The Christian Century has an account of six Protestant theologians who have recently converted to Catholicism. The group includes three LutheransReinhard Htter, Bruce Marshall, and Mickey Mattox; two AnglicansRusty Reno and Douglas Farrow; and a MennoniteGerald Schlabach. Mattox, Reno and Schlabach all teach at Catholic colleges. Some have also studied with the Lutheran theologian George Lindbeck, well known for his evangelical Catholic sympathies. But there is one prominent figure who shares many of this groups beliefs who remains absent:

A significant figure hovering over this discussion is Htter's Duke colleague Stanley Hauerwas, who over the years has encouraged his students to engage Catholic theology and the teachings of the Catholic magisterium. "When John Paul II confessed the sin of the Reformation on the part of Catholicism, I thought, 'That's really significantwho would do that in Protestantism'?" He suggests that perhaps the Reformation workedCatholics now hear more scripture in mass and in preaching than do many Protestants. And with its teaching office, monastic orders and other practices, Catholics have gifts that Protestants lack: "Catholicism has maintained the integrity of being the church of the poor in a way that we Protestants don't have a clue about."

So why not join the Catholics? His answer is partly personal. While raising his son, Hauerwas found that the Methodists were good at shaping young people in faith. He is also prefers loyalty to one's church of origin: "I feel like you need to stay with the people that harmed you." At the theological level, Hauerwas cites the remark by Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's chief ecumenical officer, that "the ecumenical aim is not a simple return of the other into the fold of the Roman Catholic Church nor the conversion of individuals, even if this must obviously be mutually acknowledged when based on conscience. In the ecumenical movement the question is conversion to Christ. In him we move closer to one another." Hauerwas hopes that his work contributes to a catholic unity that all Christians should seek. He is sympathetic with friends and students who become Catholic, but at the same time he wants to say to them, "Don't do it. We need you!"