Friday, April 17, 2015

Did George Washington convert to Catholicism on his death bed?

George Washington - deathbed conversion?
I researched the claim that our first president, George Washington, converted to the Catholic church on his death bed.  Although most sources mentioned that he was friendly to Catholics and even discontinued the celebration of "Guy Fawkes Day" which apparently was anti Catholic, the first link, I found, claimed there was no evidence of Washington turning Catholic. This article (below) was written by a secular historian .... It seems several sources don't WANT this to be true that Washington died a Catholic.  It also is assumed that since Washington was a Mason, this might have been a stumbling block for his conversion to the Faith - but of course, his membership in the Masons would not have been a problem on his death bed! 

http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/B_007_WashingtonCatholic.html

However, on the site, Catholic.org, they had some more info...this site is run by Catholic Answers which is a reliable source...

Apparently, the evidence of Washington's conversion is in Jesuit historical documents which are pretty reliable...

Here's the quote and link:

"Our first President, George Washington, died a Catholic. While he lay on his deathbed he sent his slaves across the Potomac to bring back his close friend, Father Leonard Neal, S.J. Neal spent some time alone in the President's sick room. When he returned to the Jesuit house, his fellow religious asked him the outcome of his visit and he simply answered, "Everything has been taken care of." The entire story is related in the Jesuit annals. The Negro slaves, who had been imbued with Baptist anti-Catholic bigotry, passed on the story that "Master George had been seduced by the scarlet woman of Rome". Our first President had always kept a beautiful picture of Our Lady in His living room; he adopted the Catholic practice of blessing himself before meals; he was largest contributor, giving more than even Bishop Carroll, to the building of St. Augustine's church in Philadelphia; he very often attended Mass; and he often told his troops that if they did not refrain from abusing the Holy Name of Jesus they would surely lose the war."

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=217658

Source URL:

http://catholicism.org/george-washington-died-a-catholic.html



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