In 1998, four years after he was received into the Catholic Church, Charles Moore had an audience with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He gave the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith a copy of an article he had written describing his journey from Anglicanism to Catholicism.
“Rather than just putting it in his pocket and throwing it away he read it on the spot,” he recalls. “It felt like having a tutorial. I mean, he didn’t cross-question me but I was rather embarrassed that this great mind was poring over my words.”
Few Anglican converts, of course, are lucky enough to receive a personal welcome from a future pope. For many, leaving a familiar world of altar rails and embroidered kneelers involves considerable upheaval. That is why Moore has agreed to become a patron of the Friends of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, launched this week to support ordinariate members.
Moore’s patronage is a coup for the Friends. He is, after all, one of Britain’s most respected journalists. He writes three columns a week: two for the Daily Telegraph, one for the Spectator. In his spare time he is working on the second volume of an authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher (both volumes will be released after her death).
When I call Moore he is walking down a London street in what sounds like a gale. The buffeting stops when he turns into what I like to imagine is a cosy gentleman’s club. He explains why he agreed to become a patron of the Friends despite the pressures on his time.
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