Dr. J. Budziszewski

That's when I first discovered Thomas Aquinas.

That's when I read Augustine.

That's when I read Dante.

And I thought, well, gee, this sure looks Christian to me.

And I did not abandon...

I still had a profound critique, I thought, of the Catholic Church.

I agreed, I thought, with what Luther had said, as I understood it, when he said, on the doctrine of justification, the Church stands or falls.

Justification meaning the doctrine of how we become right and just in the eyes of God and reconciled to Him.

And he said, that's not by works, but that's by faith, and the Catholic Church has that all wrong.

Well, I came to realize that what he said the Catholic Church believed wasn't what the Catholic Church believed anyway.

But nevertheless, I thought that it was at this time, so I didn't want to become Catholic.

But with all this good stuff, quote unquote, I wanted to have a foot in Catholic tradition.

So I thought, well, I'll become an Episcopalian, which is the local offshoot of the Anglican Communion, the Church of England, and they'd always prided themselves on being a middle way between the Reformation and the Catholic Church.

I came to realize that they weren't a middle way.

But that wasn't really it.

What was was that the problems in the Episcopal Church were so overwhelming, and the communion was melting down.

Many sections of it were schisming off and forming what are called continuing Anglican communions, the North American Anglican Church and all kinds of others.

And, I mean, the presiding bishop was a homosexual who had run off with his lover and abandoned his wife and children, for example.

Oh, my gosh.

And my wife and I thought of ourselves as part of the faithful remnant.