The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-05-30
1 GONVER T's ST DRY
EX-SENATOR LoRIMER OF cHIcA-
GO TELLS THE STORY or HIS
CONVERSION TO cATHoLIcITY.

lew weeks ago we announced the
reception of Ex-senator LOrimer of |
Chicago into the Catholic Church. He
gives the following interesting account
of his journey from Presbyterianism
to Catholicity:
Il hoped that when I became a
Catholic nothing might be written or
said about it. There are so many
conversions every day, including men
and women far more prominent than
I am, and I trusted that my religious
convictions, at least, would be left to
me alone" said Mr.. Lorimer in his
Office in La Sale Street.
For more than fifteen years have
read every book on the subject of con-
troVersial theology that could get,'
he continued. 81 felt, at last, that the
only thing for me to do was to be-
come Catholic because of my honest
convictions. l have travelled over the
same route that many others have
gone. / did not want to join the Cath
ole Church, but l felt compelled to
investigate, and the deeper my re-
search the more settled my convic-
lions became. So I am Catholic in
spite of myself.
II was born in Scotland, the son of
a Presbyterian minister, and a very
strict Presbyterian, too. / went to
Sunday school until l was twenty
years old, and all the time I heard
nothing but condemnation of the Cath
olic Church. grew to hate it and to
! fear it. 1t was my hatred of it that
led to my conversion, for I argued
with myself: How can thing so evil
as they say the Catholic Church is
continue to exist? How can an insti-
tuition the deeds of which are said to
be so vile and self-seeking continue to
cumber the earth?' I began my in
quiry as an enemy. I entered the lists
as champion of the Protestant cause.
I found that the Church was not evil,
but good. I discovered that there was
nothing to protest against, and I be
came convinced that when one starts
out to find truth in religion one will
come at last to the Catholic Church,
no matter how strong ones prejudice
may be.
Year after year I read all the
books l could get, I studied the life
of Cardinal Newman. I devoured his
Apologize and found out how he
: struggled for two years after he left
the Church of England before he final
ly did the thing he hoped not to do
and became a Catholic. read of the
conversion of Cardinal Manning and
many others. And then of course I
had the example always before my
eyes of my wife and children, who
! were Catholics and attended strictly
to their religious duties.
II began my investigation at the be-
ginning. If Caesar lived, if Nero lived,
then Christ must have lived They
7 are all historical characters and the
fact that they lived is we'll established.
The. arguments that some advance
that Christ was an impostor were sue
2 cessfully refuted for me by the fact
that He went to the cross If He had
been an impostor He might have said
SO, and His enemies would gladly have
set Him free and laughed His follow.
ers to scorn. But He died. If He was
mad as some say He was then how
!, was it that of all the minds of His
day His was the brightest and clear
est and the philosophy He taught
was the most profound and lasting OF
all the doctrines of that age or any
other?
$50, admitting Christianity to be a
: vital truth, I found that the Church
has been the conservator of truth fol
: centuries, and that when the storms
came and beat against it, the Church
stood like rock, while other creeds
p rose and fell and split into fragments
+ Recently I have seen upon the bill
! boards pictures calling upon men anG
!. women to take their little children te
church. Catholics need no such ap
peal They always go to church al
= a part of their religious duty in which
= they cannot fail. found my admira
! ton growing and my conviction
a strengthening until at last /, too, haC
! to do the thing for conscience sake
:. that had struggled against doing fol
fifteen years, because for all that time
@ I have felt that ought to do the thing
" have just done.
c 81 do not know that am any better
j. now than I have been. I just fee
d that 1 am touching back to apostolic
d times as member of the same Church
l. that Christ founded and to which He
n said He would send His spirit so a!
n to guide it unto all truth"
n