Jeg leste et interessant intervju i The Independent med en engelsk prest, som bl.a. kjente Blair-familien svært godt i årevis før Tony Blair nylig ble katolikk, og har hjulpet også svært mange andre mennesker til å bli katolikker. Han er samtidig økumenisk rådgiver i Westminster (katolske) bispedømme i London; en litt vanskelig kombinasjon, kanskje – som vi kan grunne litt på nå som den økumeniske bønneuken snart starter.
… doesn’t Father Seed’s extracurricular work with converts make an already difficult job a great deal tougher? It must be hard, after all, to build ecumenical bridges with other churches when they suspect you are only interested in poaching their members.
To his credit, he doesn’t even blink at the suggestion. «It is,» he agrees, «a paradox. Yes, I accept it is a total and absolute paradox. And I have never been comfortable with it.» But, he offers by way of defence, he took on his official post as ecumenical adviser just at a time when the Church of England was moving finally towards ordaining women, and that meant he found himself in the front line when disgruntled Anglicans started coming over to Catholicism – which bans women’s ordination – in droves. «It is certainly eccentric, though,» he concedes.
The paradox, as he describes it, puts me briefly in mind of a double agent, but then I look at Father Seed and know it can’t be true. He is one of those highly intelligent but essentially childlike men. Clever, open but naive.
Has receiving so many high-profile people into the Catholic Church damaged his personal credibility as an advocate of ecumenism? «There was a time, » he recalls, «when the cardinal [Hume] had an open evening for Anglican clergy thinking of Catholicism. I set out 60 chairs in the Throne Room upstairs. In the end, 300 came. We had informed George – George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury – what we were doing, but it did cause tension.»
