Great list, Matthew.  Not to quibble, but I would have added Dr Bernard Nathanson to the list, and bumped it up to seven.  Perfect number in the Church, y’know.

“The Importance of Being Catholic!” O.Wilde.

Wonderful list! This was so interesting. I never knew Sitting Bull was Catholic, either!

Oscar Wilde was a (sort of) revert. He was baptised in St Andrew’s, Westland Row at the behest of his rather eccentric mother. He made repeated attempts to go on retreat with the Jesuits after his release from prison but was rebuffed. Thank God, he succeeded in the end!

are you trying to add to the john wayne homosexuality myth by plugging him so close to oscar wilde? just because he was a good friend of montomery clift and rock hudson and never denied the relatively explicit undertones in some of his films… maybe he was simply secure enough in his sexuality not to be a homophobe?

To ofersdesade : What ?

Black Elk, the Lakotah medicine man was a Catholic convert and a catechist. His book, Black Elk Speaks is an interesting memoir.  From what I’ve read, Black Elk was a very holy man and somewhat of a mystic.

Just a quibble, but an important one:

“The scientist in Carrel refused to accept the possibility of a miracle for years.”

Wrong, a scientist is ready to change his views with new evidence!

A sciencist or even better an atheist will not always do this - even though God can do more than we expect!

Shalom
Hermann

Didn’t the actress Maureen O’Hara, a close friend of John Wayne’s, relate in an article in a Catholic magazine that he converted to Catholicism on his death bed? I recall reading such an article.

Also, I, too, would have added Bernard Nathanson to the list of unlikely converts to Catholicism. If you’ve ever read his book “Aborting America,” you would realize how far he came. He was a Jewish atheist, took responsibility for the abortions of more than 75,000 babies, helped found the National Abortion Rights Action League, worked to legalize abortion, etc., etc. His turnaround was extraordinary and surely a grace from God. He spent the latter part of his life working to undo the harm of his earlier years, and was an ardent pro lifer and a convert to the Catholic Faith.

With a little thought, I think this list can be added upon quite easily.

Chief Seattle was a Catholic.

And who could forget the greatest abortionist of them all, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who subsequently became one of Catholicism’s greatest evangelists!

#1 - St. Paul

Constatine probably worth a mention, too.

Whoa, there, take her easy, Oferdesade (as John Wayne might say).  John Wayne was a professional and he liked people.  Simple as that.

Love the list.  Was enlightening.  Was also hopeful to me, former wife of a nominally raised Catholic, now Catholic-hating self-proclaimed atheist and mother of a child who at 11 started claiming to hate our faith, God, Jesus and declares himself to be an atheist even while wanting to know how to get to Heaven…  So, hoping for another conversion miracle or two! (And I do realize the list wasn’t meant to be inclusive.)

Thank God Newt Gingrich or Tony Blair didn’t make the list. I’m half-way out the damn door if Ann Coulter comes in and gets to continually bash the Church’s teachings on social justice; much like that other cafeteria Catholic, Gingrich.

Cartoon character Bart Simpson is portrayed in one episode as planning to live a dissolute life, then snagging a ‘deathbed conversion’ to Christianity.  As silly as it is, I hope all the ‘postmodern wanderers’ among us take notice, and think for a moment about how they are living their lives, and what saving grace and redemption they could get, early in life, by hearing and living the message of Christ.  For this we hope and pray.

I hope we will let God be the judge of the sincerity of Gingrich and Blair. As for Ann, if she converted, I suspect we would see a new person giving glory to God.

I look at myself as a new convert and think, why did I wait so long?

Oscar Wilde was probably not totally a homosexual. He married once and had a pair of sons. I read were he was drawn to the Catholica faith for years, (probably the astheticism?) But I agree he is one of the best characters of the 19th century and its hard to imagine with todays shifting paradigms and militancy, that anyone let alone a person like Wilde would become Catholic.

@Riley
Riley, from a returnee, congratulations upon your conversion! Miss Coulter is a devout Presbyterian giving glory already in the way she, as a Presbyterian sees fit. But she’s also got a ton of political/ideological baggage, especially insofar as how it stacks up against the Church’s teachings on social and economic justice ... and we all know those teachings hinge mostly on what Jesus said in Matthews’ Gospel, “Whatsoever you do unto the least of my brethren, you do unto me.” Do you think Ann Coulter’s capable of changing her spots any more than her other pal in punditry, Laura Ingraham, who also converted relatively recently?

I’m a revert, who became so smart to the point where I believed I was an athiest, and lived accordingly.  But in an instant, when I wasn’t looking, seeking, pining or wondering about God at all, He changed me.  I have my own experience and I don’t doubt what God can and has done for others.  But to learn of them is fascinating!  Thanks for a great expose to start the day!

Don’t forget Gray Cooper, my dad’s favourite actor.  Besides, The Duke would probably like a fellow Western Film icon to ride shotgun with him on this list.

There are some more modern ones as well.  Actor Mark Wahlberg, although born and raised Catholic, he turned away but came back strong and is now a daily communicant.  He credits a parish priest with turning his life around.  I also read recently Sylvester Stallone has returned to the church.

The good thief on the right hand, is number one.

As James Joyce said, the Catholic Church is “Here comes everybody!”

Fascinating list.  I knew about Norma McCorvey but not the others.

Thanks so much, Matthew for this interesting read.

What about that actor that played Chuck Norris’ partner on Walker, Texas Ranger or Bob Hope? There are many others too because when people hunger for truth and are willing to search for it God brings them home. I pray someday that my brothers will be reverts.

George Washington, the 1st President.  Check it out. I loved this list. Alexis Carrel especially interesting.

Wonderful list. I’m grateful to hear about all the different journeys to faith. How marvelous that these prodigal sons and daughters came home to the Father.  Dismas, the repentant thief on the cross, was an integral part of my own father coming to the Lord on his deathbed. I pray that their stories and lives will bring others to our Lord, and to help us who know Him to be more faithful to him in life.

for more on Dutch Schultz go to:
http://www.victorclaveau.com/doc’s/dutch schultz.htm

A friend of mine heard it first hand from the priest who accepted John Wayne into the Church.  I know that only makes it hearsay to you, but it’s certainly good enough for me.

Great list! Sitting Bull, Black Elk and Chief Seattle were the big surprises to me, tho I don’t really know why that should be when I remember all the wonderful Catholic missionaries.
As to Ann Coulter, perhaps she isn’t so much against the Church’s social teaching as she is against the way that teaching has been hijacked by socialists, marxists and liberation theology die hards.

He wasn’t a convert but i always found it interesting that Jefferson Davis was educated at a Catholic School run by Dominicans. His Catholic education influanced alot of his statesmanship and ideology which also doesn’t fit the caricature of Jefferson Davis.

I accept the conversions of Newt Gingrich and Tony Blair as genuine.  If they are still in need of ongoing catechesis—why is that a surprise? We all are. Paragraph 1231 of the Catechism says we have need of a “post-baptismal adult catechumenate.”  Amen to that.  As to any deficiencies in Tony Blair’s catechesis, that is the fault of Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, who catechized him personally.  He never went through a catechumenate, which was a mistake.

I would add:

Blessed Bartolo Longo, a former Satanic priest

Thanks Matt, for this enlightening article, I was very surprised at some of the conversion stories you wrote about! Honestly it gives me another incentive to keep praying for the conversion of sinners, truly nothing is impossible for God.

It has been my desire for some time to do a novena for the conversion of several high-profile actors and actresses, Hollywood is what I call a spiritual minefield, and I would like to see more celebrities discovering the beauty of the Church and going against the tide of moral dissolution it preaches. Thanks for the reminder that prayer does indeed work! ;)

Steven,

I know what you are meaning to say.  I repeat, I know what you are meaning to say.  But.  You are being cynical and uncharitable.  I do that too, by reflex, so I recognize it in others.  It is material for confession.

I have lots of “spots” that Grace was quite capable of changing, and so did/do you, brother.  Christ was pleased to hang and die for both of us and Coulter too.  All three of us, rank sinners.  And all the other Catholics you dislike.  The Church is made up of sinners.

Did you read laetare Sunday’s gospel selection?  Do not put yourself in a position where you force Christ to say to you “your sin remains”.

Hail Mary.

...and please God I die a Catholic….

Years ago I read the story of the conversion of Dutch Schultz and it affected me deeply.  I wrote about it in my blog:

http://festungarnulfinger.blogspot.com/2007/06/who-are-we-to-close-gates-of-mercy.html

Jesus died for each and every soul. This posting is enjoyable and informative and very interesting. Good work.

Don’t forget Bernard Nathanson—-the infamous abortionist who converted and whose funeral Mass was at St. Patrick’s cathedral.

Oscar Wilde’s conversion reminds me Ramon Gomez de la Serna, a turn of the century Spanish playwright who spend his whole creative life rejecting Catholicism and praising human depravity, only to become a Catholic before his death.

Then of course there’s me, one time New-Age hippie and practicing Wiccan.  You can read my conversion story here (note it is somewhat long):
http://intimategeography.wordpress.com/my-conversion-story/

How about Satchel Paige, the greatest negro pitcher ever?

There’s a country mile’s worth of difference between political forgiveness and spiritual forgiveness. I must forgive everybody’s sins as Christ instructs us. But when it comes to politics and the right of every voter to “hold” a legitimate beef or complaint against Politician Moe, or Pundit Schmoe because he or she holds a position on a policy issue or unnecessarily cost the voter(s) added tax burdens (e.g. the billionaire’s tax bailout legislation passed last December) ... the kind of forgiveness taught in the Gospel or CCD, RCIA, a lecture, what-and-where-ever ... it doesn’t apply. Otherwise, why bother to have elections save for little more than substanceless high school popularity contests. On the whole, we can build arguments for “forgiving” a pol enough to eventually vote for him or her based on a balance of checks we place in our respective mental columns of the pol’s pros and minuses.
  I’m just fed up with a certain religious order and its prominent priest’s proclivity and bias in favor of [openly] recruiting “elite” members of society. Both our Catechism and even Thomas Jefferson said all of us are created equal in the eyes of God. Looks like some folks in the Church have forgotten that. And do they honestly believe that we’re going to jump up and down saying “Hallelulia, Rep. Moe or Pundit Schmoe just crossed the Tiber, even though I know full well they have openly crossed swords with the Church on very important issues, and will continue doing so even after they’ve become Catholics.”
  There’s a vast difference between being humble sheep and treated like groveling sheeple. I trust that’s not the intent of this priest and his order, but that’s exactly how his actions and his results come across; at least to this Catholic. Look, if the conservatives are going to raise hell against “cafeteria Catholics” on a regular basis as this war-club usually suits their purpose, they could at least be consistent in the way they use it in the battle against the evil one. And have we all forgotten, that the evil one is keenly interested in promoting more social and economic injustice. Now of course, my beef with this priest and his order will be put aside very rapidly if he should bring in Jim Wallis. Hey, we libs have our list of fav’s too.

Don’t forget Bob Hope and jane Wyman

So many great converts to choose from, how can there be only 6? Besides those mentioned already, how bout playwright Tennessee Williams?

Just a thought on the political theme emerging in some posts. It would be helpful if someone could point out where Ann Coulter has opposed Church social teachings—say, if she says somewhere that we need not help the poor and aging.

One can support the Church’s social teachings without necessarily supporting governmental interventions to accomplish it. If someone opposes, say, Social Security and welfare, it doesn’t mean he wants the old and poor to starve to death. It doesn’t mean that he opposes Catholic social teachings. The Church doesn’t mandate any means to accomplishing social justice, because prudential judgments are not matters of doctrine. Opposing specific governmental programs just means not supporting those particular programs as ways of helping those who need help.

People change their spots all the time. That is what conversion is all about. And conversion is ongoing. It doesn’t end completely until after purgatory.

“The Catholic Church is for saints and sinners alone. For respectable people, the Anglican Church will do.” - Oscar Wilde

My hope:

That one day Christopher Hitchens makes the list.

With God all things are possible!

For you AuthenticBioethics: http://evangelical-catholicism.blogspot.com/2007/06/poll.html Tolle Legge friend, read the reeds. I attended the same National Journalism Center in Washington, DC a few years before she did. And while I’ll admit she’s a very talented woman and her academic credentials are all well-earned. It’s her political views and the gnawing feeling that if she’s brought in as yet another political trophy convert, without having any expectations that she’ll avoid becoming a conservative-mirror of a liberal cafeteria Catholic, well ... don’t say my apprehensions don’t have some merit. And let’s face it, if our clerical “intellectual leaders” within the Church here in the US are more interested in amassing trophy converts so as to   point to for the rest of the “lesser educated” pew proles, perhaps the Anglicans are doing a better job of attracting more respectable people. At least they’re not requiring their faithful to accept prohibitions against cafeteria Anglicanism whilst winkin’n'noddin’ for cafeteria conservative ideologues.

Great list, Matthew.
Can’t remember where, but years ago I read of teh John Wayne conversion and I believe it was written by with the priest or the nun who helped him then.
Also, how about adding another famous person that few know converted to Catholicism after attending Mass for years—Kate Smith! Now hearing “God Bless America” takes on another dimension knowing a Catholic popularized it.

Steven, I was hoping for something like a book title and page number, or a link to Coulter’s own website or blog or column or something. I searched for the first quote and all I saw on Google were sites like the one you provided all saying the same thing without proper citation or attribution.

Great article.  I believe that John Wayne, in his last days as a cancer victim, became a Catholic.  He and his wife were friends with the Archbishop of Panama City, Panama, and that was the avenue to his conversion.  A remarkable end to a remarkable life!  God rest his soul.

I’m not sure, but weren’t playwright Tennessee Williams and famed gunslinger Doc Holliday both deathbed converts? Perhaps someone can check this out? Maybe?

Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas , only US Senator in history to convert to Catholicism while in office.

In my books Ann Coulter is already among the faithful on earth. She just has to cross the Tiber.

Vascular anastomosis involves taking the two separated ends of an artery or vein and stitching them together without causing a stricture or pinched in the area. It’s actually a little tricky, so interesting that he came up with that.

@Mark Shea, love the quote!

I’ve got to mention Chris Farley. The stout comedian from Saturday Night Live and Second City. He was raised a devout Catholic and in spite of his problems with his weight and drugs, he often attended Mass daily. He privately would take homeless people out for meals and had a heart for homeless people, checking on their needs.

I’d rather someone be a cafeteria Catholic inside the Church than be a member of a Church with no sacraments or no Church at all.

Not everything is black and white. Give God a chance to work. 

-Tim-

Don’t forget Dismas.

Keep an eye out for George W. Bush.  He will be crossing the Tiber before long.

Did Albert Camus, the French author and philosopher, revert to Catholicism right before his fatal car crash?  I’ve heard both yes and no.

I read many years ago that Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s enforcer,  converted back to Catholicism right be for his execution.  I have not been able to find any contemporary confirmation but my source was the Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia.  This was a great list and wonderful follow-on comments.

Wallace Stevens, my pick (and I’m hardly alone in the sentiment) as greatest American poet of the last century, was a deathbed convert.  The hospital chaplain who baptized him is widely disbelieved; but, when I first heard of it a few years back, it made perfect sense to me—so many of his poems leave the reader open to mystery.  It seems he may have been a Catholic before he knew he was. 

My favorite is “The Irish Cliffs of Moher.” His later poems tend to use more and more attenuated means to larger and larger effects.  It’s a little gem.  Sometimes, as St. Patrick’s Day nears, I’ll succeed in memorizing it, and on the day, I’ll walk my own private green parade, spinning the words in my brain like a prayer. I’ve been to Moher, and can testify he gets the spirit of the place on paper.  That he does so without overt description is a special magic of his - he seems to read the mind of his reader. 

There’s a good article about Stevens and his conversion here:
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0068.html

And, hoping the email doesn’t foul up the line breaks, I’m including Stevens’ poem:
                   

            The Irish Cliffs of Moher

Who is my father in this world, in this house,
At the spirit’s base?

My father’s father, his father’s father, his—
Shadows like winds

Go back to a parent before thought, before speech,
At the head of the past.

They go to the cliffs of Moher rising out of the mist,
Above the real,

Rising out of present time and place, above
The wet, green grass. 

This is not landscape, full of the somnambulations
Of poetry

And the sea.  This is my father or, maybe,
It is as he was,

A likeness, one of the race of fathers: earth
And sea and air.

Yes.  The ether collapsed the line breaks.  Start a fresh stanza after each second line.  I’ll try again.

The Irish Cliffs of Moher

Who is my father in this world, in this house,
At the spirit’s base?

My father’s father, his father’s father, his—
Shadows like winds

Go back to a parent before thought, before speech,
At the head of the past.

They go to the cliffs of Moher rising out of the mist,
Above the real,

Rising out of present time and place, above
The wet, green grass.

This is not landscape, full of the somnambulations
Of poetry

And the sea.  This is my father or, maybe,
It is as he was,

A likeness, one of the race of fathers: earth
And sea and air.

Tim, I agree with you. It’s just that the ultra conservative wing within the Church on this side of the pond tends to take the black n’ white approach towards the Church viz a viz “cafeteria Catholicism” far more seriously than you and I could ever put up with. And because we are all sinners, I’m willing to say there’s a little “cafeteria” in all of us from time to time. It’s just that I’m getting sick of the holier-than-thou-is better-than-thous’-views message tossed back into the faces of the rest of us non-celebs that rankles me to NO END.
  As for W. coming into the Church, don’t hold your breath. He’s already said he’s staying a Methodist.
  Concerning Coulter AuthenticBioethics…do you really have any doubts she said or wrote those comments? I sure as heck don’t and I recall seeing at least one of them before. This is her trademark !@#$% style. And good heavens, do we really need another Clare Booth Luce? Spare us all from such imperious snobs.

Didn’t Sir Alec Guiness also convert to Catholicism?

Great article Matthew! It gives me hope that some (at least) of my non-Christian friends will come around. Some of them seem beyond salvation, but then, so did the thief on the cross.

To Mike in KC, MO:

Agree, but also Christopher’s God-fearing brother Peter.

How Peter cannot see that all he loves about Christianity and Christian culture is actually all Catholic is bewildering.

Some other (some obvious) converts:

St Augustine,
Alphonse Ratisbonne (of miraculous medal fame),
St John Henry Newman,
Scott and Kimberley Hann,
Eleven of the Twelve Apostles (St Paul mentioned above),
St Mary Magdalene (my favourite… EVER!!!),
Gustav Mahler,
J.R.R. Tolkien,
G.K. Chesterton,
Graham Greene,
Evelyn Waugh,
Edward Elgar,
St Juan Diego (Our Lady of Guadalupe)
Rubens,
St Elizabeth Ann Seton,
Cardinal Manning,...

Early in my reversion I read “The Story of a Soul” wherein St. Therese describes praying for a convicted murderer and receiving a sign of his repentance, so knowing that John Wayne was dying of cancer, I began to pray for his conversion, hoping to receive a sign also. (I am no saint, but Wayne was no murderer.) I still remember sitting in my living room crocheting an afghan with the TV on, and the announcer on a commercial break announced that John Wayne had been received into the Catholic Church.  There was no other announcement, and he died two or three days later. So I received a sign, but according to my mother, Wayne’s first wife was a devout Catholic who was undoubtedly praying for him also, as were many other fans.  When you get to Heaven, you will hear that gravel voice say, “Howdy, Pilgrim.”

If you want to read some literary “stealth Catholicism” try Graham Greene’s “Catholic Trilogy”: The End of the Affair, The Heart of the Matter, and Brighton Beach Affair.  And of course, The Power and the Glory.

And John Wayne loved Catholics so much , he married three of them!

Let’s not forget Hadley Arkes, law professor who authored the ‘Born Alive Protection’ act.  He is a brilliant person and a professor with integrity and sound, ‘natural law’ ethics.  I am proud to be of the same faith as he!

Soon add Abby Johnson’s “unPlanned” journey ‘across the fence’ from Planned Parenthood to the Coalition for Life Bryan/College Station Texas eventually to the Catholic Church this Easter Season.

Er, Steven of “It’s just that I’m getting sick of the holier-than-thou-is better-than-thous’-views… Spare us all from such imperious snobs” (Luce, Coulter, etc.), do I detect a bit of contradiction in your remarks?

J.R.R. Tolkien was not a convert; he was raised Catholic.  I do believe one or both of his parents were converts.

The fellow who reported John Wayne’s alleged deathbed conversion admitted that he lied about it.

The only white man Sitting Bull trusted was Father DeSmet, the great missionary.

Er, Kmbold, IMHO, being hardly infallible, I’ll admit to “letting loose” now n’ then when I get upset. On the other hand, I’m sure you can understand what I’m getting at and where I’m coming from. I came back to the Church (in part) because of my revulsion at Protestantism’s love affair with predestinationism. Well! Looky here, now we’ve got some prominent Catholics being brought in for their elite superstar status; presumably to be held as “examples” for the rest of us to follow. “Set your sites on the example set by these stars and before you know it, your spiritual life could be just as satisfying as theirs.” Okay, that was an admittedly flip take on this celebrity trophy conversion mission and the health n’ wealth gospel espoused by so many Protestants who have also bought into predestination ideas ... but I hope you’ll see some of the disturbing parallels here.
  Now, insofar as Hadley Arkes is concerned, I’m very familiar with the area in which he teaches and its overall environment. Now I’m also sure that a man such as Dr. Arkes would hold the same views about abortion with or without tenure; but in his case, let’s all be thankful to God he has it. Amherst College, the Five College, Inc. consortium of colleges in western Massachusetts and the so-called “progressive Pioneer Valley” is a very hostile territory for any writer, academic or not, espousing prolife views. Daresay I’ll add, he’s demonstrated a lot more guts down through the years than all the whiny but very well compensated conservative pundits who never wake up w/o finding one more excuse to blame the liberals for holding some mythical lock on the opinion channels and the big ... but liberal DOMINATED northeastern media complex. If you want a hero, look at Dr. Arkes, but don’t waste your tissues on the Coulters, Ingrahams, et al working from within the Beltway.
  What next, a small-group-prayer breakout session scheduled for the likes of Glenn Beck to come back into the Church. Oh, have it for Beck’s soul. But watch what you ask for if you want to see him become a celeb commentator within the EWTN network. Guys like Beck are similar to the old saloon madames of the Wild West, who upon returning to the Lord, don’t want to just worship in His house with the rest of His flock. Oh no…they want to not only join the choir but to boot out the present choir director and replace the choir with their fellow ladies of the night. Seeing that Beck’s going to have to look for greener pastures than what he milked alrealdy out of Fox, and no doubt the Mormons, if he’s brought back in, somebody with some authority and a stern demeanor had better sit him down for an ego-shrinking moment and remind him that the Church is much bigger entitity than the LDS and pssssst, lots of us take Social Justice seriously.
  For the love of God and His Church, let’s concentrate on bringing EVERYBODY FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE and stop this slide towards theological snobbery. Odd how the Episcopalians are leaving that nonsense behind while we seem to be embracing it with greater vigor. If we want to be more accepted as the rest of the nation, something we Catholics have never been truly accepted because of the structure of our Church’s hiearchy and the sovereignity of the Holy See ... we sure as hell shouldn’t be going out to establish an informal “House of Lords” do we to achieve equal status within this Protestant nation? So long as Jefferson’s objection to the Quebec Act remains intact in the Declaration of Independence, the US is and will always be a PROTESTANT creation. Let’s also not be so dumb as to suggest that it be taken out for the sake of political correctness and sensitivity with respect to Catholics; rather, let’s keep it in to remind us of the status God wants for all His faithful no matter where they reside; that status being ... Pilgrim. In the meantime, let’s eschew the tendency to create a special class of Pilgrims…packaged in-house royalty of select converts based on previous celeb status. But maybe I’m way out of the loop and will have to accept more outstanding pillars of moral leadership like Newt Gingrich.

Great list.  I want to hear more about George Washington!!!

Tolkien’s Mother was a Catholic convert.  He was raised as a Catholic.  The rest of his Anglican family shunned his mother.  It was a hard road…

George Washington was more of a Mason than he was an active Episcoplian; never mind even keeping him in mind as a “possible” Catholic. He wouldn’t even be caught in public receiving Communion in his own Anglican church. Scratch the first W along with the second. (But George was a much better president than the second W.)

John Wayne’s wife was Catholic. He’d probably been going to Mass for years.

Lord Alfred Douglas,Oscar Wilde’s lover, also converted and his father, John Douglas the Marquess of Queensberry (whose words about Oscar led Wilde to sue for libel, which of course ended in Wilde’s prosecution for sodomy converted before his death as well.

John Wayne’s grandson, Fr. Matthew Munoz, is an amazing priest in the Diocese of Orange, California!

I think Sitting Bull was the 7th.

There is no evidence George Washington was a Catholic.  He would attend religious services at pretty much any place.  He did attend a Catholic mass the day he was inaugurated as president, though.  The same day he added “So help me God.” to the end of the president’s swearing in (words which were spontaneous on his part and were not part of the official swearing in before Washington said them).

Let’s not forget Robt. E. Lee’s “Old Warhorse,” Gen’l James Longstreet, who not only joined his other old friend, Ulysses Grant’s Republican Party, but served in his administration and became a Catholic in his later years. For all who’ve ever studied the Battle of Gettysburg, he had the best overall strategy and best interests of the men of the Army of Northern Virginia.

Mel Gibson who produced and directed what may be the best film on Jesus ever “The Passion of the Christ”  I hope he gets his life straightened out. He was a guest on “The World Over” on EWTN when his movie first came out and claimed to attend mass daily while the picture was in production.

George Washington, read to the end of the site.  Good references     http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=217658

Two comments. John Wayne has a son who is a priest in Southern Ca. I suppose he is retired by now, from his first wife who was a Spanish American Catholic.

Buffalo Bill I think was preconditioned for the faith. I think his wife was Catholic and he was always well disposed the the Bishops and clergy and was always a gentleman and loyal beyond measure to his friends and those in need.

Looks like it was either John Wayne’s son or grandson. After reading all the comments I was really blown away, inspirational to say the least. And two on the list sure have done the Church credit, Laura Ingraham and Governor Brownback or Kansas. Laura never misses a chance ( just about daily ) to defend the Faith and the moral teachings of the Church. And the governor, since taking office, had been hard at work doing what can be done in the secular world of law and politics to defend all innocent life and family life.

John Wayne’s two oldest sons, both of whom were Catholic (Michael Wayne passed away several years ago and Patrick is still alive) confirmed that that their father John Wayne did convert to Catholic Church. The only question that remains about the Duke is where he is buried. Apparently that is a family secret for privacy reasons.

Other notable converts include:

Union General William T. Sherman
Union General William Rosencrans
As someone mentioned earlier General Lee’s workhorse - General James Longstreet
Sir Alec Guiness and his wife were devout Catholics having converted as young adults
Bob Hope
Gary Cooper
Laura Ingram
Jane Wyman was a devout Catholic convert
President’s Reagan’s son Michael Reagan is a revert. He discussed his revertion just recently on The World Over with Raymond Arroyo on EWTN. He talked about his mother Jane Wyman and how devout she was and that his wife and daughter’s conversion was the mean’s of God’s grace to bring him home.

Natasha Richardson was baptized on her deathbed at Lenox Hill Hospital right before she died.  Her husband, Liam Neeson, called a Jesuit priest friend from Fordham to come to the hospital.  Father asked her mother (Vanessa Redgrave) if Natasha was ever baptized.  “No, not to my knowledge…” and he was given permission to do so.

The Vatican has revealed that Antonio Gramsci, the founder of Italian Communism and an icon of the Left, reverted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.

Archbishop Luigi De Magistris, former head of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Holy See, which deals with confessions, indulgences and the forgiveness of sins, said Gramsci had “died taking the Sacraments”. He had asked the nuns attending him in hospital to let him kiss an image of the infant Jesus, Monsignor De Magistris said.

He said rumours that Gramsci had reverted had never until now been confirmed, and the Italian Left had also remained silent on the issue. “But that is how it was” he told Vatican Radio. “Gramsci returned to the faith of his infancy”.

Gramsci, who came from Sardinia, won a scholarship in 1911 to study at the University of Turin, a city dominated by the Fiat factories and where trade unions were emerging. He became a Marxist journalist, supporting workers’ councils which sprang up in Turin during the strikes of 1919 and 1920.

He played a leading role in founding the Communist Party of Italy or PCI in 1921, became its leader, and after visiting Moscow sought to form a united front of leftist parties against Fascism. He was arrested by the Fascist police in 1926 and put in prison, where his already poor health deteriorated. He died in Rome at the age of 46, shortly after being released, and is buried in the Protestant Cemetery.

He is regarded as one of the most important Marxist thinkers of the 20th century. His thought is crystallized in The Prison Notebooks, in which, among other things, he argued that Capitalism was based on a combination of force and consensus, and that Marxism could only supersede religion if it met peoples spiritual as well as material needs.

I like the list and most of the comments.  As a very recent convert, I see a lot of confusion about the term “social justice” in the comments.  There is the Catholic meaning of the term, which includes additional Catholic ideas, such as the dignity of the individual, subsidiarity and the entire context of Catholic teaching.  As properly understood by Catholics, the term is full of depth and meaning.  The common understanding of the term,unfortunately, by many, including Catholics,  comes directly from Marxism and has very different implications. This understanding of the term fits very well with socialism (naturally!) and much of liberal politics.

My suggestion is that all Catholics read the Catechism on social justice.

For Martin: Hmmm, show me in the Bible where St. Luke collaborated with Karl Marx. lol. I think you might find Acts 4:34-35, particularly 35 of interest. I’ll admit, there is a “difference of opinion” insofar as to how strongly one should take the Church’s teachings about Social Justice than say there might be on the Protestant side of the aisle (to borrow a common political phrase to describe “the other guys.”) We tend to approach the social justice teachings from a more corporatist (for the momentary lack of a better word at the tip of my head n’ typing fingers) perspective viz a viz the more individual approach taken by most Protestants. That’s natural since Protestantism is basically a more individualistic approach to begin with. But you’ll have to go a long way to tag the Catholic Church’s official teachings with any whiff of Marxist tendencies. A lot of a certain former Bavarian Cardinal’s most persistent theological testers tried to inject their (undoubtedly albeit wrongfully)marxist leanings into the “Preferential Option for the Poor” document resulting from a most unfortunate conference that took place in Medelin, Columbia back in the Seventies. My ideal notion of “social justice teachings” falls right in line with the Magisterium’s and what most Americans of liberal socioeconomic persuasions would rather call a “fair shake” or even New Deal approach. Good Lord, I pray that the notions of a certain squeaky-voiced politician from Wisconsin with the heart n’ soul of an accountant, now running the House Budget Cmte. doesn’t become the voice of American Catholics as a whole. It wouldn’t even be small-c “catholic,” but rather a heretical nationalized “Big A” American Catholic perspective.
  Indeed, since the Church teaches that she is borderless and universal, an Americanized “catholic church” would indeed be a heretical ex-catholic body in schism with the Church International. Funny how many “conservative Catholics” have failed to see how rapidly they’re unwittingly taking so many fellow Catholic Americans in that direction. 
  Ah, but with the inclusion of so many trophy convert right winger celeb converts being brought into the Church,  perhaps so as to be pointed to as the ideal for the rest to follow for philosophical, political,economical and perhaps personal moral reasons ... I’m not surprised to see how people can inadvertently find a wisp of “Marxist” thought in the Bible of all places.

Myles, Sherman was always a Catholic; he just wasn’t a practicing one. (A lot of Christians in the South still think he’s the Devil’s own. lol) As for Rosecrans, I think, he too, was always Catholic. Jefferson Davis is an interesting study since he was raised by Catholics, though never expected to join the Church. These were very different times and social and religious lines of demarcation (forgive my terminology) were a lot more rigidly enforced. Yet, and this is one thing that thank God was never blown out of proportion, which the WASP-owned Northern press would’ve loved to have done so…he was sent a letter by Pope Pius IX addressing him as his excellency (or using some form of diplomatically accepted term implying Davis’ rank as a legitimate fellow head of state, which of course he wasn’t.) It would’ve been the only defacto recognition of the Confederacy…and from all states, the Holy See. Well, on that day and matter Pio Nono certainly didn’t display a lot of infallible judgment. M’lawd! Imagine what our fellow Catholic Gen’l Sherman would’ve had to say on that. Good thing he couldn’t have marched on Rome!

Steven,
Actually Rosencrans converted while at West Point. He was raised a Methodist but converted to Catholicism while a student. His conversion had impact also on his younger brother Slyvester Rosencrans who also converted, was later ordained a priest and became the first bishop of the Diocese of Columbus Ohio.

With regards to Sherman after his father died when Sherman was a young man his mother could no longer support him and his 10 siblings. His mother asked a family friend Thomas Ewing to raise him. Ewing and his wife became his foster parents. Ewing’s wife Maria was a Catholic. Thomas Ewing later became a convert and was national politcal leader who served in the Taylor Administration. Maria Ewing had Sherman baptised by a Dominican priest. Sherman would marry the Ewing’s daughter Ellen herself a devout Catholic. They had eight children and all were raised in the faith. One of their son’s Thomas went on to become a priest. If I remember reading correctly Sherman went to Mass with his wife and family up to the time of the outbreak of the War Between the States but did not attend Mass during or after the war and was as you said not practicing although his Thomas later stated his father did give his last confession and receive the last rites on his deathbed. His son also presided over his funeral Mass and he is buried in the Catholic Cemetary (Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries) in St Louis.

Very interesting stuff.

The actress Patricia Neal as well.

Myles, thanks for the corrections. Somehow I can’t seem to equate an early Baptism by a child while being raised by Catholic foster parents, who later indeed became his in-laws, in quite the same manner as a conversion by an adult, and that explains why I listed The Scourge of the South as Catholic from the beginning.

For Steven:
This should not be a matter of dispute.  I said, “There is the Catholic meaning of the term, which includes additional Catholic ideas, such as the dignity of the individual, subsidiarity and the entire context of Catholic teaching.  As properly understood by Catholics, the term is full of depth and meaning.”
I did not say anything close to what you posted: “Hmmm, show me in the Bible where St. Luke collaborated with Karl Marx. lol. Or “But you’ll have to go a long way to tag the Catholic Church’s official teachings with any whiff of Marxist tendencies.”
  Me thinks you protested too much.  Aside from Pope Leo’s denunciation of socialism in the 1890’s and predictions of what socialism would cause, we have a strong devotion to the dignity of the individual and to subsidiarity.  Those who use “social justice” without that context (especially subsidiarity) usually use it in the Marxist (or socialist)sense.  Ask yourself what the difference is between “justice” and “social justice” in normal parlance.  I think you will find that the Catholic meaning and context is ignored and socialism is implied.

Another Oscar Wilde-like artist of a time much closer to ours, whose Catholicism was a scandalous surprise to most: Andy Warhol. Interesting article on Warhol’s Catholicism: http://www.sarcc.org/a_look_at_andy.htm

Some more converts that I forgot:

Malcom Muggeridge
Robert Bork
Jeb Bush
King Charles II of England and his brother James II of England
Cardinal Avery Dulles
Lord David Alton - British politician and member of the House of Lords
Actress Susan Hayward
Doc Holiday
Bobby Jindal
Congressman Walter Jones (R-NC)
Joyce Kilmer, poet/Writer
Larry Kudlow
Father Richard John Neuhaus
Sister Nirmala, Mother Teresa’s successor in the Missionaries of Charity
Robert Novak
Walker Percy, writer
Vincent Price,actor
Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne
Frances Shand Kyd - Princess Di’s mother
Tony Snow

Martin, thanks for your clarification and perhaps I did protest a bit too much but it reflects a sense of fatigue with a lot of right-wing criticism (which fair to say your points didn’t fall under that category) with social justice equaling a form of Marxist thought. That was Glenn Beck’s schtick, which coincidently seemed to be the harbinger of his eventual fall from even Fox’s idea of media grace. Your understanding of social justice far exceeds our wildly apostate and lost brother. Sadly, Beck got a lot of undue traction out of his nonsensical remarks; and ironically enough our teachings received a far stronger defense in the press from the Evangelical Jim Wallis than from our ranks. Well, let’s be thankful for our allies, and Wallis is a worthy ally indeed. (Hmmm, now if only we can get him to cross the Tiber!)
  Hey now, that’s produced a wonderful thought to take to my sleeping hours tonight. Granted, Ann Coulter’s much more attractive, I’d still take two more Jim Wallises for every Coulter or Ingrahm. Let’s not forget Bill Moyers, too. The conservatives are bringing in their heroes, I’ve gotta pray for some of mine. Have a great night, and thanks for the pointer, Martin. Think of it this way, at least you gave me a shot to explain my position.

Some interesting converts have been named here. I have read that there is a very reasonable possibility that George Washington was baptized into the Catholic Church hours before his death.

Re: George Washington conversion articles can be found here: http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=217658

Good response Authentic.  I do not think that most politically conservative believers oppose helping “the least of these.” I think that they think that the responsibility to do so lies with the Church and not with the government.  Most conservatives believe that the Church and private citizens can do so with much lest beuracracy and waste.

More from the poetry front. 

Recently: Franz Wright and Mary Karr.  Both converts from unbelief and alcoholism, in his case, especially ruinous and coupled with other drugs.  Some of their poetry is explicitly religious.  And Mary, more famous as a best-selling memoirist than a poet, gave a characteristically pungent, short prose account of her journey as the afterword to her collection “Sinners Welcome.”  She writes with her dukes up, fearless.  In that book, poems that follow the label “Descending Theology” are imagistic episodes from the life of the Savior, vivid as Old Master paintings.  They seem to be the result of Ignatian meditation.  Here’s a Nativity: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/179/3#20605521 And here’s a link to the afterword, like the poem, first published in Poetry magazine: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/175809

The late Denise Levertov, of the generation of Ginsberg and Bishop, was a convert and wrote stunning poetry in transparent language.  She collected many of her poems on religious subjects into the volume “The Stream and The Sapphire.”

(All three of these Americans are on the left, religious and political—as is the “poetry community” in general—.  I’m on the right; but I love a good poem.)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, if not the greatest religious poet in the English language, is certainly on the short list of the greatest.  His peers are few: Herbert, Donne, Eliot.  Generally thought of as “Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins,” he was an Oxfordian whose conversion alienated his family, high Anglicans, and bore fruit in poems, like the famous “God’s Grandeur,” of wondrous intensity.

“And good heavens, do we really need another Clare Booth Luce? Spare us all from such imperious snobs.” Well, we’ve got you, Steven—why can’t we have a few more?

Touche’ Larry. If y’all got me, what more do you need for your daily snob quotient? LOL. After surviving the raisin’ of two boys and two girls through those “terrible teens” to young adulthood, some good natured ribbing will always be a balm to my soul on a beautiful Spring day! Larry, you and everybody else have a great one as well!

@Josiah. You did a good job of breaking down the basic gist of conservatism’s versus liberalism’s approaches towards helping the poor insofar as the old debated touches on the Church’s role. It’d be really nice to see the various churches and denomimations do more to help the poor, and I have full confidence that the majority of (at least the mainstream/mainline old Protestant denominations) and many non-denominational evangelical local churches want to do more, and indeed are rolling their sleeves up to demonstrate this desire. But they can only do so much, and they need the help of many other non-profits and even the government (through WIC) and other anti-poverty food assistance and housing programs that the federal and state governments have set up to work alongside churches and other agencies. This is subsidiarity in action. Unfortunately, there’s only going to be so much money left after all the budget cuts that were just passed and most likely more to come ... and what’s “left over” will look more like leftovers.
  There are other churches that are heavy into all this “end-time” theology that teaches that it’s not as important what we do now so long as we spiritually prepare for the Second Coming; and rest assure that the Lord will take care of all his poor children, so digging into one’s wallet or the government(s) trying to maintain whatever programs they can to assist the poor are just wasted efforts. Phooey. The people who buy into this nonsense have theological donut holes with Matthew 25:45 written all over them. Problem is, they don’t bother to read what that verse says. If they did, they’d be a lot more generous personally and civicly speaking; not so eager to give knee-jerk approvals to the latest “findings” from the Heritage Foundation to establish as one’s “talking” (er thinking) “points.”
  Sadly, there’s also a rising tendency among Baby Boomers and immediate subsequent generations who have bought into the “Hey, I’ve got mine, here’s a bone for you Mac” notion and that all will be okay if we just toss a bone or two in the shape of a Medicare Voucher, whatever. That’s the Paul Ryan notion. Far from what the Church expects. Well, guess what happens when we “Americanize” the Catholic Church in America? Lots of things none of us would wish upon for others if we really thought them over in the context of Jesus parable about the sheeps n’ goats.

I don’t remember anything in the Bible about Jesus FORCING anyone to do anything.  I don’t remember him confiscating.  I do remember that we should render unto Caesar as well as render unto God.  But I don’t remember that He said Caesar should provide bread and circuses for His people.  His PEOPLE were to provide for His people. 

So, I guess I don’t see how the Church would want to have the government tax the heck out of one group to provide for the other group.  God (and, it would follow, the Church) would want us to voluntarily (I say again:  VOLUNTARILY) provide for the sick and the poor (who will always be with us).

I can’t help but feel that when Government gets involved in my charitable giving, my donation (via taxes) may go for something I don’t really feel is proper.  Plus, they’ll take a bit more off the top for administration of whatever program than I think the Church would.

Please deliver us from the tyranny of the do-gooder.

Oscar Wilde during his imprisonment asked (among others) the works of Bl. Cardinal J. H. Newman. Newman’s works apparently had a deep impact on Wilde.

Although many see Wilde as a dandy and an hedonist, which he was, he was also a person who was seriously seeking the spiritual side of life.

So in spite he often professed a very superficial and hedonistic view on life, there was much more to Wilde than that… and in the end he matured into a more spiritual person.

Of course the spiritual side of Wilde is usually completely ignored, since most human secularists and atheists see him as a hero because of his lifestyle and hedonism… an they probably would hate the real Oscar Wilde, who, inspite his perhaps sometimes not so moral ways, he was also a person who was struggling to find the Divine… and in the end he did :)

Dan, you’re right: Jesus didn’t act as Rome or the Temple’s cheerleader when it came to taxes or public policy. Indeed, he spoke strongly and eloquently about our individual responsibilities to keep giving more voluntarily on top of meeting our civic requirements. In Jesus’ eyes, we can never give enough to help our fellow children of God. Nor did he say that just because we elect to follow his teachings and examples did that excuse us from facing the full extent of our civic responsibilities and meet them without whining.  Oft-times with an air of great exasperation and resignation to the tightfisted and tight-hearted attitudes he observed, Jesus never hesitated to remind his contemporaries (and all of us for all times) to both internally as well as outwardly share more of what they had. By the way, that message was for all times. He’s still trying to get that through our thickening heads and hearts today. Beggaring one’s neighbor, hardening one’s attitude towards the needy and supporting schemes that could only further enrich an already pampered and indifferent class of people angered him then (and now) like few other things. Why did Jesus feel compelled to teach us through economic stories, parables and examples more than any other way? The answer’s very simple:  we reflect our inner selves through our exterior attitudes towards God and our fellow brothers, sisters and children of God in the way we value our material goods.
  How marvelously instructive it would’ve been for the nation if Jesus was walking the halls of Congress last December when the billionaires pulled off one of the biggest displays of actual legal confiscation via upwards wealth distribution from the vast majority of American taxpayers to a tiny miniscule number of ultra-rich people. If Vermont’s Independent Senator Bernie Sanders’ one-man filibuster “The Speech” that he gave on the Senate floor, irritated so many wealthy people and their fawning scribes in the many tax lobbyists’ offices, conservative “press” and think tanks churning out one set of talking points after another to “justify” the transfer of nearly $700B in tax breaks to people who didn’t need or deserve them, one can only imagine what a show Jesus would’ve put on given what he did to the money changers’ tables in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. Dan, since you mentioned the word “confiscation,” by all means, let’s keep that word in mind when we ponder what this scandalous giveaway to the likes of Helen Walton and other ultra-beyond-ultra wealthy people who’ll just sock the money in off shore bank accounts and we’ll never see that amount come our way again, (short of a revolution.) 
  What that piece of legislation did was to create an even wider gap between this new oligharchic landed gentry—and the rest of us—who, along our kids and their kids for decades to come, will be paying this confiscatory redistribution of wealth. We can’t get around it Dan. It’s law and, until it’s repealed, we’ll have to pay for this largess that’ll create more and more people who’ll grow up believing they’re entitled to be born between third and home with the further knowledge that the league allowed for the groundskeepers to yank the catcher off the field for a free walk home, every inning, every hour, day and night for years to come. As Sanders put it very bluntly, “How much more do they need?”
  Do they need so much more that it’ll be harder to balance our books for years to come and more and more programs will have to be cut to pay for this extravagance? I wish I could say it was yet another unfunded mandate boondoggle but since you and I are paying for it, it’s not unfunded!  Can anybody honestly believe Jesus wouldn’t have lost his top for this? As bad as it was for the money changers to be given permission to soil his Father’s house, today’s huge costs in budget cuts that’ll be borne by many millions of people in various forms of legitimate need is no less offensive to the Lord. Given the magnitude of the ramifications to come through these cuts in vital programs so the wealthy can live in even greater luxury within their gated neighborhoods; I wouldn’t even want to dare contemplating God’s ire over this unspeakable theft.
  Don’t you think it’s more than even simply incongruous for all those defenders of HR 1’s cuts to have defended their budget slashing by saying, “Oh, I don’t want it on my conscience to know I did nothing to prevent my kids and yours and all our grandkids from having to shoulder this burdensome debt” …”? What consciences? If they had no qualms putting this scandalous tax break for the ultra-wealthy on the books last December, and with the help of their Tea Party acolytes, subsequently voted to kill all of the Affordable Care Act (obviously we can do without paying a dime for abortion) … what on earth gives them any rights to speak of protecting their tender consciences while they were all for cutting $700M from WIC, pre-natal health for pregnant moms, free school lunches (in violation of the Russell National Free Lunch law(!), funding from drug and alcohol abuse and treatment/prevention programs, Head Start,  programs for helping elderly afford decent housing, and I could go on and on.
  Oh yes, they pleaded for a continuation of government services so our soldiers serving across the world would be paid. While they were waving the Guardians of Plenty’s handy old “bloody shirt” … where were these great solons when base commanders were working hard to shut down the sleazy pay-day loan businesses that were sprouting like some Taliban soldier’s heroin poppies outside their respective base gates! Oh, maybe they were at some fundraising receptions put on by these “constituent” sharks. 
  Ah, more “confiscation” we should keep our eyes out for: The ripple effect of Federal slash n’ burn cutting on programs states and towns need to meet their budgets. When a state loses out, it passes it’s losses to your towns’ or county assessors’ respective offices. For those of you who live where you have to pay both municipal as well as county taxes on top of any state income and sales taxes, if you want those programs to continue and still be able to afford paying for your soon to be rising property taxes on top of your basic mortgages, good luck, and I mean it sincerely. Renters will get socked. HOW are your state’s and towns’ highways looking these days? Filling those cracks, potholes and making sure bridges won’t collapse like the one in Minnesota not too long ago will cost money. Not making these necessary repairs will cost even more.
  How are your local hospitals doing? Are your fire department trucks and EMT vehicles up to par? How are your local health facilities going to manage all these “tax dollar/job creating … necessary” budget cuts? How many jobs are your hospitals and clinics going to save if there’s no bread for this ugly circus to come?
  Here’s an idea. Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA) has the solution! Drum roll for HR 25 “The Fair Tax” please! Woodall’s dream would eliminate Caesar’s Imperial Revenue Service and replace all those complicated forms with a national sales tax of 23 percent. Yeah, right. 23 percent. Look, I’m from Massachusetts, the original Tea Party state and even what George III got the Yankees up here all riled up about didn’t even come close to Woodall’s gem, not to mention our 6.25 sales tax and 5 pct non-graduated income tax. It’s the added fees and other gimmicks that really kill business growth.  While you’re at it folks, take a look at Woodall’s “prebate” scheme designed to ensure “fairness.” http://woodall.house.gov/issue/fairtax And to think this guy spent 16 years as a top aide to the man he succeeded, former Rep. John Linder. Must’ve had a slow learning curve in that office.
  Never mind the Woodall’s of the world, here’s a group of people working alongside our Bishops to make sure Jesus’ real intentions will be met, Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Catholic Bishop’s Conference. Neither organization is sticking their necks out saying, “NO” to all responsible budgetary cuts. They’re being quite reasonable. However, there’s a difference between being reasonable and appeasing/groveling/caving in/and embracing defeatism and not fighting for the “least among” Jesus’ brothers and sisters. That’s not confiscation; that’s fighting for the Lord.  Confiscation occurs when the devil gets to take his pound of flesh and nobody has the guts to say, “Wait a minute” and actually work towards putting a stop to more of these outrageous raids on the public’s treasury, and standing up to say, “I’m not going to play the Biblical literalist proof texting game when a huge theft is robbing the vast majority of the American public … even if playing that ‘safe’ game is the ‘most practical’ way of looking at things.” Was Jesus being practical when he took his stick to the money changers’ tables?

Steven:
Unfortunately, the growth in government has replaced the individual giving charity and alms to the poor, to “get their hands dirty,” so to speak. Why do you think so many men love abortion: I can love’em and leave’em and the government will take care of them? I remember years ago Marlon Brando marching for the homeless — for the “government” to do something — and then going home to his mansion and not lifting a finger to help the homeless, like actually taking one or two in and giving them a break. It is that “social justice” that is not really justice, it’s making myself “feel good” that I “did something.” He wanted to “force” everyone else to do what he didn’t want to and very clearly could afford; that ain’t charity.
Now, we are paying dearly for this growth — and stupidity, like the Wall Street bailout — that no one really thought about the consequences and guess who gets hurt? Those who can’t afford it. Now, people are needed to help because the government can’t and people are struggling to afford to help. How many of our leaders are absolute misers when it comes to their own substantial loot but very “generous” when it comes to ours? That is not “social justice” either.
By the way, on the topic of converts, I really don’t care if they are “celebs” or not; are they sincere? We shall see what the fruits end up being for many of them. If Glenn Beck reverts to his earlier faith, I will give him the benefit of the doubt until something tells me otherwise. Unfortunately, we live in a media-driven celebrity-crazy culture, so for many people, Hollyweird can and will have major effect for good or ill, even in the spiritual realm. Look at Oprah!

if God might one day hear my prayers that my wife would consider the faith… and me so poor an example, what hope is there?

@T ... Brother, I’ve been there, and by “there” I mean a certain level you don’t want to take yourself to or your relationship with your wife over religious differences. That level is where inner frustrations seep or boil right out when they don’t even need to be dwelled on to the point where you become overly strung out. Check out the Coming Home International Forum/website set up by Marcus Grodi, whose show “The Journey Home” is run regularly on EWTN. You’ll get lots of excellent advice and support.
  Getting back to that “there” I referred to above: When I was younger and more full of myself to the point that I’d insist on having the final word in every dispute, boy was I a royal pain who deserved a good revolution. Thankfully she’s not French, or Russian. My wife does have good Yankee Puritan lineage in her so ... yeah, there’s that Charles I I’ve gotta recall. Seriously ... God hears your prayers today as He’s heard them all along and will continue hearing them in the moments ahead. But even in addition to your prayers on behalf of your wife to God, show her and Him that your love is UNCONDITIONAL no matter where she worships Him. That demonstration of such love will do so much for the both of you that no matter if you never “settle” your differences, you’ll still be bound closer together and your level of mutual happiness can only improve because you’ll certainly receive His Blessings and they never disappoint those who truly and patiently, trust, serve and most importantly Love HIM. Love her for who she is, God’s child and His gift for you to love, cherish and honor for life.
  My wife and I have yet to “settle” this gap, but you know something? After 27+ years, we’re even closer now than ever; giving truth to the words in those familar words, “the two shall become one.” Send up a prayer and get on over to the Coming Home Forum. You can even tell moderators Becky or Dave I sent ya. Trust Him, love her unconditionally and may you and your wife find joy and mutual happiness, but ya gotta LET GOD DO THE REST.

Wonderful, enlightening list.  Ad majorem Dei gloriam. For those who don’t know, Alexis Carrel is known for his work in vascular surgery, developing a surgical technique know as the Carrel Triangle for anastomosing (sewing) two blood vessels together, now especially useful in microsurgery.

Excellent points James. I’m still crackin’ up envisioning your description of Brando, and you were obviously reaching back into the past to come up with that. Let me update that a bit with the scandal involving Al…the internet inventor and earth’s co-defender along with that Gaian Priestess Oprah…Gore. Seems he has this whopper of a mansion in Tenn that was burning a hole in more than his wallet. It was also burning a hole in his credibility the moment his electricity bill became public knowledge. At least one of the Dems he wanted to succeed, LBJ, made it a point to be a royal pain about turning off lights, and Johnson, to his credit, never treated the WH as his house. LOL, the same couldn’t be said for AF-One or “They’re all my helicopters, son.” But look at the small place Johnson retired to, as a near recluse, too. Far cry from today’s exemplars of civic and moral rectitude.
  Admittedly, I put my wide rear out on the fence a few too many inches across the “saftey tipping point” concerning “celeb converts.” And I apologize if my remarks offended anybody. Ironically enough, some Mormons expressed their misgivings about “celeb converts” in their faith as well; particularly Glenn Beck. Besides, this is not a guy with a very stable track record; he’s forever “on to something” and whatever keeps him in the public eye, will be his fancy for that moment. It’d be a lot better for all parties if they kept a VERY low profile, ala St. Paul, upon conversion. St. Paul’s wilderness years didn’t hurt either his zeal or understanding of God’s purposes in Christianity; and think of all we’ve gained since. Maybe it’s just myself, but when somebody with a big name and following crosses the Tiber, there’s this tendency of the Catholic press to play the role of the announcer in “The Right Stuff” (1982)during a huge Texas-sized party thrown by LBJ, who bellowed, “Heeeere are yourrrrr Astrohhhhhhhnauts” almost as if they were being deified before they ever flew into space. Hey, maybe I’m wrong. But those are my two-bits on this.
  What I can’t seem to understand is this urge by some Catholic Americans to proclaim their sense of awe and over-the-top admiration for some notable converts, and primarily because “at the last moments in their lives, they saw the light” and converted. Had the fans of these last-minute converts really given a good look over their REAL, not packaged, biographies, just because they want to believe they made a death-bed conversion (as in the case of George Washington, not only the young nation’s “Father of his Country” but also its most recognized leading FREEMASON ... c’mon, let’s have a reality check here ...)—I don’t believe they’d be so fawning.
  Fellow readers/comment posters ... take John Wayne: please. Better yet, get a hold of author Glenn Greenwald’s “Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics.” (2008 Crown, NYC) But in fairness, I hope Greenwald has a store of pins for pricking Democratic balloons or big heads. If he aims for more Hollywood stars, he’ll have a lot more to burst within the Lefty crowd. Pardon my cynicism, but it protects me from the heartbreak of knowing (when it’s too late) I should’ve paid more attention to that good old Biblical admonition against placing too much of our trust in princes, celebs or even celeb converts.

GET READY FOR A (QUALIFIED) FLIP FLOP ADMISSION ON MY PART. One of the “joys” of Lent is the duty we all have in taking this special time of year to think about what we’ve done and shouldn’t have done. Well, thinking back on some of my comments about present-day celeb converts, I realize that I was out of line. Who am I to judge? Just who am I to judge when I should’ve been more simply overjoyed that these people saw what Catholicism offers and they wanted in? And at least they took the public heat for what major spiritual changes they made in their spiritual journey with God. How much more blessed would we all be in the Church if more lapsed Catholics came back into the Church because of the respective different examples set by these (yes, BRAVER) “celeb converts”? Okay, Newt Gingrich royally botched the explanation for his past major sins which caused him to lose his prior marriage and Speakership. How many other pols have done worse, yet at least one of them is featured on our currency?
  In many respects, I’d behaved like so many crusty-minded “cradle Catholics” who all of a sudden have discovered a lot of new folks in their parishes pews and boy, are these newcomers bringing a whole fresh enthusiastic spirit. (This kind of spiritual rattling of the old guard’s or the smug guard’s tender sensibilities isn’t just a “catholic thing,” but we have to admit to far too much of it going on lately. Just look at the resistance put up by priests (no less!) over in the UK! Granted, there are more practicing Catholics in that supposedly “free and democratic” constitutional monarchy ... which still gets away with keeping its religious discrimination laws prohibiting its own head of state, the queen, and future kings, from marrying, much less becoming a Catholic. And one would think our clergy over there would be dancing in the aisles. Nope. They’re frightened about the “newbies” and the fresh spirit they’re bringing in, a new fresh spirit with a far more traditionalist outlook than they’ve been used to since all the goofy Kumbayesque changes that’ve plagued our Church since Vatican II ... and this occured on both sides of the “Pond.”
  There’s a parallel here and unfortunately, in my own small (er, smallish) individual way, I fell right into the trap of even emulating this awful smug behavior demonstrated by our English clerics and indeed, many American Catholics who…having not fully come to grips with their own sins of lapsing out… or falling away for years into apostasy as I had before I reverted, all of a sudden discovered that whatever changes we’d like to see implemented in “Church life,” we’d better realize that they need to begin from within ourselves first.
  As for the “qualified” part of my mea culpa here. I still believe we shouldn’t be overly fawning of any fellow Catholic just because he or she “saw the light” just before the two in the front of their heads closed for good as all of ours will one day. What I said about Wayne stands but only as a “red flag advisory” against the pitfalls of putting some public figures who purposely went out of their way to deceive the public for little more than preserving some slickly packaged image that’d take them from one undeserved level of “success” after another, or at least kept them out of the melting heat of the glare from the press once the slightest crack began showing up. If we think Charlie Sheen’s bad, at least he’s melting before our eyes and he’s got a devout Catholic father in Martin Sheen, who albeit being embarrassed to no end, will we should be sure will be there as always to bring his very prodigal son around, again and again ... as any loving father would do. God has for me more times than I can possibly thank Him for. I try in my own and sometimes gamely way. And in fairness to Wayne, his final last measure of true grit paid off in the spiritual legacy he passed on to his much splintered families.
  There you have it; my (more public and informal) Lenten ‘fessin. While distance prevents me from meeting with a certain “celeb convert” priest from a prominent and rising religious movement across the Globe, I’m definitely going to have him on my mind when I make my next formal Confession.
  Yes, we should be wary of the seductive powers of influence, fame, celebrity status. But we also shouldn’t knock/judge the people harshly and unfairly any more than we’d like to be knocked/judged by our neighbors, et al in our respective communities; especially on religious topics. If any person says something outrageous, the outrageous thing he or she says or does is what deserves the judgment, not the individual. Yet, for writers and other commentators, this is one of THE hardest temptations to grapple with. Anybody who’s had his or her opinions published and heard lots of compliments, and “Oh yeah(s)... keep at it(s)” knows what I’m referring to: PRIDE. It’s one of the few instances where you’ll see a group of people, writers/commentators, who should know better because of all the things and other people they write and talk about, especially their foibles—have this tendency, as if by snapping their fingers in the direction of where they’re aiming at or want to go, seem to create their own potholes for themselves to fall into. And crazily enough, what do we do? We make our fumbles even more ridiculous to watch the moment our first reactions come out as we blame city hall or some other handy target instead of ourselves and our unwillingness to recognize our PRIDE and foibles.
  I beg forgiveness from anybody I offended for my harsh and judgmental remarks about “celeb converts.”  At least they’re knocking on the doors and bringing in a new spirit and life into the Church. Thus we should all be far more grateful and less picky; especially myself.

@Steven - Thank you for your kind words.  I drew much strength and hope from them.

Delighted T(!)—and thank you for your kind reply. Always a delight to pick a brother up! I’ve been there and trust me on this, God’s got you covered and things will be alright.  Again, THANKS.
Steven

Steven:
I, too, share your concern for giving too much credence to the major “conversions” for those who then refuse to admit of their past sins and their previously-held beliefs. Norma McCorvey and Dr. Nathanson repented of their abortion pasts (more so the Dr. because I don’t think Norma was ever really a zealot for abortion); Jane Fonda, who made a big to-do about being baptized Catholic, is still an abortion extremist. Does that mean I “give up” on her as maybe being a true convert? No, but it means that if nothing has really changed in her life, then maybe the “conversion” wasn’t much of one. How I look at it is how does the media view it? If they “loved” the person before — Steven Baldwin comes to mind — and now, all of a sudden, they are either despised or ignored, chances are, the conversion was real. I believe he has repudiated much, if not all, of what he used to believe.  In a very real way, if a celeb convert all of a sudden comes under increasing “scrutiny” from the press, chances are you have a true one. For example, Nathanson used to be celebrated by the press for his “compassion” but that all changed after he became “one of THEM!”
Hope that helps this discussion. If not, my alter ego, Semaj, wrote this!!!

Pol Pot converted too.

It seemed that the comments strayed into just listing converts.  I was interested in seeing other suggestions for the most unexpected converts.  I would include in such a list:
Evelyn Waugh
Doc Holliday
James II
Alice B. Toklas

I meant Charles II, not James II.  James was also a convert, but Charles stand out, in my mind, as more “unexpected.”

You’re forgetting ‘Sitting Bull’ who was converted by French Canadian Jesuits. ‘Sitting Bull Wore A cRUCIFIX’:
http://cantuar.blogspot.com/2011/04/photo-sitting-bull-wore-crucifix.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+taylormarshall+(Canterbury+Tales+by+Taylor

The golfer Bobby Jones, a class act in every way, converted not long before his death in 1971.

Last weekend at an estate sale I bought a book by Alexis Carrel that was a result of an origial manuscript written in French, detailing his initial trip to Lourdes in 1903. It is titled, “The Voyage to Lourdes”.  It was published in 1950 by Harper Brothers and copyright to Anne Carrel. 

The poscript indicates that the “voyage” “was a milestone in the inner life and spiritual development of Alexis Carrel, the facts he was able to estable at that time also had permanent impact on his research as a scientist.”  The preface to the book notes that, he desired to “find a
bridge between science and religion.” It goes on to pen what was Dr. Carrel’s prayer before he died:

  “I pray that God will grant me another ten years of work. With what I have learned, and with what I have experience, I believe I shall succeed in establishing, scientifically, certain objective relationships between the spiritual and material, and thereby show the truth and the beneficence of Christianity.”

He had the grace to know that there is an “objective relationship” between science and religion, but he died before he could summarize it for the world. Have we had any scientist or physician since who unequivocally had this same goal?

>>Steven said:  That was Glenn Beck’s schtick, which coincidently seemed to be the harbinger of his eventual fall from even Fox’s idea of media grace. Your understanding of social justice far exceeds our wildly apostate and lost brother. Sadly, Beck got a lot of undue traction out of his nonsensical remarks; and ironically enough our teachings received a far stronger defense in the press from the Evangelical Jim Wallis than from our ranks. Well, let’s be thankful for our allies, and Wallis is a worthy ally indeed. (Hmmm, now if only we can get him to cross the Tiber!)

Steven,
Just to clarify, Glenn Beck still has a contract with Fox News to do specials for them.  So he hasn’t fallen completely from media grace.  I wouldn’t throw him on the dustbin of history just yet.

I recall Glenn Beck actually stating on his radio show that the Catholic Church is the only church out there that gets the meaning of social justice correct.  He was trying explain that the term social justice has been co-opted by so many groups out there some with Marxist tendencies. 

As for Jim Wallis, I must strongly disagree with you about him being an ally of Catholic social justice.  Seems to me he’s more of any ally of big government.  I find the Acton Institute with founder Fr. Serico (sp?) to be a strong ally of Catholic social justice.

As for John Waynne, here is (one) newspaper article at the time of his death that states he converted, for what it’s worth

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ApIuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2503,4869301&dq=john-wayne+catholic&hl=en

Very interesting indeed - and numerous others I’m sure….

Mr. M. Savage,
Elgar was not the convert, his mother was.  He was baptized.  Also there is some lingering question as to whether Mahler’s was sincere or merely pragmatic.  Either way, the music of each has a special resonance with me.

Rock Hudson, though raised a Roman Catholic, lost his way and led an atheist’s life throughout his celebrity years. On his death bed a priest was sent for; he heard Hudson’s confession, gave him communion and administered the last rites. God works in mysterious ways, and Heaven’s gates are wide open to the penitent even at the last minute.