The Irresistableness of Catholicism

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October 8, 2013 by mattfradd

The following post is in honor of a friend of mine, Donny Pauling, who after much prayer, study, and wrestling with God, has made the decision to become a Catholic (Woot!).

Donny is a former Playboy producer and we have had the great joy of working together in the past (anyone attend our interview in that dingy punk bar in Ottawa?), and have a lot of plans to work together in the future.

If you feel so inclined, go tell Donny congratulations by writing on this FB wall.

And now . . . What Chesterton said about the irresistibleness of Catholicism:

“It is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church

The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it.

But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair.

The man has exactly the same sense of having committed or compromised himself; of having been in a sense entrapped, even if he is glad to be entrapped. But for a considerable time he is not so much glad as simply terrified.

It may be that this real psychological experience has been misunderstood by stupider people and is responsible for all that remains of the legend that Rome is a mere trap.

But that legend misses the whole point of the psychology. It is not the Pope who has set the trap or the priests who have baited it. The whole point of the position is that the trap is simply the truth.

The whole point is that the man himself has made his way towards the trap of truth, and not the trap that has run after the man.”
– G.K Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion (1926).

Read the full paper here