Whenever I gave a talk to a group of Catholics about C.S. Lewis, one question which always comes up in the Q&A is: “Why do you think C.S. Lewis never became Catholic?”
This question is asked because many of the things the audience will have have learned over the course of the talk would have sounded very Catholic, such as when they discover that Lewis went to weekly auricular confession to an Anglican priest and believed in the Real Presence.
In his letters, when pressed, Lewis pointed to two particular aspects of Catholicism which troubled him – the papacy and the devotion to the Virgin Mary. Tolkien gave his own explanation with a pun, speaking about Lewis’ “Ulsterior Motive”.
Catholic Philosopher, Dr. Peter Kreeft, has his own opinion as to why Lewis never converted:
For what it’s worth, I think if Lewis had ever split from the Church of England that Eastern Orthodoxy might have been a more likely destination.
