I’ll admit it, I like to give Rod Dreher a hard time. (Not that he ever noticed) However the few times I have commented on Rod it has never been about his faith. His self proclaimed moniker of Crunchy Con is my typical fodder, for while he may be crunchy I don’t find much conservative about him. Further, he has a chronic case of foot in mouth disease.

So in a nutshell my beefs with Rod are based on him sometimes being a weenie liberal and for saying some dumb stuff. Hey, I say lots of dumb stuff too. (*Note: I have never been accused of being a weenie liberal. Ok, yes I was when I bought a Prius but I had some rain forest in Peru chopped down to re-establish my bona fides – anyway)

Today I want to write about Rod, his faith to be precise, but I am emphatically not criticizing him. As I suspect some of you may know, Rod used to be Catholic but a few years back he converted to Orthodoxy. I will not go in to his reasons here, he can explain it better than I can if you are interested. Suffice it to say that I don’t agree.

Yesterday he wrote about his (still current it would seem) belief in the apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima in 1917. An Orthodox reader asks him how he reconciles his belief in Fatima with his Orthodoxy, given the conversion of Russia, the Immaculate Conception and all. His continued devotion to Our Lady and his struggle to reconcile his beliefs with that devotion seem heartfelt.

I agree with Rod that the conversion of Russia for which we are to pray does not mean only Western Latin Rite Catholicism. An Orthodox Church as part of the universal (Catholic) Church with its Bishops in union with Rome would suffice very nicely I think. This day I think is getting closer all the time.

While I don’t think such a reunion with all of Orthodoxy is as imminent as some would suggest, I do think that it is possible (perhaps even probable) that I will live to see some level of this union.

The question I would ask Rod (or any other Catholic–>Orthodox convert) is has he ever wondered what his view will be if he finds that that first bus out of town ends up delivering him right back to his front doorstep?

If that happens, I think Rod will know who to thank for it. She never lets go.