Birth of Father Paul

Birth of Father Paul

On January 16, at the height of the Civil War in America, Father Paul is born Lewis Thomas Wattson to Joseph Newton Wattson, a Presbyterian who converted to the Episcopal Church, and a twice-widowed woman named Mary Electa. His father was influenced by the writings of John Henry Newman, who expounded a Catholic Revival within the Episcopal Church, and was later received into the Catholic Church. Joseph Wattson was dismissed from seminary under the suspicion of being a secret Jesuit. He later was able to serve as Rector in a small Episcopal Church in Maryland. Throughout his life, he was marginalized, misunderstood, frustrated and poor, but his name will be forever remembered, chosen as he was by God to father, to train and to mould the character of one destined to accomplish great things Father Paul James Wattson.