Catholic Conversion: An Interview with Derrick Taylor

Cometan · Derrick Taylor

Mar 2022 · Cause for the Beatification of Irene Mary & Derrick Taylor Book 2 · Cometanica

About this ebook

It is unlikely that when the grandfather of Cometan, Derrick Taylor, sat down to participate in an interview with his good friend Judith Shean now almost thirty years ago that all those years later his grandson would have written a book analysing that very interview. On 22nd February 1995, Derrick Taylor agreed to participate in an interview at his home 222 Longmeanygate to reveal his experience as a Protestant turned Catholic. During the interview, Derrick Taylor provided a realistic view of what his life had been like detailing loss, tragedy and suffering. By contrast, he also detailed his predisposition for experiencing interior locutions – divine communications to the ear – which filled him with great elation in times of spiritual crisis. This interview was titled Light a Candle for Me as based on Derrick Taylor's very first interaction with the Sacred Heart of Jesus when he was just seven years old in which he asked his friend's mother to light a candle for him as a metaphor for his journey to Catholicism. What we ultimately learn of Derrick Taylor's character in this 1995 interview is that he held such a dedication to the Catholic faith that he found it difficult to reconcile the fact that the world and the Church were changing. In this interview, which is now often titled the Sceptre Bulletin Interview, Derrick Taylor tells us in his own words what he thought of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. This book, the Catholic Conversion, is an exegetical work written by Derrick's grandson Cometan some 27 years later that develops his grandfather's words into a set of theological concepts that come to form Derrick Taylor's definitive approach to Catholicism.

About the author

Cometan (born July 1, 1998) is a British philosopher, writer and academic best known for founding the Astronist religion and for his scholarly work in the field of human rights, specifically freedom of religion or belief. From 2020, Cometan embarked upon the extensive endeavour to work towards the beatification of both his paternal grandparents, Irene Mary Taylor and Derrick Taylor, in the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the extraordinary and exemplary Catholic lives they lived.

Derrick Taylor (1930–2011) was an English coal miner, gardener and milkman from Coppull, Lancashire who, despite being raised in the Church of England, felt from age seven an instinctual calling to the Catholic faith. Derrick Taylor's conversion to Catholicism officially commenced in September 1950 with help from his Catholic fiancée Irene Mary Taylor who introduced Derrick to Father Patrick McNally of St Mary's Church, Bamber Bridge. Following the reforms introduced to the Latin Mass by the Second Vatican Council, Derrick Taylor entered a spiritual crisis that ultimately resulted in his experience of interior locution on at least two occasions. Derrick Taylor's experience of interior locution enriched his Catholic faith once more and solidified his faith in Christ and his allegiance to the Pope along the while continuing to attend Latin Mass until he died from ischemic heart disease in 2011.