The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-02-01
STORY OF A CONVERT.
George Parsons LathroP Writes of His
Reasons for Entering the Church.

nSdSOUS IOI 1IS SuNISus
The Boston Pilot recently printed
the story of the conversion of Mr..
and Mrs. George Parsons Lathrop
(Rose Hawthorne, daughter of Ma
thaniel Hawthorne) and the fact of
her present work as Sister Rose in
charge of the home and hospital for
those afflicted with incurable cancer,
in New York.
Mr. Lathrop was for several years
the editor of The Boston Courier and
well-known literateur of New Eng
land. The story of his conversion
from his own pen, is as follows
Humanity speaking, l entered into
Catholicity as result of long thought
and meditation upon religion, continu-
ing through number of years. But
there must have been deeper force
at work, that of the Holy Spirit, by
means of what we call grace, for a
longer time than l suspected. Ger
tainly was not attracted by the fas-
cinations of Rome, that are so glibly
talked about, but which no one has
ever been able to define to me.
Perhaps, those that use the phrase
refer to the outward symbols of ritual,
that are simply the expressive adorn-
ment of the inner meaning-the flow
er of it. l, at any rate, never went
to Mass but once with any compre-
hension of it before my conversion
and had seldom ever witnessed Cath
olic services anywhere; although now,
with knowledge and experience,
recognize the Mass-which even that
arch-unorthodox author, Thomas
Carlyle, called the only genuine thing
of our times'-as the greatest action
in the world.
MANY Catholics have been known
to. me of varying merit; and some OF
them were valued friends. But none
of these ever urged or advised or even
limited that l should come into the
Church. The best of them had Gas
large numbers of my fellow-C atholics
have today that same modesty and
reverence toward the sacred mysteries
that caused the early Christians also
to be slow in leading catechumens-ol
those not yet fully prepared for be
lief into the great truths of faith. My
observations of life, however, increas
ingly convinced me that vital, cen
trail, unchanging principle in religion
was necessary, together with one
great association of Christians in place
of endless divisions, if the promise
made to men was to be fulfilled Of
really had been fulfilled.
when l began to ask questions
1 found Catholics quite ready to an
swer everything with entire straight
forwardness, gentle good will, ye
firmness. Neither they nor the Church
evaded anything. They presented anC
defended the teaching of Christ in its
entirety, unexaggerated and undimin
ished; the complete faith, without
haggling or qualification, or that queer
loose assent to every sort of individ
ual exception and denial that is al
lowed in other organizations.
Il may say here, too, that the
Church instead of being narrow Of
pitiless toward those not of her com
munion, as she is often mistakenly
said to be, is the most comprehensive
of all in her Interpretation Of Cod:
mercy as we'll as of His justice, and
instead of sighting the Bible, she
uses it more necessarily than any o
the Protestant bodies; at the same
time shedding upon it such a clear
deem light that it is the only Churcl
that ever enabled me to see it's full
meaning and conference.
"The fact is, those outside of thu
Church nowadays are engaged in talk
ing so noisily and at such a rate, Of
their own hook, that they seldom
pause to hear what the Church reall
says or to understand what she is
Once convinced of the true faith, il
tellectually and spiritually, could no
let anything stand in the way of al
firming my loyalty to it."