Did George Washington convert to Catholicism on his death bed?

George Washington - deathbed conversion?

I researched the claim that our first president, George Washington, converted to the Catholic church on his death bed.  Although most sources mentioned that he was friendly to Catholics and even discontinued the celebration of "Guy Fawkes Day" which apparently was anti Catholic, the first link, I found, claimed there was no evidence of Washington turning Catholic. This article (below) was written by a secular historian .... It seems several sources don't WANT this to be true that Washington died a Catholic.  It also is assumed that since Washington was a Mason, this might have been a stumbling block for his conversion to the Faith - but of course, his membership in the Masons would not have been a problem on his death bed! 

http://www.traditioninaction.org/History/B_007_WashingtonCatholic.html

However, on the site, Catholic.org, they had some more info...this site is run by Catholic Answers which is a reliable source...

Apparently, the evidence of Washington's conversion is in Jesuit historical documents which are pretty reliable...

Here's the quote and link:

"Our first President, George Washington, died a Catholic. While he lay on his deathbed he sent his slaves across the Potomac to bring back his close friend, Father Leonard Neal, S.J. Neal spent some time alone in the President's sick room. When he returned to the Jesuit house, his fellow religious asked him the outcome of his visit and he simply answered, "Everything has been taken care of." The entire story is related in the Jesuit annals. The Negro slaves, who had been imbued with Baptist anti-Catholic bigotry, passed on the story that "Master George had been seduced by the scarlet woman of Rome". Our first President had always kept a beautiful picture of Our Lady in His living room; he adopted the Catholic practice of blessing himself before meals; he was largest contributor, giving more than even Bishop Carroll, to the building of St. Augustine's church in Philadelphia; he very often attended Mass; and he often told his troops that if they did not refrain from abusing the Holy Name of Jesus they would surely lose the war."

http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=217658

Source URL:

http://catholicism.org/george-washington-died-a-catholic.html

More Technology?

Gerry taking photo of me - new car is behind him!

So, our car that we got in 2006 was beginning to show wear.  Then, one day, the front end started coming off (it has a large plastic front end fastened with a couple of plastic clips).  A local shop did a sort of chewing gum fix on it a year ago, which lasted a year but it was starting to come loose again so I decided to visit the local car dealer and have them fix it.  I drove in the driveway.  But unbeknownst to me, the same group owns the dealership on the corner which apparently shares the driveway.  A nice looking middle aged man walked up and motioned for me to open the window.

Little did I know that would begin a huge lifechange.  Instead of going to the dealership which supported our car, we ended up going to the other dealership.  At first I thought "no way" but he showed us a very nice new car - a sort of small SUV and then, we spent the day haggling over payments etc.  The fatal flaw (for me) was when he invited me to take the car for a test drive.

Wow.  The ride was smooth, bumps in the road disappeared and it handled wonderfully. Never thought I could get hooked on a car but....

Bottom line, we drove it home that day.

So it has all kinds of new stuff on it.  Things I'd never heard of like "climate control" (really? in a car?) and more.  Since we had a lot of church this week (Holy Week), and Friday we visit shut in folks, I was just getting used to it. (OK I'm an old dog and this is a very new trick).

Then today, this really nice gentleman came out from the dealer to run through some of the technical things like the radio (it has every which type of radio and also there is a way you can play all the music in your phone and more.)  When he asked about the phone, I told him I didn't have music in my new iPhone - it was in my iPod.  

"Oh", he said, the music is on the "cloud" (when I was a kid,  clouds were fluffy white cotten-y things in the sky that rained on you sometimes) and it naturally downloaded to my new iPhone when I switched.  I looked and sure enough, there it was.

I'm amazed at all the things just the radio stereo does - I mean we had a 2006 car - but the technology difference between that car and this car is like the difference between a horse n' buggy and a speed racer.

Even the drive has several modes... a regular mode, a "economy" mode - that puts a bit of resistance on the gas pedal so you tend to go slower, and a "sports" mode - that turns your gas pedal into a mode where you can play like you have a race car. (huh?)

That's just what I remember.  I've already forgotten all the stuff you can do with the stereo. Even the windshield wipers are complex. 

So right now, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.  My hubby said I'll get used to it.  I guess. And I'm sure if I forget how to do something, I can ask my 6 year old great granddaughter to show me how.  ** sigh **  Generation gap?  Try generation chasm!!!

Technology is biting me!

Remember back in the old days (like the 1960's and 1970's) when you drove into a gas station, and a nice attendant asked "fill er' up" and you said "please" and then he handled the pump, washed the windows, checked the oil, and took your card to complete the sale?  Then in the 1980's the do-it-yourself pumps appeared and if you used them, you got a discount on gas, but still large stations had attendants. Now, it's all self-service (and gasoline costs several times as much as the days when a gas station was a service station!) Since hubby's third stroke which put me in the driver's seat of our car, I've been trying to learn how to pump gas. And despite trying to do it several times, I'm STILL having a rough time.  The directions are not clear - nothing is clear.  Finally in utter frustration, I went into the store part and was going to pay that way but now, you have to "prepay" (estimate how much gas you will use) and the excess is SUPPOSED to go back to your debit card. 

So I had the lady come out and stand next to me.... but it not only asks you for your PIN but also for your zip code - we have a PO box but I guessed the bank which sends me everything electronically had our house zip and it kept rejecting the card when finally I got the idea to put in our PO box zip... Took me a half hour of utter frustration to complete the transaction... ** sigh **

After my frustrating adventure at the pump, I decided to type the multi-step process into my tablet computer, (which I dropped 3 times... thank heavens I have a strong protective cover on it) and then email it to myself so it's in my phone also (iPhone).

Then there is the food store - the so called Super Market wasn't that big when I first got married and it was relatively easy to go shopping, easy to find things etc - now they have EVERYTHING including a fully stocked drug store and probably all the merchandise which you used to go to Woolworth's to get (remember Woolworth's?) and several isles of frozen dinners etc.  We older arthritic folks (I'm 70) have to use the scooters because it seems one walks MILES in the food store.  Luckily we can do most of our shopping on the web and have it delivered but today, after the gas station "adventure", we had to go to a large market to get some stuff not available on the web.  And that was another "adventure".





And after all of this, the "fraud protection" at our bank called and sent emails to insist we confirm transactions on our debit card (luckily can do this in email).  ** sigh **


I guess young folks don't mind all of this but wow, for those of us elderly - it's rough... can anyone relate?