Meet the man who launched the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Paul Wattson via OSV/CNS

He’s Rev. Paul Wattson a former Episcopal priest—the son of an Episcopal priest, in fact—who converted to Catholicism and who also co-founded Catholic Near East Welfare Agency (CNEWA), the papal agency where I work. Father Paul is now being considered for sainthood.

Some background, from OSV: 

Born in 1863 in Millington, Maryland, Father Wattson (born Lewis Thomas Wattson) was the third son of an Episcopal minister, Rev. Joseph Newton Wattson.

As a student, his father was expelled from the seminary as he was thought to be a “secret Jesuit” due to reading and sharing Catholic tracts among his fellow seminarians. This episode haunted his father for the better part of his ministerial career, as he was sent to serve in poverty-stricken areas, which was seen as a punishment for his “Roman tendencies.”

“This was personal for him,” said Father Joseph Scerbo of the Society of the Atonement, who has written extensively on the life of Father Wattson. “Not only was his father misunderstood, but so was he. He embraced that cross from his earliest days in formation.”

Despite this, Father Wattson followed in his father’s footsteps and was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1886.

But that’s just the beginning. Read it all to learn how he entered the Catholic Church, and what followed. It’s truly a remarkable legacy.

Meantime: