Pope Benedict, in recent speeches, has been emphasizing the importance of the Church Fathers. I think it’s safe to say that for many of the more academic minded converts to Catholicism, reading or studying the Church Fathers played an instrumental part in their conversion. It certainly was in mine (not that I consider myself terribly academic minded!). The mention by Benedict is timely since Dr. Francis Beckwith, president of the Evangelical Theological Society, has converted to Catholicism and one of his major reasons for doing so was the influence of the Church Fathers. Welcome to the Catholic Church, Dr. Beckwith!