

 

[angelusm]

Marxist Jean Paul Sartre who asked for confession on a deathbed.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Marxist Jean Paul Sartre who asked for confession on a deathbed.

Really? Do you have a link for that? At Wiki, the only mention of Catholic in his bio is that the Church put his works on the forbidden books list. And another site didn’t mention Catholic at all.

 

[Subrosa]

Browsing the forums, I was reading about Dr. Beckwith’s conversion to Catholicism and James White’s rather panicked reaction.

I was wondering if someone knew of a person in history who did apologetics AGAINST the Catholic Church most of his/her life and converted to Catholicism late in life or on a death bed or something.

What I am trying to see is if there have been people whose lives paralleled the likes of James White who were still able to see the truth in the end.

Scott Hahn

www.scotthahn.com

Sub

 

[Subrosa]

BTW - who is James White? Please fill me in.

Sub

 

[ASimpleSinner]

When did C.S. Lewis ever convert?

No.

 

[ASimpleSinner]

I think he means in his 20’s at the time of his conversion…as the OP asked for lifelong anti catholics…I think he was 29 when he converted in 1986…so he wasn’t a lifelong anti catholic as he converted at a relatively young age

Its kinda like when people say “When you are looking for something, it’s always the last place you look!”

Well of course it is in the LAST place you look. Having found it, you don’t keep looking. Ever found car keys then spent another 5 min looking for them?

Well it might not be a long life up to that point - and there has been plenty more years since then and now… but at 29 he was lifelong!

At 1 month old I was a lifelong Catholic, at 10 years old I was a lifelong Catholic, at 30 years old I was a lifelong Catholic… (well not really - by 30 I was a revert).

 

[ASimpleSinner]

I understand that all the Finnish Lutherans want to come home to Rome.

Would that it were so! Bud sadly, if that is there true heart’s desire, they are being VERY slow to act on it. AT present, Finland has the LOWEST percentage of Catholics in the general population. currently 0.16%… Less than 1%, and many of THOSE foreign born.

IF they are itching to swim the Tiber, let’s pray they do so soon!

 

[MarcoPolo]

BTW - who is James White? Please fill me in.

Sub

James White is an apologist who often focuses on the Catholic Church in a negative light. He is known for his ad hominem attacks against the likes of Jimmy Akin, Patrick Madrid, Karl Keating, Tim Staples, et al. Here’s how Patrick Madrid described him after a debate.

That debate is great by the way, on sola scriptura. Let me know if you want a link for it (you do have to buy it FYI).

 

[Abira]

Well it might not be a long life up to that point - and there has been plenty more years since then and now… but at 29 he was lifelong!

At 1 month old I was a lifelong Catholic, at 10 years old I was a lifelong Catholic, at 30 years old I was a lifelong Catholic… (well not really - by 30 I was a revert).

lol, well and accurately argued, but I think we both know what the OP’s original intentions were.

He wants to know of beliefs harboured for maybe sixty years or whatever can ever be overcome through a sudden realisation of conscience which goes against the bulk of their lifes work… this is different to actively searching for years and changing early on in your life as the bulk of Scot Hahn’s life work will be Catholic in nature from conversion on… I think the OP mentioned deathbed conversion somewhere too…which clarifies what he means by lifelong to all those…ahem… who are being very accurately, though pedantically playful with semantics lol

 

[mgrfin]

Jean Paul Satre - death bed ‘conversion’ - good answer.

I wonder how many more such conversions happened without our knowing about it. Imagine what would happened if a major religious leader had second thoughts and had a conversion. Would his followers allow such information to get out.

If Luther cried out for a Catholic priest, or Henry VIII, or Elizabeth I, or Thomas Cranmer - that would be news.

BTW, didn’t Henry VIII have a priest?

mgrfin

 

[Abira]

Jean Paul Satre - death bed ‘conversion’ - good answer.

I wonder how many more such conversions happened without our knowing about it. Imagine what would happened if a major religious leader had second thoughts and had a conversion. Would his followers allow such information to get out.

If Luther cried out for a Catholic priest, or Henry VIII, or Elizabeth I, or Thomas Cranmer - that would be news.

BTW, didn’t Henry VIII have a priest?

mgrfin

lol… or… to top the lot… if mr L Ron “The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion” Hubbard! lol

 

[cpayne]

I don’t know if you’re English or American etc… but I can tell you straight that every single protestant I know has read some CS Lewis. My parents read the screwtape letters and I have read the problem of pain and starting to read mere christianity., I know the vicar from the next parish read the books I loaned his wife… the bookshop here shows his work to be their most popular sales even today…

it’s their loss if they don’t read them!

Different circles (I’m American, but a student at a British university). Just to indicate the difference: Most of the American Christians I know not only do not read Lewis, but WOULD not if they knew he smoked tobacco and drank beer. On the other hand, most of the British Christians I know typically have a beer or two every day. (They don’t smoke so much, especially since the April ban went into effect.)

As for Anglicans, they’re a mixed bag. While overseas, I attend an Anglican church. Some of the priests say the Hail Mary prayer during service, some don’t. Regarding the ones that do, I know most of the congregation will not recite it with them. Other than that, they are more Catholic in the outward appearance of the services than is the Catholic church in my (American) hometown.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Gee, how could that 500 name list have left out Will Durant, Bob Hope and John Wayne?

 

[cpayne]

Keep in mind it was a big deal for Anglicans when they dropped the phrase “despicable enormities of the Catholic Church” from the prayer book! But their services are close to identical. Isn’t that sort of funny? (In a weird way.)

By the way, I love Anglicans. I also love Pentecostals, Charismatics, Word of Faith people, and Catholics, having been involved in churches with all of them.