"In the five decades between 1910 and 1960, more than half a million people in England and Wales became Catholics. Among them were a clutch of literary stars: Oscar Wilde, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark and Graham Greene. But there was a whole host of poets, artists and public intellectuals less known to us today, whose going over to Rome provoked envy and dismay."
"At a time when reason and decency appeared to have been chased out by political extremism and global warfare, it was only natural to long for something solid. Writing in 1925, Greene confided to his fiancee one does want fearfully hard for something firm and hard and certain, however uncomfortable, to catch hold of in the general flux. Contrary to lurid Protestant fantasies, Catholic priests were not on the hunt for celebrity scalps to lure into their incense-fugged, whiskey-sodden clutches."
"Again and again, McDonagh's converts report being taken aback by the way in which their approaches to Brompton Oratory or Chelsea's Farm Street Church were met with a cool equanimity and slightly humiliating lack of interest. The job of the instructing priest was to tell you what was what, furnish you with the Penny Catechism and send you on your way."
Between 1910 and 1960 more than half a million people in England and Wales became Catholics, including well-known writers and many lesser-known poets, artists and intellectuals. Many converts sought doctrinal certainty amid political extremism and global warfare and longed for something firm and stable. Catholic clergy frequently met seekers with cool equanimity, offered instruction, provided the Penny Catechism and left the decision to the individual. That pragmatic, non-proselytising approach particularly appealed to former Anglicans confronted with theological ambiguity on issues such as the Real Presence, the Immaculate Conception and the Resurrection.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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