When I was pastor of The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta, Georgia (1991-2004) I wanted to hire a “pastoral assistant” to coordinate various ministries of the parish around 1993-94 or so.
I advertised widely for the position. I received one application from an Episcopal Priest, Rev. Fletcher Bingham, a pastor at a small Episcopal Church in Augusta and the other from an Evangelical minister in Florida, Paul Thigpen!
I thought to myself, self, don’t these applicants know that I am the pastor of a traditionally minded Roman Catholic parish? Why are they applying!
I spoke to both on the phone and eventually hired the Episcopal priest! Yes! You read that correctly!
I received he, his wife and two of his three children into the Church after I had hired him, a couple of weeks later. Eventually one of his sons became a Dominican priest in the western province.
Dr.Paul Thigpen moved to Augusta and joined my parish and was active there until he moved to Savannah.
He died on Tuesday, February 25th. God rest his soul and may God comfort his wife and family!
You can read about him from ETWN News. Press the title:
Paul Thigpen, theologian who explored ‘wondrous’ question of extraterrestrial life, dies at 71
A convert to Catholicism, Thigpen wrote prolifically on saints, the Blessed Mother, and the possibility of intelligent alien life, among other topics.
1 comment:
Well, well Father McDonald- “ Wonders never cease”!!!! Love this story! So now it seems you are the agency through which God brought this phenomenal warrior for orthodoxy to GA and more importantly, into The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church! Talk about touching greatness, I shall bear that in mind the next time I have the Blessing of seeing you! I watched his Conversion Story as well as sequelae on the “Journey Home” Program on EWTN many years ago! I just went back to watch the one in 2010 in anticipation of sending one out to several people here at St. Joseph, including our OCIA Director to share with Candidates and Catechumens!
I hope this will prompt others to watch other EWTN presentations, check out his talks on youtube, or buy his books!!! Solid, orthodox ( vs heterodox) perennialTeaching of Holy Mother Church!
What a great and powerfully effective Evangelizer he will continue to be- Always! Now more than ever we need disciples such as he!
May the soul of this giant of a Disciple RIP and may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God RIP! Amen!
And may the Sacred Heart and the wonderful memories which his family and his friends have of him, continue to comfort them!
https://chnetwork.org/journey-home/dr-paul-thigpen-former-pentecostal-pastor-the-journey-home-program/
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