An Evening With A Revert

Catholic Caveman has inspired me with his latest lists of converts and fallen- away Catholics.

Here is my list of Catholic reverts:

Justice Clarence Thomas
Colleen Hammond
Fr. John Corapi
Jeff Cavins
Deacon Keith Fournier
St. Augustine
Anne Rice
Thomas Rutkowski
Ann E. Krach
Mel Gibson
Jesse Romero
Victor Claveau
Fr. Bill Casey
Mark E. Hinsbergen
Clare McGrath Merkle
Frank J. Tassone II
Rick Lugari
Pedro O. Vega
Robert A. Sungenis
Patricia Hershwitzky
John Smith
Nancy Carpentier Brown

Can you think of others to add to the list? Which of these individuals would you invite to your home for dinner to discuss their faith walk?
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Comments

  1. Jeff Miller1/16/06, 5:41 PM

    Doesn't Robert A. Sungenis have to revert again considering his anti-semitic writings and his going over to the dark side of traditionalism?

    His views of Geocentrism is quirky, but over time his disrepect of the new order of Mass and rejection of Catholic teaching on salvation in regards to other religions is just unfortunate.

    http://www.catholicculture.org/sites/site_view.cfm?recnum=1900

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  2. Jean Heimann1/16/06, 8:02 PM

    Jeff,

    Robert A. Sungenis is the President of Catholic Apologetics International and his reversion story is on EWTN's The Journey Home hosted by Marcus Grodi. He was nominated as both "Envoy of the Year" and "Best New Evangelist" in 1998 by Envoy Magazine.

    He hosted and wrote an 18-part series for EWTN titled: Justification: Not By Faith Alone. He also hosted and wrote a 16-part series for EWTN titled: The Truth about Scripture and Tradition with Patrick Madrid which aired in September 2001.

    I couldn't open the page you have listed here.

    I had not heard those things about him.

    God bless you,
    Jean

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jeff Miller1/16/06, 9:17 PM

    He was in the first surprised by truth book and his books use to be on EWTN's religious catalog (they have been pulled). He was an excellent apologist, but his slide has been within the last couple of years. Mark Shea and some of Sugenis's friends have chronicled his decline and debated him to pull back from the edge. This unfortunately is a danger for some traditionalists like Gerry Matatics who start with just critques of the Novus Ordo and eventually become full blown sede-vacantists.

    As far as the link goes you probally need to do a free sign up at http://www.catholicculture.org. This is an excellent website that also does site reviews and grades Catholic sites on their fidelity. They use to be called PetersNet.

    Here is an example of his anti-semitism.

    "The reason behind this whole charade of Jewish ecumenism is one, and one reason only: It is so the Jews can rebuild the nation of Israel that was lost after the time of Solomon. Everything the Jews do today is motivated by that single thought, and they are shrewdly using the Catholic Church to help them accomplish their goal. Prelates in the Catholic Church think that by helping the Jews they are fulfilling the mandate of neighborly love. In their perversion of the Gospel, they have convinced themselves that this mandate cannot include converting the Jews, for that would cause "offense." [God forbid that the Gospel should cause offense! (cf., 1 Cor 1:23-24)]. They have deceived themselves, and the Jews of today are feeding off this deception in an effort to build their long awaited "nation state." The Jews have no interest in Christ or Christianity. They are merely using Catholics as pawns for their own self-interest. When they have succeeded, then they will persecute the very Catholic Church that helped them gain their land, for Judaism, as has been historically true, can have no competitors."

    Here is an example from his own site where he attacks Galileo.
    http://www.catholicintl.com/scienceissues/genesis-galileo1.htm

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jean Heimann1/16/06, 10:32 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jean Heimann1/16/06, 10:36 PM

    Very interesting! I read the first Surprised By Truth book and then gave it to my sister, who is a fallen away Catholic. However, that was a long time ago and I don't remember his story.

    Peters Net was one of favorites for some time.
    I used to be on the Catholic Culture email list and received regular updates before the major move (with 3 weeks' notice) from IL to KS in October, which I managed to survive. We also switched computers and I lost a lot of my email contacts at that time.

    Thanks for sharing this with me. It makes me think that I need to pray for him. This is pretty unusual for most reverts I have known. Once they return to the faith, they tend to be solid Catholics.

    God bless you,
    Jean

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  6. Kevin Whiteman1/17/06, 5:00 PM

    Excellent list!

    Et Catholicam Speluncam Homo

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jean Heimann1/17/06, 11:22 PM

    Thank you, Non Sum Dignus!

    Ogilvie,

    To me the definition of a Catholic revert is simply someone who has left the Church and returns.

    Thank you for your comment.

    God bless you,
    Jean

    ReplyDelete

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