After a long spiritual journey, two American Protestant ministers, Paul Thigpen and Marcus Grodi, discovered that the fullness of revealed Truth could only be found in the Catholic Church. Both men came to realize that union with Christ was most fully realized within the community of the one, indivisible, universal Church gathered around the successors of the Apostle Peter.
Initial conversion
Paul Thigpen lost his faith during his youth as a result of reading Voltaire. At the same time he became interested in parapsychology, the occult, and other forms of what he would later characterize as “spiritual trash.” He sought to study these phenomena scientifically, experimenting with spiritualist séances, levitation, and other practices. In his student years—this being in the 1960s—he became active in the civil rights movement. He was convinced that man was capable of creating a harmonious society by his own efforts and that the path to human perfection lay in education. But his dreams very quickly fell apart like a house of cards. The race riots that erupted on the student campuses called his aspirations into question; above all, they undermined the foundations of his atheistic humanism.
At the same time he suffered the disastrous results of his involvement in the occult. Under the influence of what he called “demonic force,” he attempted to drown himself in a river. He was saved only by the intervention of his friends.
The incident prompted Thigpen to reflect on the problem of evil in the world. Thanks to the reading materials suggested to him by one of his professors, Paul came to believe in the existence of the spirit world. No longer did he see the occult as a domain amenable to study and scientific explanation. He began the process of rebuilding his relationship with God, though at first he found it extremely difficult to believe in a personal deity. In time, however, his acknowledgement of the existence of a spiritual reality led him to tentative attempts at prayer and reflection on the Bible—and finally to full belief in Christ and Divine Revelation. In this, the living witness of his friends—Christians, who invited him to their homes for prayer—played a significant role.
The culmination of this stage of his spiritual journey was his public avowal of faith at an evangelical Christian rally in Dallas, which took place shortly after his graduation: “I repented of my unbelief and all its devastating consequences. I confessed to God that Jesus Christ was his Son, and asked him to become my Savior and Lord. My mind at last had given my heart permission to believe, to obey and to adore.”
On the road to full unity
For twenty years after his conversion, Paul was actively engaged in the field of Protestant evangelization. He worked as a missionary in Europe, served as a pastor of a charismatic congregation, and collaborated with a number of Christian publications. He got married and had two children. It seemed as if he had everything to make him happy. And yet in his heart he felt there was something missing; he yearned for something more. This longing was expressed, among other things, in his peregrinations from one Protestant denomination to the next. Originally a Presbyterian, he sought spiritual peace among the Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Pentecostals, and Charismatics. Yet nowhere did he feel quite at home. At the same time, despite his Protestant outlook, he felt increasingly drawn to the Catholic Church.
Paul enjoyed good relations with the Catholics. In his youth, thanks to a Catholic girlfriend, he had attended the Catholic Mass and treated her faith respectfully. While in Europe, he was greatly struck by the beauty and majesty of the Gothic cathedrals—the fruit borne of the piety of forgotten generations of builders. The serenity and simplicity of Gregorian chant spoke to his heart. But it was Paul’s study of theological history that played the most decisive role in bringing him to the Catholic Church. While reading the works of Saints Augustine, Catherine, and John of the Cross, he had the impression that he was actually conversing with them across the intervening gulf of centuries. He seemed to understand them perfectly. In Augustine’s writings addressed to the Donatists (who in the fourth century separated from the Church), he heard a direct appeal to himself not to remain separated from Rome. His reading of the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam and Blessed John Henry Newman persuaded him that, far from being some fossilized institution, the Catholic Church was actually the mystical body of Christ, a living organism that had grown and developed over the course of two thousand years. Paul also observed that the rejection of the teachings of the Catholic Church had been to the great detriment of the adherents of Protestantism. This was especially seen in the Protestant churches’ jettisoning of the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, which Christ had established to make present His work of salvation, to free humanity from bondage to sin, to sanctify it, and to bring it into communion with Himself. No charismatic movement could substitute for sacramental life. One had only to witness the proliferation of psychiatrists’ couches wherever people had thrown out the sacrament of confession. Another important discovery was the fact that—contrary to the universally held Protestant view—the normalized liturgy of the Holy Mass had already been in practice in the community of the early Christians. There was no place there for spontaneity of expression, as claimed by the Charismatics.
After finishing his studies in theological history and successfully sitting his doctoral examinations, Paul was convinced that the fullness of revealed Truth resided only in the Catholic Church, and that therefore he ought to become a Catholic. Before long, his wife joined him in this conviction, and together, on the very same day, they were solemnly received into Christ’s great family of the Catholic Church.
“Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’”
Marcus Grodi’s journey took a somewhat different course. He was raised in a family of evangelical Christians. Even from his youth he strove to discern God’s will in his life. After finishing his studies in engineering, he worked in industry for a while; but, feeling a growing call to serve God exclusively, he decided to enter a school of theology, and was subsequently ordained a pastor.
As a Protestant pastor Marcus took his duties very seriously. He strove to be the best minister possible so as to lead his spiritual charges to salvation. But from the very start, precisely on account of his pastoral zeal, he ran into serious problems—above all, that of interpreting the Bible. Marcus very quickly realized that the Protestant approach to biblical exegesis did not guarantee a correct understanding of the word of God upon which one could subsequently base one’s conduct. What he had earlier held to be freedom turned out to be anarchy. Every pastor had his own view in matters of interpretation, which in moot instances rendered finding the correct answer impossible. “Where is the truth?” Marcus asked. Alas, neither he, nor his fellow pastors, nor his religious superiors, nor even the Protestant exegetical works could provide a satisfactory answer. Most shocking of all was his discovery that his congregation accepted the practice of abortion and even financed it. Deciding not to remain in a denomination that countenanced the killing of unborn children, he began seeking a new post in which he could fulfill himself as pastor. But on examining the doctrines of every congregation, he was unable to find one that satisfied him entirely. Discouraged, he decided to resign his pastorship and return to professional work in the field of genetic engineering and bioethics.
“That they may all be one”
His meeting with Scott Hahn finally set him on the path that would lead him to the Catholic Church. Hahn was a noted Protestant theologian who had embraced Catholicism in 1987. Marcus had known Scott in his student days. Never did he imagine he would become a Catholic. With astonishment he read in the newspaper that Hahn, now a Catholic theologian, was to give a lecture in one of the local churches. Marcus turned up at the meeting. It was the first time in his life that he had entered a Catholic church. After the lecture he exchanged a few friendly words with Scott who suggested he buy a copy of an audio tape detailing the story his conversion and Karl Keating’s book Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians.”
Upon hearing the tape and reading the book, Marcus found the answers to the questions troubling him. He went on to read other Catholic works, which persuaded him that the fullness of Truth resided in the Roman Church.
Drawing on his sad experiences with his own congregation, Marcus was now able to understand Martin Luther’s chief error. He concluded that it was not through separation from Rome that Luther ought to have worked for the reform of the Church but rather through prayer, penitential works, and good example. Alas, when they ran into difficulty, the Protestant denominations, following Luther’s example, only multiplied their divisions—to the point that there now existed many thousands of denominations; and their number was always increasing. But the principle of fragmentation was unbiblical, for it contradicted Christ’s desire “that they may all be one.”
Protestantism’s internal fragmentation, its lack of one voice in doctrinal and moral questions, its insistence on private interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and the consequent errors—all these things were the result of placing one’s personal opinion above the authority of the Church. Protestantism held “Sola Scriptura” (the Bible alone) to be the supreme authority and that every member of the faithful could correctly interpret its meaning. Catholics, however, believed that Christ established both the institution of the Church and Sacred Tradition, and it was these that were to guide the faithful in the true interpretation of Holy Scripture. The Holy Scriptures had arisen within the community of the Church. Thus the Bible stood upon the existence of the Church. First Christ called into existence the community of the Church, and only then, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, did the texts of the New Testament begin to arise within that community. Not only the individual texts of the New Testament but also their collection into a single canonical book depended on the existence of the Church. It was only in the fourth and fifth centuries, at the Synod of Rome (382 A.D) and the successive Councils of Hippo and Carthage (393, 397, and 419) that the authority of the Church decided which writings were (or were not) inspired by the Holy Spirit and thus deserving (or undeserving) of a place in the “canon” of Christian writings comprising the New Testament. In order to discover the truth about the Church, one had first of all to turn to the Church herself—Mother Church, which pre-existed the Holy Scriptures; the Church, which gave birth to the texts of Holy Scripture; the Church, which later gathered these texts into a single book. It was to Mother Church on the strength of her apostolic succession—“Who hears you, hears me” (Luke 10:16)—that Christ entrusted the mission of infallibly interpreting Holy Scripture and imparting the faith. Only the anchor of Sacred Tradition guaranteed the correct interpretation of the word of God and its practical application in everyday life.
The final stage in Marcus’ journey toward Catholicism was his renewed study of the Bible together with the documents of the Church councils, and also his reading of Blessed John Henry Newman’s book An Essay on the Development of the Christian Faith. All lingering doubts were put to flight, and he understood that the Roman Church was the authentic Church of Christ, which, as the inheritor of the traditions of the apostles, infallibly transmits the faith and the truth about moral conduct.
The Pope as steersman of the Church
Every ship must have a steersman; otherwise, it will not arrive at its destination. When storms blow up, it is doomed to founder. The Church’s steersman is the Pope, who in union with the bishops, leads, teaches, and assures the faithful that they are sailing in the right direction. Paul Thigpen and Marcus Grodi discovered this truth, as have many others who have come to see the many errors committed by the Protestant churches. Disregard for human life, devaluation of the sacrament of marriage, and outright rejection of the sacraments are irreconcilable with Christianity. Those who hold to these positions, while claiming to refer to the authority of the Bible, caricaturize the teaching of Christ and His apostles.
The examples of Paul and Marcus remind us of the greatness of the treasure that we enjoy in being members of the Church. May we never forget this or seek to vaunt our own private opinions over her authoritative teaching.