Full Circle

When young William Purcell Witcutt was studying for the Anglican ministry some 20 years ago, he met Roman Catholicism's famed Author-Convert G. K. Chesterton. Under Chesterton's influence, Witcutt renounced his faith. In 1934 he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest, and was assigned to St. Anne's parish, Wappenbury. His sermons and writings (including Catholic Thought and Modern Psychology) were so successful that by last year, at 41, he was regarded as close to the top rank of England's Catholic literati. Then suddenly, last October, he disappeared, and until a month ago stayed out of sight.

When he came out of hiding, he applied to the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Rev. H. A. Wilson, for readmission into the Church of England. Witcutt did not have to be ordained--the Church of England recognizes his Catholic orders. Last Sunday he was among the worshipers at East London's Church of St. Mary Magdalene-with-St. Bartholomew, where he has been appointed curate.

For a time Witcutt will do no preaching, but he will sit with the congregation until he "reabsorbs the atmosphere of the Church of England." Though he had little to say to the press, he admitted: "The reason I left the Catholic Church was because I grew to dislike the rigidity of the Roman Catholic faith; I prefer the broader outlook of the Church of England."

Bishop Wilson was happy over this return to the Anglican fold, but added: "This is nothing so unusual. In my own diocese alone, we have several Roman priests who have come over to us. But it is not our habit to advertise the conversion of a man from Rome to our faith. It is not our way of doing things."

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