“I have so much optimism as a priest when I talk to parents whose children have been away from the faith and there seems to be no hope,” he said in a talk, “The Grace of Deathbed Conversions,” for The Coming Home Network International.
“I’m totally optimistic because I see what happens. I go to someone’s deathbed and the story is so often the same. … ‘I haven’t been to church in 40 years … I stopped practicing the faith when I was a teenager.’ And there’s this little call in their heart. When they get closer to death, this grace of conversion comes. And so many times, people who look like they were completely beyond conversion, they convert.”
Father Walshe shared the story of his childhood friend, Cynthia. She had converted to the faith thanks to a friendship with a large Catholic family, the Grimms. Her mother had passed away, and her father was nowhere to be found, so her grandmother was raising her. Ironically, her grandmother was very anti-Catholic. But when the grandmother had reached 100 years old and her health was fading, she had a recurring dream of being invited to a party but being unable to go.
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