Episcopal converts were closet Catholics all along

I've read a couple of stories recently about Episcopal congregations converting to Roman Catholicism ("Anglican parish in Towson switches to Catholicism," June 25). The reasons always cited by such parishioners are the Episcopal church's willingness to ordain women and gays into the priesthood, which your paper calls "liberal positions."

But giving full civil rights to all of God's children is now a mainstream position among Catholics as well as many others. Your articles make it sound like the wild-eyed Anglicans have run-off the decent folk. What is actually happening here is that a charismatic, always-wanted-to-be Catholic led his flock that way. And he doesn't even have to abide by the rules of celibacy that, by the way, were a much later addition to Catholic doctrine.

The leadership in Rome has given its OK to raiding Episcopal churches. It continues to vilify gays and to stick its nose into politics on issues such as birth control, health care, gay marriage and abortion.

The anti-gay stance they take also provides cover for bullying, no matter how much they try to deny it They have even attacked American nuns, who do tremendous work on behalf of the poor, as "radical feminists." And they have covered-up child abuse scandals that dwarf the Penn State case.

Your articles fail to mention any of that. So stop making it sound like the Anglicans are out of touch, when they seem to be the real mainstream, along with the vast majority of American Catholics who regularly ignore the Vatican edicts.

Frank Fletcher, Baltimore