Tracey Rowland is Dean and Permanent Fellow in Political Philosophy and Continental Theology at the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne and an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Faith, Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of several works including two books on the theology of Pope Benedict XVI. As told to Debbie Warrier.
Although I was baptised an Anglican, I was sent to a convent school and found myself in the position of being top of my class for catechism but unable to make my First Communion. This was at a time when religious education was as academically rigorous as learning grammar and maths.
To resolve this problem, I was accepted into full Communion with the Catholic Church one Friday morning in the presence of my classmates, and then two days later we all made our First Communion on the Feast of Christ the King.
At the time I was too young to understand all the fights which had led to the Anglican schism, although I was aware of some of them.
I had certainly heard about Henry VIII’s six wives and I had also heard of the IRA.
Each side had its share of embarrassing characters, but what impressed me most were the nuns who taught me and the kind of culture they generated in my school.
Being an Anglican at a convent school was like going on an adventure in a foreign country. There was solemn Mass and Benediction, hymns in Latin and the Angelus bell at noon. There were also feast days and fast days with the associated variations in food on offer at the tuckshop. We learned about saints and we collected ‘holy cards’ – bookmarks bearing the image of a saint. We were often given them as a reward for getting high marks and we would swap them among ourselves. I had a St Tarcisius which was extremely rare. The first hymn I learned was Ubi Caritas et Amor.
I often think it is tragic when I hear teachers say that they have to water down the presentation of the faith in Catholic schools because so many of the children are not from Catholic families. If I had entered a culture which was just like everything else on offer at every other school around town, I would never have learned anything special and I would never have converted.
One of the key characteristics of secularism is that it is boring. I have never regretted my decision to convert, though when I attend an Evensong service I feel a slight twinge of homesickness. While the Anglican communion has many problems, it is, at least, liturgically rich. As far as I know, the Anglo-Catholics never fell for Kum-by-yah or Marty Haugen.
I hope that many thousands of Anglicans join the Ordinariate which has been offered to them by Pope Benedict and that they bring their liturgical treasures with them. They have been in the tragic position of being, in a sense, culturally Catholic, but out of communion with the See of Peter and all the rest of us in it. I look forward to many new Catholic parishes dedicated to Our Lady of Walsingham.