Jeg leste nylig om Allen Hunt, en tidligere metodist-pastor, som ble opptatt i Den katolske kirkes fulle fellesskap i januar i år. Det hadde da gått over 15 år siden han for først ble virkelig kjent med katolikker og Den katolske kirke. Det var flere ting som til slutt førte ham inn i Kirken, men han nevner spesielt Kristi virkelige tilstedeværelse i eukaristien:
It was 1991 in Connecticut at Yale University that he befriended a Dominican priest, Father Steven Boguslawski. Both were working on doctorates in New Testament history.
Father Steven, who now heads the Dominican House of Studies at Catholic University of America and is executive director of the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C., recalled giving the Southerner a lift from class to Hunt’s home and instantly making a connection with the young family. …
Seeds, in the form of seemingly random meetings with Catholics, took root. As a Protestant, Hunt was intrigued by a visit with Father Steven to a convent of cloistered nuns for Lenten reflections. He was one of few non-ordained men to meet with the women who spend their days in prayer away from society. … A class tour of Rome along with Father Steven showed Hunt the picture of the global Catholic Church.
His exploration of the faith also introduced him to Catholic doctrine. As Hunt wrote in his blog: “Finally, I have always struggled with the idea I call ‘doctrine by democracy.’ I simply struggle with the concept that we Protestants vote on certain things to decide what is true.”
And Hunt was attracted to the Catholic belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. «When my heart changed on that, I pretty much had to become Catholic,” he said.
Also he said it “grieves my heart” that there are 30,000 branches of Christianity in America. “I believe that continuing division and debate over essentials provides a poor witness to the world about our Christian unity in the one Lord,” he wrote in his blog.
When Hunt made up his mind to pursue becoming Catholic last year, he met with Msgr. Henry Gracz, pastor of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta, for conversations, one clergyman to another. He also talked with Father David Dye, a former Episcopal priest who became a Catholic, to glean how the Mount Pisgah congregation might react. Father Dye administers Mary Our Queen Church where Hunt is now a parishioner.