www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Former defender of Catholicism becomes an Anglican

Michael Coren is a journalist who has written a book defending the Catholic Church. He was a convert to Catholicism and his wife and four children are Catholics.

To my great and indignant surprise, an interview with him was published in the National Post this past weekend entitled, "Why I am not a Catholic."

Coren is now an Anglican because he could not agree with the Catholic Church's stand on same-sex relationships etc.

His column in the Catholic Register has been pulled as a result. It is all quite a shock to so many of us up here . . .

Alex

Alex,

I'm familiar with Mr. Coren. I've read a few of his columns, seen his various TV shows, and watched a few of his speeches.

If you notice, his reasons for abandoning Church Teaching on some issues are not based in theology (Tradition or Scripture) but in emotion.

He is absolutely right, however, that some in the Church (including Catholics and other Christians) do not treat those on the opposite side of issues like same-sex marriage with all the kindness they should. But people treating others poorly is not a reason to abandon Teaching.

It is curious that he bothered to write with such force on issues he now says he's always had problems with.

Pray for him, that the Lord lead him.

John

Dear Esteemed Administrator!

You DO get around sir!

Yes, we need to pray for him. I've gotten to know him fairly well and he does come across as being a type of North American Convert - the type which moves from church to church and leaves one for the other for no good reason (as you astutely observe).

Ultimately, that's his business, from my vantage point. What I think a lot of people are upset about is his lack of integrity, both on a professional and a personal level.

He has been attending an Anglican parish for a year now, all the while passing himself off as a conservative Catholic to his many (largely now former) fans. As a result of his book, "Why Catholics are Right" he has been in demand as a (paid) speaker at many Catholic functions and events. These have mostly rejected him (and this should come as no surprise to him) while his columns are no longer being run in Catholic papers and sites.

Catholics in Canada feel a sense of being betrayed by him. Again, which church he is a member of and the like is his business - until he makes it his public business which he did as a public defender of the Catholic Church.

He's left a bad taste in many people's mouths and that was entirely unnecessary. He has rejected, quite objectively, the Church's teaching on sexual morality and has categorically stated that he cannot agree with it.

But then please don't pretend to be a loyal defender of the Catholic Church and her teaching before Catholic audiences who are willing to pay for your appearances and writing.

He could have simply owned up to this earlier on and save a lot of people much grief and frustration.

Alex

I have my own issues, so who am I to say this, but that professional polemicists are a category unto themselves. Witness this on the internet...and all the more in print media. There was a trend in conservative political writer circles to become Catholic for a while but that ceased and a number dropped out. Something appears for a while to be the shape of things to come and then turns out to be just a gimmick...and rightly so: Faith is poorly wedded to ideology.

Dear Mark,

Very insightful, as per your usual!

I will need time to reflect on what you've said - quite excellent.

Alex

This guy? Never heard of him before today!

His articles and speeches often include stories of his own personal spiritual journey. Coren's father was Jewish as was his maternal grandfather, while his maternal grandmother came from a family of Welsh coalminers and converted to Judaism. Coren's father and uncle were cab drivers. Coren has said that his father's family left Poland in the 1890s, a few decades before the Holocaust.[14][15] He said "People have called me an anti-Semite. I thought it quite rich since my father's family was massacred in the Holocaust".[4] Michael Coren was profiled on Credo, on Vision TV, and said that his father told him he could not attend his son's wedding in a Catholic church without becoming "physically sick."

He converted to Roman Catholicism in his early twenties while still living in England, but that didn't last long. He said that he "converted to an institution." He eventually converted to evangelical Christianity in the 1990s, after a conversion experience as an adult, greatly influenced by Canadian televangelist Terry Winter.

In 1991 Michael Coren said in a column for a humour magazine: "The evangelical Christians may be intolerant, small-minded, and repellent, but at least they hold a consistent set of beliefs".[4]

In a 1993 book review he said "Can anyone imagine a detective priest? Regrettably, it is easier to conjure up the image of a priest being questioned by secular detectives over abuse charges." Also in 1993, Michael Coren had a falling out with the Catholic Church over an unflattering profile he wrote of Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic for Toronto Life magazine[citation needed]. The bishop, who made Coren a "Knight of the Holy Sepulchre" in a ceremony in October 1992, was quoted using words including "friggin" and "bitch", and said that Francisco Franco was a "conservative Roman Catholic and not a bad fellow." Coren defended himself, saying "He's an archbishop and he was vulgar...obviously what thousands of Roman Catholics expected me to do was lie. I still get hate mail about the article."

After this incident, Coren said that he didn't consider himself a Roman Catholic anymore. He said, "My wife is Catholic and the children will be raised Catholic, but that's it. It's just not there for me."[citation needed] Daniel Richler observed that Coren loves scandal, but hates having it come his way. In one of his columns for the satirical humour magazine Frank, Michael Coren depicted Mother Teresa getting drunk in a bar.[4]

In early 2004, he embraced Catholicism again. He cites St. Thomas More, C. S. Lewis, Ronald Knox and his godfather Lord Longford as spiritual influences, and remains connected to the ecumenical scene in Canada and beyond.

In 2014, Michael Coren left the Roman Catholic Church and began worshipping with the Anglican Church of Canada, being formally received into the communion the next year. [16]

In an interview with the National Post on 1 May 2015, he cited the Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality and contraception as some of the reasons for his conversion to Anglicanism. [17]

A.N. Wilson, an aging young fogey British writer, became Catholic, then left, and I believe he is now Catholic again. This gear-shifting would not be so dramatic if making one's faith were not so much part of the personal identity you are advancing. Mind you, not that anyone should hide their faith. It does appear sometimes that faith can be treated as an accoutrement, sort of how a bow-tie for a while was something of a conservative nose-ring in punditry circles.

First this was taken from Wikipedia.

Second I can not find the Toronto Life article in question. If anyone knows where it could be located please tell.

Third if any Bishop, Cardinal, Patriarch,or Royal would make me a Knight they would be alright in my book(article). Just planting some seeds

Mistaken identity. Maclean's, 00249262, 6/7/93, Vol. 106, Issue 23


Source:
Maclean's. 6/7/93, Vol. 106 Issue 23, p50. 1/5p. 1 Color Photograph.
Document Type:
Article
People:
AMBROZIC, Aloysius
Abstract:
Reports on an interview by columnist Michael Coren, published last week in `Toronto Life' magazine, in which Roman Catholic Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic uses the words `frigging' and `bitch.' His public apology; More.
Full Text Word Count:
139
ISSN:
0024-9262
Accession Number:
9306070282

There was no need for Coren to publicize the late Cardinal's more colourful words. For him to have refrained from doing so would not have been "lying." Coren wanted to create a sensation and he did. He himself didn't like being criticized by the public, but if you play in the muck, don't be surprised if your clothes get soiled . . .

Look, even St Thomas More used quite vulgar expressions in describing Martin Luther and his theology. So did the pope at the time in his correspondence with Luther and vice-versa.

But we usually don't repeat that language in discussing those individuals, do we?

Coren is really one of those on-again, off-again convert types - the kind some people here like to make jokes about . . .

Alex

Thank you Michael Thoma for your help.

I will try to read the article. Tried yesterday searching for it on Toronto Life website and did not find it.

Side note no one addressed how one gets this Knighthood deal. Like I know donating money is one way, but does anyone know another ways in? For real like do I have to leave the Church, rejoin the Church and then write a faith share book about my Journey? If this knighthood thing is like a timeshare can I buy Michael Coren's title at a discount or just trade something for it.

Lets say I am willing to trade a full set of William Durant's Story of Civilization and a vintage typewriter for the Title.

I think Coren had to first attend Knight School . . .

Catholic priests who lead pilgrimages to the Holy Land are inducted into the Knights of the H.S.
Somehow, I think there are some laymen who were made knights of the H.S. at my old Greek Catholic parish an d they look rather silly in their chingilingi -- not everyone can pull off this look.
Oddly enough, ROCOR has a relationship with the House of Romanov and can award the Order of St. Anna (as in Chekhov's Anna on the Neck) which confers knighthood and in higher degrees nonhereditary and hereditary nobility. Like the Roman knighthoods, it is usually rewarded for a lifetime of service.

They all vary. Usually, one is not supposed to ask and is supposed to be invited to join. There is usually a fee, and an annual dues. In addition, one must attend meetings annually - sometimes internationally. There should also be some distinguishing characteristics and responsibility where Catholicism was positively exhibited.


I can't see how Coren fit the bill except he is rich and has friends who'd vouch for him.

In my humble opinion, sometimes the most fierce proponents of a cause seem to have an underlying weakness in adhering or believing in that cause. Look at a number of fierce pro-Christian marriage politicians in the mid-2000s who ended up being closeted homosexuals.

I endure this often (not in correlation to closeted homosexuality, lol). I fiercely defend the Catholic Church's teachings, even though I often waiver in my support of the Church itself. I say it's on a daily basis that I crave conversion to Orthodoxy, and really the only thing holding me back is that my wife is Catholic; I do not wish to introduce potential spiritual disharmony in our marriage.

I have struggled with the Catholic Faith for years, and I often bury myself in virulent or passionate defense as a way to hold these doubts at bay. I call myself a "Roamin' Catholic".

Sorry for the rant; I think this is what happened to Mr. Coren. As with other "happy warriors" for the Faith, he probably buried himself in spiritual and cultural apologetics in order to counter excruciating doubts.