Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, became Catholic on Sunday, the first of thousands that will join the Church at Easter.
The U.S. bishops’ conference reported Tuesday that around 150,000 are scheduled to join the Catholic Church this Easter.
The press release noted that “the numbers show the growth and vitality of the Catholic Church in places where it has traditionally been a small minority.”
The Archdiocese of Atlanta estimates that 513 catechumens, who have never been baptized, and 2,195 candidates, who were baptized in another Christian community and are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, will enter the Church this year, not including infant baptisms.
Tony Blair, Robert Bork, Sam Brownback…rumor has it that former President Bush is on the path to conversion, and Mikhail Gorbachev was spotted praying at a shrine to St. Francis of Assisi not too long ago…now Newt Gingrich enters the fold. As a Catholic “revert” (born Catholic, drifted away, came back) I can partially understand what these people go through as they enter the Church, but as someone who has never been other than Catholic, I don’t have any insight into just why they turned towards Catholicism…other than, of course, the workings of the Holy Spirit.
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