Hank Aaron: American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in
Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976; regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He and his wife first became interested in the faith after the birth of their first child. A friendship with a Catholic priest later helped lead to Hank and his wife's conversion in 1959. He was known to frequently read
Thomas à Kempis' 15th-century book The Imitation of Christ, which he kept in his locker.[1][2]
Augustine of Hippo: theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of
Hippo Regius in
Numidia,
Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important
Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. He was raised by a Catholic Mother,
Monica, but joined the
Manichean sect before converting and being baptized into the Catholic faith at the age of 31.
John Wilkes Booth: 19th-century actor; assassin of President Abraham Lincoln; his sister
Asia Booth asserted in her 1874 memoir that Booth, baptized an Episcopalian at age 14, had become a Catholic; for the good of the Church during a notoriously anti-Catholic time in American history, Booth's conversion was not publicized[55]
Rianti Cartwright:
Indonesian actress, model, presenter and VJ; two weeks before departure to the United States to get married, Rianti left the Muslim faith to become a baptized Catholic with the name Sophia Rianti Rhiannon Cartwright[78][79]
Kenneth Clark: British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. Converted shortly before his death.[80]
Wesley Clark: U.S. Army General; former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO; candidate for Democratic nomination for President in 2004[86]
Buffalo Bill Cody: American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. Converted the day before his death[87]
Stephen Colbert: American comedian, writer, actor, political commentator, and host of
the Late Show with Stephen Colbert: he was raised in a religious household, later to depart to
atheism in his youth. However, in his twenties, he returned, having a powerful conversion to
Catholicism
Christopher Dawson: British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century". He converted to Catholicism in 1909[102]
Michael Dunn: Dwarf, actor. Wanted to become a Catholic friar, but found that his small stature and frame made getting around the monastery impossible.
Lola Falana: dancer and actress who became a Catholic evangelist after converting; founded The Lambs of God Ministry[127][128]
Fan Shouyi (or Luigi Fan): first known Chinese person to travel to Europe, return, and write an account of his travels. In 1717, he was ordained as a priest and would eventually be an interpreter for the Chinese emperor and as a missionary in his native China.
Edmund Gennings and
John Gennings: brothers; Edmund was a priest and martyr who converted at sixteen; his death lead to John's conversion; John restored the English province of Franciscan friars[143]
Fathia Ghali: daughter of
King Fuad I of Egypt and his Queen,
Nazli Sabri; in 1950, both mother and daughter converted to Catholicism from Islam; this enraged
King Farouk, who forbade them from returning to Egypt; after his death, they asked President
Anwar Sadat to restore their passports, which he did
Vladimir Ghika: Romanian nobleman who became a Catholic monsignor and political dissident[146][147]
Arcadio Huang: Chinese Christian convert, and brought to Paris by the Missions étrangères. He took a pioneering role in the teaching of the Chinese language in France around 1715.
Allen Hunt: American radio personality; former Methodist pastor[190]
James II of England: King of England and Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the
Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland; his reign is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance. He converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1668 or 1669[199]
Gwen John: artist;
Auguste Rodin's lover; after the relationship she had a religious conversion and did portraits of nuns[201]
Abby Johnson: former Planned Parenthood clinic director; converted to Catholicism in 2011, two years after her anti-abortion conversion in 2009[202][203]
Bobby Jones: Golf pioneer. Converted on his deathbed in 1971
James Earl Jones: American actor who converted during his service in the U.S. Army[204]
Walter B. Jones: U.S. politician; Member of the United States House of Representatives[205]
Ernst Jünger: decorated German soldier, author, and
entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. Converted shortly before his death at the age of 102[209]
Harm Klueting: priest and historian; had been Lutheran and had two children[217]
Ronald Knox: English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Ordained an Anglican priest in 1912, Knox converted to Catholicism in 1917. He is known for his translation of the bible, the
Knox Bible, published in 1955[218]
Dean Koontz: American novelist known for thrillers and suspense; converted in college[219]
Joseph Lane: Territorial Governor of Oregon; first U.S. Senator from Oregon; pro-slavery Democratic candidate for US Vice President in 1860; openly sympathetic to the Confederacy during the Civil War; studied Catholic doctrine and converted with his family in 1867[230]
John Lawe,
Wisconsin Territory fur trader and land magnate. Lawe, who was of Jewish background, was baptised a Protestant, and had served as
vestryman and treasurer of Wisconsin's first
Episcopalian church, was reported to have made a
deathbed conversion to Catholicism, and was buried in a Catholic cemetery next to his wife Thérèse. Local speculation was that the purpose of his conversion was to allow this burial.[231]
Ignace Lepp: French psychiatrist whose parents were freethinkers; joined the Communist party at age fifteen; broke with the party in 1937 and eventually became a Catholic priest[237]
Li Yingshi: Ming-era Chinese military officer and a renowned mathematician, astrologer and
feng shui expert, who was among the first Chinese literati to become Christian
Arnold Lunn: skier, mountaineer, and writer; agnostic; wrote Roman Converts, which took a critical view of Catholicism and the converts to it; later converted to Catholicism due to debating with converts, and became an apologist for the faith[248]
Gustav Mahler: Austrian composer; converted from Judaism. There is disagreement whether his conversion was a genuine or pragmatic one to overcome institutional and professional barriers against Jews[252][253]
Jacques Maritain: French Thomist philosopher; helped form the basis for international law and human rights law in his writings; also laid the intellectual foundation for the
Christian democratic movement[258]
Taylor Marshall: American former Anglican priest, now a Catholic author and YouTuber/podcaster.
Tobie Matthew: Member of English Parliament who became a Catholic priest[259]
Vittorio Messori: Italian journalist and writer called the "most translated Catholic writer in the world" by
Sandro Magister; before his conversion in 1964 he had a "perspective as a secularist and agnostic"[264][265][266]
William Munk: English physician and medical historian remembered chiefly for "Munk's Roll", a biographical reference work on the Royal College of Physicians.
John Henry Newman: English priest and cardinal, former Anglican priest, famous for his autobiographical book Apologia Pro Vita Sua in which he details his reasons for converting[283]
Donald Nicholl: British historian and theologian who has been described as "one of the most widely influential of modern Christian thinkers"[284]
Barthold Nihus: German convert who became a bishop and controversialist[285]
Robert Novak: American journalist and political commentator; raised Jewish, but practiced no religion for many years before converting to Catholicism in the last years of his life[286]
Alfred Noyes: English poet, best known for "
The Highwayman"; dealt with his conversion in The Unknown God; The Last Voyage, in his The Torch-Bearers trilogy, was influenced by his conversion[287][288]
Vladimir Pecherin: Russian convert and priest whose memoirs were controversial for criticizing both the Russian government and the Catholic Church of his time[298]
Charles Péguy: French poet, essayist, and editor; went from an agnostic humanist to a pro-Republic Catholic[299]
Vincent Price: American actor; converted to Catholicism to marry his third wife, Australian actress
Coral Browne (she became an American citizen for him); he reportedly lost interest in the faith after her death[307]
Giuni Russo: Italian singer-songwriter, developed a devotion to Saint Teresa of Avila[326][327]
Richard Rutt: Catholic Monsignor, member of the
House of Lords, served as a missionary to Korea and as Bishop of Daejon in the Anglican Church of Korea and the Suffragan Bishop of Turo in the Church of England, prominent Korean Studies Scholar[328]
Roy Schoeman: former Harvard Professor, lecturer, and Jewish convert to Catholicism[334]
Rob Schneider: American actor; converted to Catholicism in 2023 after having been raised by a Jewish father and a Catholic mother.[335]
Dutch Schultz (Arthur Flegenheimer): American mobster; converted to Catholicism during his second trial, convinced that Jesus Christ had spared him jail time; after being fatally shot by underworld rivals, he asked to see a priest and was given the last rites; his mother insisted on dressing him in a Jewish prayer shawl prior to his interment in the Catholic
Gate of Heaven Cemetery
Frank Sheed: Australian-born lawyer, writer, publisher, Catholic apologist and speaker. Raised by a Scottish Presbyterian father, he later converted at age 16, and devoted his life to defending the Catholic faith, mostly from Protestant critics.
William Tecumseh Sherman: Civil War General, was born into a Presbyterian family but raised in a Catholic household by foster parents after his father died. Sherman attended the Catholic Church until the outbreak of the Civil War, which destroyed his faith. His wife and children were Catholic and one son,
Thomas Ewing Sherman, became a Jesuit priest.
Göran Stenius: Swedish-Finnish writer whose Klockorna i Rom (The Bells of Rome) has been praised as a post-war religious novel[366][367]
Nicolas Steno: pioneer in geology and anatomy who converted from Lutheranism; became a bishop, wrote spiritual works, and was beatified in 1988[368][369]
Karl Stern: German-Canadian neurologist and psychiatrist; his book Pillar of Fire concerns his conversion[370]
John Lawson Stoddard: divinity student who became an agnostic and "scientific humanist"; later converted to Catholicism[371]
Su Xuelin: Chinese author and scholar whose semi-autobiographical novel Bitter Heart discusses her introduction to and conversion to Catholicism[374]
Graham Sutherland: English artist who did religious art and had a fascination with Christ's crucifixion[375]
Halliday Sutherland: doctor, tuberculosis pioneer, best-selling author and defendant in the 1923 libel trial, Stopes v. Sutherland. Converted in 1919.[376]
E. I. Watkin: English writer on poetry, philosophy, aesthetics, history, and religion. Friend of Christopher Dawson. Converted in 1908 from Anglicanism[415]
John Ching Hsiung Wu: wrote Chinese Humanism and Christian spirituality; has been called "one of China's chief lay exponents of Catholic ideas"[436]
Wu Li: Chinese painter and poet who became one of the first Chinese Jesuit priests[437]
John C. Wright: science fiction author who went from atheist to Catholic;[438] wrote Chapter 1 of the book Atheist to Catholic: 11 Stories of Conversion, edited by Rebecca Vitz Cherico[439]
Shigeru Yoshida (吉田 茂): Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954. He was baptized on his deathbed, having hid his Catholicism throughout most of his life. His funeral was held in
St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo[442][443]
Z
Israel Zolli: until converting from Judaism to Catholicism in February 1945, Zolli was the chief rabbi in Rome, Italy's Jewish community from 1940 to 1945
Former Catholics who had been converts
Magdi Allam: converted in 2008, but left in 2013 to protest what he deemed its "
globalism", "weakness", and "soft stance against
Islam"[444][445]
Audrey Assad: American singer-songwriter and contemporary Christian music artist who converted from Evangelical Protestantism to Catholicism in 2007 but in 2021 announced that she was no longer a Catholic or Christian.[446][447][448]
Henry Ford II: converted by Archbishop
Fulton J. Sheen; twice divorced; later ceased practicing the faith, although he received the last rites of the Catholic Church on his deathbed; his funeral was Episcopalian
Ernest Hemingway: Converted to marry his second wife,
Pauline Pfeiffer.[452] He subsequently divorced Pfeiffer and ceased practicing the faith. He received Catholic graveside services because his family requested it. Also, the fact that his death was a suicide was concealed initially. Ex-Catholics and people who committed suicide were not buried according to Catholic rites.[citation needed]
Ammon Hennacy:
Christian anarchist and activist who was Catholic from 1952 to 1965; his essay "On Leaving the Catholic Church" concerns his formal renunciation of the religion[453]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Franco-Swiss philosopher, writer and political theorist who converted to Catholicism as a young man but later apostated to
Calvinism in 1754[458]
Britney Spears: American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Was raised Baptist before converting in 2021 but ceased believing in God by 2022[459][460]
^Zugger, Christopher Lawrence (1 January 2001). The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin. Syracuse University Press. p.
158.
^Shapovalov, Veronica (1 January 2001). Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons. Rowman & Littlefield. p.
119.
^Guardian Unlimited BooksArchived 8 March 2008 at the
Wayback Machine: "I wanted it for hellfire and candles. I was married in a Catholic church and I prefer going to a Catholic service, but it changed, like everything else. Even in the Catholic church now they tell you to turn round and shake hands." She looks aghast.
^McLelland, Vincent Alan, "The Universities' Catholic Education Board and the Chaplains, 1895-1939", The Ampleforth Journal, (1973: Vol LXXVIII), pp 69 - 84, at p 72.
^Lach, Donald F. (16 April 1994). Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery. University of Chicago Press. p.
672.
^Reed, Marcia; Demattè, Paola (1 January 2011). China on Paper: European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century. Getty Publications. p.
69.
^"Opinion". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from
the original on 18 September 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^Sears, Edward S. (2000). "The Low Down on Jim Bowie". In Boatright, Mody C.; Day, Donald (eds.). From Hell to Breakfast. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press.
ISBN1-57441-099-7.
^Boston Globe: McCloskey personally baptized Judge Robert Bork, political pundits Robert Novak and Lawrence Kudlow, publisher
Alfred S. Regnery, financier Lewis Lehrman, and US Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas
^[2]: "She accepted him when he reverted to Anglicanism but canceled their wedding plans when he "went over to" Rome for a second time. Collinson's parents disowned him, and he was reduced to begging from his friends in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood."
^Black Elk Speaks: Black Elk saw in Catholicism a way for his people to practice religion within the confines of the United States laws, and "at the same time, he was able to fulfill the traditional role of a Lakota leader, poor himself, but ever generous to his people"
^Zugger, Christopher Lawrence (1 January 2001). The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin. Syracuse University Press. p.
481.
^Dunn, Dennis J. (1 January 2004). The Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, Patriarchs, Tsars, and Commissars. Ashgate. p.
63.
^Lysons, Daniel (1 January 1816). Magna Britannia;: Cumberland. T. Cadell and W. Davies in the Strand. p.
116.
^Interview in the National Review: FMG:You've mentioned that you now believe in God. How recent is that? Eugene Genovese: It's in the last two years. You know, in The Southern Front I still spoke as an atheist; one reviewer said that I protest too much. When the book came off the press and I had to reread it, I started wrestling with the problem philosophically, and I lost.
^Weiss, Jonathan M. (1 January 2007). Irène Némirovsky: Her Life and Works. Stanford University Press. p.
187.
^"I don't like conventional religious piety. I'm more at ease with the Catholicism of Catholic countries. I've always found it difficult to believe in God. I suppose I'd now call myself a Catholic atheist." Graham Greene, interviewed by VS Pritchett, Saturday Review: Graham Greene into the light', The Times, 18 March 1978; p. 6; Issue 60260; col A.
^Daily Telegraph "She reacted strongly against her parents' beliefs and became a Catholic at 19, because she 'no longer found it possible to disbelieve in God.'" (pg 2)
^William F. Buckley, Jr.,
"Howard Hunt, R.I.P"Archived 6 March 2008 at the
Wayback Machine
National Review, 5 March 2007: "Howard Hunt was my boss, and our friendship was such that soon after I quit the agency and returned to Connecticut, he and his wife advised me that they were joining the Catholic Church and asked if I would serve as godfather to their two daughters, which assignment I gladly accepted, continuing in close touch with them."
^Callow, John (2000). The Making of King James II: The Formative Years of a King. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. pp. 143–144.
ISBN0-7509-2398-9.
^"Johannes Jørgensen and Catholic Conversion in Scandinavia". Giovanni Jørgensen e il francescanesimo: atti del XXXV Convegno internazionale in occasione del cinquantesimo anniversario della morte, 1956-2006, Assisi, 11-13 ottobre 2007. 1 January 2008. Archived from
the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^Balakian, Anna A.; Balakian, Anna Elizabeth, eds. (1 January 1984). The Symbolist Movement in the Literature of European Languages. John Benjamins Publishing. p.
590.
^Anna L. Staudacher: "... meldet den Austritt aus dem mosaischen Glauben". 18000 Austritte aus dem Judentum in Wien, 1868–1914: Namen – Quellen – Daten. Peter Lang, Frankfurt, 2009,
ISBN978-3-631-55832-4, p. 349
^Kay, Jeanne. "John Lawe: Green Bay Trader" Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 64 No. 1 (Autumn 1980). Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1981; pp. 4, 26-27
^Bishop of London who became the most senior Anglican defector to Rome since the Reformation, obituary in the Daily Telegraph, issue number 48,085 dated 7 January 2010, p. 31
^Time Magazine from 19 July 1963 "Lepp has the credentials to explain the mind of the atheist: he was one himself for 27 years."
^Smith, Warren Allen (1 January 2000). Who's who in Hell: A Handbook and International Directory for Humanists, Freethinkers, Naturalists, Rationalists, and Non-theists. Barricade Books. p.
57.
^Haven, Cynthia L., "'A Sacred Vision': An Interview with Czesław Miłosz", in Haven, Cynthia L. (ed.), Czesław Miłosz: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 145.
^Adams, Geoffrey (6 November 2006). Political Ecumenism: Catholics, Jews, and Protestants in De Gaulle's Free France, 1940–1945. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p.
85.
^Yang, Chi-ming (16 September 2011). Performing China: Virtue, Commerce, and Orientalism in Eighteenth-Century England, 1660–1760. JHU Press. pp.
105–108.
^Interview in The Guardian: "But I always thought Catholics were people who had loads of children so they'd get more Catholics, you know – that was my narrow view. Then I went to Mass and it was all in Latin and I didn't understand a word of it, but I thought, Whatever's going on up there is authentic. That is real. So then I started to have instruction and I loved it."
^Dooling, Amy D.; Torgeson, Kristina M. (1 January 1998). Writing Women in Modern China: An Anthology of Women's Literature from the Early Twentieth Century. Columbia University Press. p.
198.
^Ford, Boris (18 June 1992). Cambridge Cultural History of Britain: Volume 9, Modern Britain. Cambridge University Press. pp.
120–121.
^Sutherland, H. (1956). Irish Journey. London: Geoffrey Bles.
^Logan, Mrs John A. (1912).
The Part Taken by Women in American History. Perry-Nalle publishing Company. p. 536. Retrieved 15 June 2022 – via Wikisource. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain.
^Cusic, Don (12 November 2009). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship: Pop, Rock, and Worship. ABC-CLIO. p.
428.
^"...he was an atheist arguing for religious values, a man writing an essay on religion 'in a spirit of irreligion.'... He would not convert to Catholicism for two decades, but his need for religious authority was acute even in 1930." Allen Tate: Orphan of the South, p. 167, biographer Thomas A. Underwood, Princeton University Press, 2000,
ISBN0-691-06950-6
^Boxer, C.R. "The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650", Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1951.
ISBN1-85754-035-2 (1993 reprint edition).
^
ab"Religious Conversion". Mary Lou Williams: Soul on Soul. Rutgers University. Archived from
the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
^Pearce, Joseph (2000). Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief. Ignatius Press.
^Slate:"Conversion," he wrote to Edward Sackville-West, "is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made."
^Boorman, Howard L.; Cheng, Joseph K. H. (1 January 1967). Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. Columbia University Press. pp.
419–420.
^Chaves, Jonathan (1 January 2002). "Wu Li (1632-1718) and the First Chinese Christian Poetry". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 122 (3): 506–519.
doi:
10.2307/3087518.
JSTOR3087518.
^Interview with John C. Wright at "Mostly Fiction": "For many years I had been an atheist, and a vehement, argumentative, proselytizing atheist at that. I saw no other possible option for belief for a logical thinker. My recent conversion to Christianity was a miracle, prompted by a supernatural revelation, which has satisfied my skepticism in this area, and saved my life."
^Cherico, Rebecca Vitz, ed. (9 March 2011). Atheist to Catholic: Stories of Conversion. Servant.
ISBN978-0867169577.
^Study Guide from Washington State UniversityArchived 20 May 2013 at the
Wayback Machine: "Miller remained a Catholic through much his life, though in tension with the Church, (he turned bitterly against it toward the end, as is evident in Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horsewoman)."
^Obituary of Walter M. Miller, Jr: "In an unconventional letter to the local newspaper in Daytona, the author of one of the greatest modern religious novels made it clear he had left Western religion behind."
Hank Aaron: American professional baseball right fielder who played 23 seasons in
Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1954 through 1976; regarded as one of the greatest baseball players of all time. He and his wife first became interested in the faith after the birth of their first child. A friendship with a Catholic priest later helped lead to Hank and his wife's conversion in 1959. He was known to frequently read
Thomas à Kempis' 15th-century book The Imitation of Christ, which he kept in his locker.[1][2]
Augustine of Hippo: theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of
Hippo Regius in
Numidia,
Roman North Africa. His writings influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important
Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. He was raised by a Catholic Mother,
Monica, but joined the
Manichean sect before converting and being baptized into the Catholic faith at the age of 31.
John Wilkes Booth: 19th-century actor; assassin of President Abraham Lincoln; his sister
Asia Booth asserted in her 1874 memoir that Booth, baptized an Episcopalian at age 14, had become a Catholic; for the good of the Church during a notoriously anti-Catholic time in American history, Booth's conversion was not publicized[55]
Rianti Cartwright:
Indonesian actress, model, presenter and VJ; two weeks before departure to the United States to get married, Rianti left the Muslim faith to become a baptized Catholic with the name Sophia Rianti Rhiannon Cartwright[78][79]
Kenneth Clark: British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. Converted shortly before his death.[80]
Wesley Clark: U.S. Army General; former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO; candidate for Democratic nomination for President in 2004[86]
Buffalo Bill Cody: American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. Converted the day before his death[87]
Stephen Colbert: American comedian, writer, actor, political commentator, and host of
the Late Show with Stephen Colbert: he was raised in a religious household, later to depart to
atheism in his youth. However, in his twenties, he returned, having a powerful conversion to
Catholicism
Christopher Dawson: British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century". He converted to Catholicism in 1909[102]
Michael Dunn: Dwarf, actor. Wanted to become a Catholic friar, but found that his small stature and frame made getting around the monastery impossible.
Lola Falana: dancer and actress who became a Catholic evangelist after converting; founded The Lambs of God Ministry[127][128]
Fan Shouyi (or Luigi Fan): first known Chinese person to travel to Europe, return, and write an account of his travels. In 1717, he was ordained as a priest and would eventually be an interpreter for the Chinese emperor and as a missionary in his native China.
Edmund Gennings and
John Gennings: brothers; Edmund was a priest and martyr who converted at sixteen; his death lead to John's conversion; John restored the English province of Franciscan friars[143]
Fathia Ghali: daughter of
King Fuad I of Egypt and his Queen,
Nazli Sabri; in 1950, both mother and daughter converted to Catholicism from Islam; this enraged
King Farouk, who forbade them from returning to Egypt; after his death, they asked President
Anwar Sadat to restore their passports, which he did
Vladimir Ghika: Romanian nobleman who became a Catholic monsignor and political dissident[146][147]
Arcadio Huang: Chinese Christian convert, and brought to Paris by the Missions étrangères. He took a pioneering role in the teaching of the Chinese language in France around 1715.
Allen Hunt: American radio personality; former Methodist pastor[190]
James II of England: King of England and Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685 until he was deposed in the
Revolution of 1688. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland; his reign is now remembered primarily for struggles over religious tolerance. He converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1668 or 1669[199]
Gwen John: artist;
Auguste Rodin's lover; after the relationship she had a religious conversion and did portraits of nuns[201]
Abby Johnson: former Planned Parenthood clinic director; converted to Catholicism in 2011, two years after her anti-abortion conversion in 2009[202][203]
Bobby Jones: Golf pioneer. Converted on his deathbed in 1971
James Earl Jones: American actor who converted during his service in the U.S. Army[204]
Walter B. Jones: U.S. politician; Member of the United States House of Representatives[205]
Ernst Jünger: decorated German soldier, author, and
entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir Storm of Steel. Converted shortly before his death at the age of 102[209]
Harm Klueting: priest and historian; had been Lutheran and had two children[217]
Ronald Knox: English Catholic priest, theologian, author, and radio broadcaster. Ordained an Anglican priest in 1912, Knox converted to Catholicism in 1917. He is known for his translation of the bible, the
Knox Bible, published in 1955[218]
Dean Koontz: American novelist known for thrillers and suspense; converted in college[219]
Joseph Lane: Territorial Governor of Oregon; first U.S. Senator from Oregon; pro-slavery Democratic candidate for US Vice President in 1860; openly sympathetic to the Confederacy during the Civil War; studied Catholic doctrine and converted with his family in 1867[230]
John Lawe,
Wisconsin Territory fur trader and land magnate. Lawe, who was of Jewish background, was baptised a Protestant, and had served as
vestryman and treasurer of Wisconsin's first
Episcopalian church, was reported to have made a
deathbed conversion to Catholicism, and was buried in a Catholic cemetery next to his wife Thérèse. Local speculation was that the purpose of his conversion was to allow this burial.[231]
Ignace Lepp: French psychiatrist whose parents were freethinkers; joined the Communist party at age fifteen; broke with the party in 1937 and eventually became a Catholic priest[237]
Li Yingshi: Ming-era Chinese military officer and a renowned mathematician, astrologer and
feng shui expert, who was among the first Chinese literati to become Christian
Arnold Lunn: skier, mountaineer, and writer; agnostic; wrote Roman Converts, which took a critical view of Catholicism and the converts to it; later converted to Catholicism due to debating with converts, and became an apologist for the faith[248]
Gustav Mahler: Austrian composer; converted from Judaism. There is disagreement whether his conversion was a genuine or pragmatic one to overcome institutional and professional barriers against Jews[252][253]
Jacques Maritain: French Thomist philosopher; helped form the basis for international law and human rights law in his writings; also laid the intellectual foundation for the
Christian democratic movement[258]
Taylor Marshall: American former Anglican priest, now a Catholic author and YouTuber/podcaster.
Tobie Matthew: Member of English Parliament who became a Catholic priest[259]
Vittorio Messori: Italian journalist and writer called the "most translated Catholic writer in the world" by
Sandro Magister; before his conversion in 1964 he had a "perspective as a secularist and agnostic"[264][265][266]
William Munk: English physician and medical historian remembered chiefly for "Munk's Roll", a biographical reference work on the Royal College of Physicians.
John Henry Newman: English priest and cardinal, former Anglican priest, famous for his autobiographical book Apologia Pro Vita Sua in which he details his reasons for converting[283]
Donald Nicholl: British historian and theologian who has been described as "one of the most widely influential of modern Christian thinkers"[284]
Barthold Nihus: German convert who became a bishop and controversialist[285]
Robert Novak: American journalist and political commentator; raised Jewish, but practiced no religion for many years before converting to Catholicism in the last years of his life[286]
Alfred Noyes: English poet, best known for "
The Highwayman"; dealt with his conversion in The Unknown God; The Last Voyage, in his The Torch-Bearers trilogy, was influenced by his conversion[287][288]
Vladimir Pecherin: Russian convert and priest whose memoirs were controversial for criticizing both the Russian government and the Catholic Church of his time[298]
Charles Péguy: French poet, essayist, and editor; went from an agnostic humanist to a pro-Republic Catholic[299]
Vincent Price: American actor; converted to Catholicism to marry his third wife, Australian actress
Coral Browne (she became an American citizen for him); he reportedly lost interest in the faith after her death[307]
Giuni Russo: Italian singer-songwriter, developed a devotion to Saint Teresa of Avila[326][327]
Richard Rutt: Catholic Monsignor, member of the
House of Lords, served as a missionary to Korea and as Bishop of Daejon in the Anglican Church of Korea and the Suffragan Bishop of Turo in the Church of England, prominent Korean Studies Scholar[328]
Roy Schoeman: former Harvard Professor, lecturer, and Jewish convert to Catholicism[334]
Rob Schneider: American actor; converted to Catholicism in 2023 after having been raised by a Jewish father and a Catholic mother.[335]
Dutch Schultz (Arthur Flegenheimer): American mobster; converted to Catholicism during his second trial, convinced that Jesus Christ had spared him jail time; after being fatally shot by underworld rivals, he asked to see a priest and was given the last rites; his mother insisted on dressing him in a Jewish prayer shawl prior to his interment in the Catholic
Gate of Heaven Cemetery
Frank Sheed: Australian-born lawyer, writer, publisher, Catholic apologist and speaker. Raised by a Scottish Presbyterian father, he later converted at age 16, and devoted his life to defending the Catholic faith, mostly from Protestant critics.
William Tecumseh Sherman: Civil War General, was born into a Presbyterian family but raised in a Catholic household by foster parents after his father died. Sherman attended the Catholic Church until the outbreak of the Civil War, which destroyed his faith. His wife and children were Catholic and one son,
Thomas Ewing Sherman, became a Jesuit priest.
Göran Stenius: Swedish-Finnish writer whose Klockorna i Rom (The Bells of Rome) has been praised as a post-war religious novel[366][367]
Nicolas Steno: pioneer in geology and anatomy who converted from Lutheranism; became a bishop, wrote spiritual works, and was beatified in 1988[368][369]
Karl Stern: German-Canadian neurologist and psychiatrist; his book Pillar of Fire concerns his conversion[370]
John Lawson Stoddard: divinity student who became an agnostic and "scientific humanist"; later converted to Catholicism[371]
Su Xuelin: Chinese author and scholar whose semi-autobiographical novel Bitter Heart discusses her introduction to and conversion to Catholicism[374]
Graham Sutherland: English artist who did religious art and had a fascination with Christ's crucifixion[375]
Halliday Sutherland: doctor, tuberculosis pioneer, best-selling author and defendant in the 1923 libel trial, Stopes v. Sutherland. Converted in 1919.[376]
E. I. Watkin: English writer on poetry, philosophy, aesthetics, history, and religion. Friend of Christopher Dawson. Converted in 1908 from Anglicanism[415]
John Ching Hsiung Wu: wrote Chinese Humanism and Christian spirituality; has been called "one of China's chief lay exponents of Catholic ideas"[436]
Wu Li: Chinese painter and poet who became one of the first Chinese Jesuit priests[437]
John C. Wright: science fiction author who went from atheist to Catholic;[438] wrote Chapter 1 of the book Atheist to Catholic: 11 Stories of Conversion, edited by Rebecca Vitz Cherico[439]
Shigeru Yoshida (吉田 茂): Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954. He was baptized on his deathbed, having hid his Catholicism throughout most of his life. His funeral was held in
St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo[442][443]
Z
Israel Zolli: until converting from Judaism to Catholicism in February 1945, Zolli was the chief rabbi in Rome, Italy's Jewish community from 1940 to 1945
Former Catholics who had been converts
Magdi Allam: converted in 2008, but left in 2013 to protest what he deemed its "
globalism", "weakness", and "soft stance against
Islam"[444][445]
Audrey Assad: American singer-songwriter and contemporary Christian music artist who converted from Evangelical Protestantism to Catholicism in 2007 but in 2021 announced that she was no longer a Catholic or Christian.[446][447][448]
Henry Ford II: converted by Archbishop
Fulton J. Sheen; twice divorced; later ceased practicing the faith, although he received the last rites of the Catholic Church on his deathbed; his funeral was Episcopalian
Ernest Hemingway: Converted to marry his second wife,
Pauline Pfeiffer.[452] He subsequently divorced Pfeiffer and ceased practicing the faith. He received Catholic graveside services because his family requested it. Also, the fact that his death was a suicide was concealed initially. Ex-Catholics and people who committed suicide were not buried according to Catholic rites.[citation needed]
Ammon Hennacy:
Christian anarchist and activist who was Catholic from 1952 to 1965; his essay "On Leaving the Catholic Church" concerns his formal renunciation of the religion[453]
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Franco-Swiss philosopher, writer and political theorist who converted to Catholicism as a young man but later apostated to
Calvinism in 1754[458]
Britney Spears: American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actress. Was raised Baptist before converting in 2021 but ceased believing in God by 2022[459][460]
^Zugger, Christopher Lawrence (1 January 2001). The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin. Syracuse University Press. p.
158.
^Shapovalov, Veronica (1 January 2001). Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons. Rowman & Littlefield. p.
119.
^Guardian Unlimited BooksArchived 8 March 2008 at the
Wayback Machine: "I wanted it for hellfire and candles. I was married in a Catholic church and I prefer going to a Catholic service, but it changed, like everything else. Even in the Catholic church now they tell you to turn round and shake hands." She looks aghast.
^McLelland, Vincent Alan, "The Universities' Catholic Education Board and the Chaplains, 1895-1939", The Ampleforth Journal, (1973: Vol LXXVIII), pp 69 - 84, at p 72.
^Lach, Donald F. (16 April 1994). Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume I: The Century of Discovery. University of Chicago Press. p.
672.
^Reed, Marcia; Demattè, Paola (1 January 2011). China on Paper: European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century. Getty Publications. p.
69.
^"Opinion". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from
the original on 18 September 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^Sears, Edward S. (2000). "The Low Down on Jim Bowie". In Boatright, Mody C.; Day, Donald (eds.). From Hell to Breakfast. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press.
ISBN1-57441-099-7.
^Boston Globe: McCloskey personally baptized Judge Robert Bork, political pundits Robert Novak and Lawrence Kudlow, publisher
Alfred S. Regnery, financier Lewis Lehrman, and US Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas
^[2]: "She accepted him when he reverted to Anglicanism but canceled their wedding plans when he "went over to" Rome for a second time. Collinson's parents disowned him, and he was reduced to begging from his friends in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood."
^Black Elk Speaks: Black Elk saw in Catholicism a way for his people to practice religion within the confines of the United States laws, and "at the same time, he was able to fulfill the traditional role of a Lakota leader, poor himself, but ever generous to his people"
^Zugger, Christopher Lawrence (1 January 2001). The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin. Syracuse University Press. p.
481.
^Dunn, Dennis J. (1 January 2004). The Catholic Church and Russia: Popes, Patriarchs, Tsars, and Commissars. Ashgate. p.
63.
^Lysons, Daniel (1 January 1816). Magna Britannia;: Cumberland. T. Cadell and W. Davies in the Strand. p.
116.
^Interview in the National Review: FMG:You've mentioned that you now believe in God. How recent is that? Eugene Genovese: It's in the last two years. You know, in The Southern Front I still spoke as an atheist; one reviewer said that I protest too much. When the book came off the press and I had to reread it, I started wrestling with the problem philosophically, and I lost.
^Weiss, Jonathan M. (1 January 2007). Irène Némirovsky: Her Life and Works. Stanford University Press. p.
187.
^"I don't like conventional religious piety. I'm more at ease with the Catholicism of Catholic countries. I've always found it difficult to believe in God. I suppose I'd now call myself a Catholic atheist." Graham Greene, interviewed by VS Pritchett, Saturday Review: Graham Greene into the light', The Times, 18 March 1978; p. 6; Issue 60260; col A.
^Daily Telegraph "She reacted strongly against her parents' beliefs and became a Catholic at 19, because she 'no longer found it possible to disbelieve in God.'" (pg 2)
^William F. Buckley, Jr.,
"Howard Hunt, R.I.P"Archived 6 March 2008 at the
Wayback Machine
National Review, 5 March 2007: "Howard Hunt was my boss, and our friendship was such that soon after I quit the agency and returned to Connecticut, he and his wife advised me that they were joining the Catholic Church and asked if I would serve as godfather to their two daughters, which assignment I gladly accepted, continuing in close touch with them."
^Callow, John (2000). The Making of King James II: The Formative Years of a King. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing. pp. 143–144.
ISBN0-7509-2398-9.
^"Johannes Jørgensen and Catholic Conversion in Scandinavia". Giovanni Jørgensen e il francescanesimo: atti del XXXV Convegno internazionale in occasione del cinquantesimo anniversario della morte, 1956-2006, Assisi, 11-13 ottobre 2007. 1 January 2008. Archived from
the original on 6 July 2013. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
^Balakian, Anna A.; Balakian, Anna Elizabeth, eds. (1 January 1984). The Symbolist Movement in the Literature of European Languages. John Benjamins Publishing. p.
590.
^Anna L. Staudacher: "... meldet den Austritt aus dem mosaischen Glauben". 18000 Austritte aus dem Judentum in Wien, 1868–1914: Namen – Quellen – Daten. Peter Lang, Frankfurt, 2009,
ISBN978-3-631-55832-4, p. 349
^Kay, Jeanne. "John Lawe: Green Bay Trader" Wisconsin Magazine of History Vol. 64 No. 1 (Autumn 1980). Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1981; pp. 4, 26-27
^Bishop of London who became the most senior Anglican defector to Rome since the Reformation, obituary in the Daily Telegraph, issue number 48,085 dated 7 January 2010, p. 31
^Time Magazine from 19 July 1963 "Lepp has the credentials to explain the mind of the atheist: he was one himself for 27 years."
^Smith, Warren Allen (1 January 2000). Who's who in Hell: A Handbook and International Directory for Humanists, Freethinkers, Naturalists, Rationalists, and Non-theists. Barricade Books. p.
57.
^Haven, Cynthia L., "'A Sacred Vision': An Interview with Czesław Miłosz", in Haven, Cynthia L. (ed.), Czesław Miłosz: Conversations. University Press of Mississippi, 2006, p. 145.
^Adams, Geoffrey (6 November 2006). Political Ecumenism: Catholics, Jews, and Protestants in De Gaulle's Free France, 1940–1945. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p.
85.
^Yang, Chi-ming (16 September 2011). Performing China: Virtue, Commerce, and Orientalism in Eighteenth-Century England, 1660–1760. JHU Press. pp.
105–108.
^Interview in The Guardian: "But I always thought Catholics were people who had loads of children so they'd get more Catholics, you know – that was my narrow view. Then I went to Mass and it was all in Latin and I didn't understand a word of it, but I thought, Whatever's going on up there is authentic. That is real. So then I started to have instruction and I loved it."
^Dooling, Amy D.; Torgeson, Kristina M. (1 January 1998). Writing Women in Modern China: An Anthology of Women's Literature from the Early Twentieth Century. Columbia University Press. p.
198.
^Ford, Boris (18 June 1992). Cambridge Cultural History of Britain: Volume 9, Modern Britain. Cambridge University Press. pp.
120–121.
^Sutherland, H. (1956). Irish Journey. London: Geoffrey Bles.
^Logan, Mrs John A. (1912).
The Part Taken by Women in American History. Perry-Nalle publishing Company. p. 536. Retrieved 15 June 2022 – via Wikisource. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
public domain.
^Cusic, Don (12 November 2009). Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music: Pop, Rock, and Worship: Pop, Rock, and Worship. ABC-CLIO. p.
428.
^"...he was an atheist arguing for religious values, a man writing an essay on religion 'in a spirit of irreligion.'... He would not convert to Catholicism for two decades, but his need for religious authority was acute even in 1930." Allen Tate: Orphan of the South, p. 167, biographer Thomas A. Underwood, Princeton University Press, 2000,
ISBN0-691-06950-6
^Boxer, C.R. "The Christian Century in Japan, 1549–1650", Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1951.
ISBN1-85754-035-2 (1993 reprint edition).
^
ab"Religious Conversion". Mary Lou Williams: Soul on Soul. Rutgers University. Archived from
the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
^Pearce, Joseph (2000). Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief. Ignatius Press.
^Slate:"Conversion," he wrote to Edward Sackville-West, "is like stepping across the chimney piece out of a Looking-Glass world, where everything is an absurd caricature, into the real world God made."
^Boorman, Howard L.; Cheng, Joseph K. H. (1 January 1967). Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. Columbia University Press. pp.
419–420.
^Chaves, Jonathan (1 January 2002). "Wu Li (1632-1718) and the First Chinese Christian Poetry". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 122 (3): 506–519.
doi:
10.2307/3087518.
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^Interview with John C. Wright at "Mostly Fiction": "For many years I had been an atheist, and a vehement, argumentative, proselytizing atheist at that. I saw no other possible option for belief for a logical thinker. My recent conversion to Christianity was a miracle, prompted by a supernatural revelation, which has satisfied my skepticism in this area, and saved my life."
^Cherico, Rebecca Vitz, ed. (9 March 2011). Atheist to Catholic: Stories of Conversion. Servant.
ISBN978-0867169577.
^Study Guide from Washington State UniversityArchived 20 May 2013 at the
Wayback Machine: "Miller remained a Catholic through much his life, though in tension with the Church, (he turned bitterly against it toward the end, as is evident in Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horsewoman)."
^Obituary of Walter M. Miller, Jr: "In an unconventional letter to the local newspaper in Daytona, the author of one of the greatest modern religious novels made it clear he had left Western religion behind."