In hindsight it was inevitable. But at the time I couldn’t think of anything more calamitous than becoming Catholic. I was studying at an Anglican seminary, Nashotah House in Wisconsin, when my wife and I began to examine the historical and scriptural arguments for Catholicism.
I discussed them with my classmate Will. Together we read John Henry Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Will was a faster reader than me, and he finished first.
“Can I come in?” he asked one night, knocking on my door. I invited him into the living room. “I believe,” he said. Will’s eyes were bright with emotion though he looked worn, pale around the gills. He opened to the last page of Newman’s book and read the invitation to convert to Catholicism:
