So I was an Anglican priest at the time, and while I was home in Greenville, South Carolina my younger brother Daryl, who had already become a Catholic, invited me around for dinner with his parish priest Fr Paul. Fr Paul is a pretty hefty Franciscan who likes to eat fried chicken and drink beer.
Well I picked a fight with Fr Paul about the Immaculate Conception…”Thomas Aquinas didn’t believe it and nyah, nyah, nyah…why do you Catholics have to insist that it is a dogma and so for and so on.” He’s very patient with me and finally says, “Well, we believe the Immaculate Conception because the Pope tells us to. Pass the fried chicken.”
Hm. Foiled again. It’s the pope thing.