"You Have Not Chosen Me, But I Have Chosen You..." | An Interview with Donna Steichen, editor of Chosen: How Christ Sent Twenty-three Surprised Converts to Replant His Vineyard | Carl E. Olson | Ignatius Insight | October 23, 2009
Donna Steichen is a longtime investigative journalist who has written numerous articles in various Catholic publications. She is also the author of Ungodly Rage: The Hidden Face of Catholic Feminism (Ignatius Press, 1991), and editor of Prodigal Daughters: Catholic Women Come Home to the Church (Ignatius Press, 1999).
Her most recent book, Chosen: How Christ Sent Twenty-three Surprised Converts to Replant His Vineyard (Ignatius, 2009), contains the inspiring and often surprising stories of men and women who were not drawn to the Church by sound evangelization programs, beautiful buildings and liturgies, or saintly witnesses among the clergy, but were attracted to Catholicism in spite of deficient catechesis, mediocre Masses, and uninspiring leadership.
Steichen recently spoke with Carl E. Olson, editor of Ignatius Insight about the book and related current events.
Ignatius Insight: How did this collection of conversion stories come about? How did you go about selecting the twenty-three stories in this volume?
Donna Steichen: This has been called the age of the "three verts" in the Church. Well, I kept hearing from reverts and converts wanting to tell me how they came to find themselves in the Church.
Each story was deeply moving. Because of my research on feminism, I decided that all the stories in my 1999 book, Prodigal Daughters, should be those of women reverts. This time, I wanted to focus especially on those giving awesome evidence that in a Catholic conversion, it is Christ who does the choosing.
Ignatius Insight: While each conversion story has unique details and elements, what are some of the essential, common themes and characteristics? What lessons might be learned from those?
Donna Steichen: The unifying theme, of course, is that it is God who chooses. The most striking affirmation is that God does truly forgive the penitent any sin, however scarlet. If we have been properly catechized, we know that truth intellectually, but in personal accounts we see it brought to vivid life.
For me, the most unexpected theme is God's persistence, the way He offers His love again and again, in patient but unremitting courtship of the soul. We see why Francis Thompson rightly calls Him "The Hound of Heaven".
Read the entire interview...
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