Graham Greene converted to Catholicism when he was in his twenties, not late in his life (he lived into his eighties).

I don't know what's sadder: holding on to a fairy tale you were told in childhood as the truth, or believing a fairy tale you are told as an adult when you should be able sustain a rational line of thought.

Conversion fascinates me - any conversion. But, having been raised a Roman Catholic, I'm particularly interested when adults turn to Rome.I well remember the epic intellectual battles during religion classes in school, debating the infallibility of the Pope, Mary's Immaculate Conception and Ascension, the belief in Transubstantiation and other tenets I could never quite believe. It is hard for me to understand how people could ACCEPT such ideas, let alone come to them.

hermese... I am with you 100%.

While there is some wisdom contained in the teachings of various churches and religions, faith (belief beyond reason) just doesn't wash today.

Religion is a club that only certain people belong to. Religion tears society apart.

Perhaps someone can identify the source of this statement:

Good people will do good things, and evil people will do evil things.
But in order for good people to do evil things, you need religion.

It's actually good news to see social-political figures have an encounter with the living God. An encounter with his Holy Spirit whose love superpasses human words to describe. An encounter with Truth itself..Jesus and the fount of his Grace given to the world in his church, the Catholic Church...filled with sinners but sustained by his Grace and Mercy. I remember after encountering Jesus in the Eucharist I wanted to run out of the chapel and tell all my friends: It's All True!!!

Faith is a gift and it has to be nourished, prayed for, and safe-guarded. "God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 Jn 4:16)
My whole Christian experience can be summed up in the Gospel passage qouting Jesus at the last supper: "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home in him." (Jn 14:23)

If you have an open heart you should read this document...it's so true and pertinent to our culture

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf _ben-xvi_enc_20051225_deus-caritas-est_en.html

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
--Steven Weinberg--

one of my faves

T.S. Eliot was an Anglo-Catholic member of the Church of England, not a Roman Catholic.

"I believe in this, and its been tested by research: He who f---s nuns, will later join the church." --The Clash

"It often seemed to me that religious precepts were being put in place of the will of God-which could be so unexpected and so alarming-for the sole purpose of sparing people the necessity for understanding God's will." -Carl Jung

T.S. Eliot was an Anglican of the High Church variety. Greene as the other post said became a Catholic early in life. I am a convert myself but I must say it is getting harder and harder. I will take either Baltimore Catechism no. 3 or Vatican II but this strange stuff from the Vatican and the blogs gets me.

Saying, "for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." is a bad rap. George Bernard Shaw said: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Cleobulous, Pre-Homeric Greek philosopher, said "The chief source of evil among men is excessive good." Perverted morality is not limited to religious motivation.

Who cares what anyone's religion is.

Sigh, I guess the only acceptable bias now is against people who choose to practice a faith. I was surprised and disappointed that people whom I considered fellow liberals suddenly tore me a new one after I revealed I was church-going RC. Whatever happened to tolerance?