Evangelicals Becoming Catholics: Former CT Editor Mark Galli

Madonna and Child

Why do evangelicals convert to Catholicism and how should we respond?

More attention has been given to Catholicism with the election of Joe Biden, the second Catholic president, along with John Kennedy.

It’s not been a common thing for a Catholic to become president. Even more rare is the devout Protestant or particularly Evangelical Christian to convert to Catholicism. That’s why Sunday, September 13, a friend of mine named Mark was confirmed as a Catholic. Why is this significant?

Mark Galli, who was confirmed under the name of St. Francis, is a former Presbyterian pastor and editor-in-chief for Christianity Today. Additionally, as RNS noted, for a few days last December, he was perhaps the best-known evangelical in the nation calling for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump from the presidency.

Galli, however, says the timing of his conversion to Catholicism two months before the next election is for personal reasons. After 20 years in the Anglican Church, he believes moving to Catholicism is not a rejection of evangelicalism but instead taking his existing "Anglicanism deeper and thicker."

His faith journey has taken him from Presbyterianism to becoming an Episcopalian, then Anglican, with a brief interlude of attending the Orthodox Church. This runs counter to trends in the U.S.; Currently, for every one convert to Catholicism, six leave the tradition. But notable Protestants, from Elizabeth Ann Seton and John Henry Newman to G.K. Chesterton, Francis Beckwith, and Tony Blair. The RNS article observed:

Some converts are drawn to the beauty of Catholic ritual. Others to the church’s rich intellectual tradition or the centrality of the Eucharist, the bread and wine used for Communion, which Catholics believe becomes the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

That was part of the reason for Galli, but his fatigue with evangelicalism contributed as well. "I want to submit myself to something bigger than myself," He said, adding:

One thing I like about both Orthodoxy and Catholicism is that you have to do these things, whether you like it or not, whether you’re in the mood or not, sometimes whether you believe or not. You just have to plow ahead. I want that.

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