I was in my father’s study looking for something to read and for the first time I noticed a book called Trower on the Epistles. It was by an ancestor who had been Bishop of Gibraltar in the early 19th century. In those days the Church of England had two bishops to look after the members of its flock living on the continent. One was Bishop of Gibraltar, the other Bishop of —–. Anyhow, on opening the book almost the first passage my eyes fell on read something like “as the Church of Rome so wrongly maintains……”

With a suddenly intense feeling irritation I snapped the book shut and put it back on the shelf saying to myself, “If all you can talk about is what’s wrong with the Church of Rome. I’m not interested in anything else you have to say.”

—Philip Trower, at that time not yet a Catholic