Father Michael Seed - Sinners and Saints--The Irreverent Diaries of Britains Most Controversial Saint

I t was purely by chance that I met the remarkable woman who I now value as one of my closest friends. It happened, like so many of my chance meetings, in a bar. This one was the Pugin Room in the Palace of Westminster.

She is without doubt the most formidable person I have encountered in the Palace of Westminster. A true phenomenon with a unique personality. You would not, willingly, want to cross Ann and would contradict her only at your peril. In the early days of our friendship, virtually all I did, I admit, was to listen. I didnt dare interrupt her until I came to know her a good deal better. If truth were told I think that to begin with I was more than a little frightened of her. And probably, at times, still am.

Ann could be described as a one-woman task force combining the fire and courage and passion of a crusader and the mental wizardry of an Oxford don, with a captivating and quite unexpected and bubbly sense of fun. She was destined, perhaps surprisingly, to become one of my closest confidantes; I have an endearing love for her.

She is also the most notable of all my Seedlings, the term invented by Frank (Lord) Longford, to describe my many converts to the Catholic Church.

Ann is a deeply committed Christian. She comes from an evangelical Anglican background and her brother, Canon Malcolm Widdecombe, was actually vicar of St Philip and St Jacob, Bristol known as Pip n Jays. She was educated at Bath Convent boarding school, run by nuns (La Sainte Union Sisters), a traditional Catholic stronghold of discipline, mystery and doctrine. It was there she learnt how to stand up for herself; it undoubtedly had a lasting effect.

It was in 1987 that my guardian angel led Ann over to the table where I was enjoying an early evening drink with Ken Hargreaves, who was Tory MP for Hyndburn from 1983 to 1992. It was a fine, sunny evening and we had a splendid view of the terrace and the River Thames from the most popular Commons bar. Ann, it turned out, was a close friend of Kens and having spotted him came straight over to our table. After the introductions she ordered a very large Famous Grouse whisky, in a glass topped up with ice, and took a long swallow when it arrived. Her smile went all the way up to her eyes, and she sighed, I think I needed that.

I soon learned that Ann could consume substantial amounts of Famous Grouse whisky but loathed other brands and never diluted her drink with water. Her drinking, like her talking, was ever straight.

In those days Anns hair was deepest black and cut in a severe, trademark Cromwellian, puritan style. Perhaps difficult to recall now since later on she stunned everyone by suddenly and disconcertingly becoming a blonde, still her colour of choice. But today she has finished with dyes. From now on its Ann au naturel!

It turned out that Ann liked the clergy and also approved of anything strict, and when I explained my background in the Salvation Army and as a Strict and Particular Baptist she clearly warmed to me. I have always been attracted to nonconformists, for I find, for the most part, that conformists are dull and boring and only ever seem to want to talk about committees, structures, mechanisms or documents. Ann definitely does not conform; she is a one off absolutely her own person and completely devoid of spin. She is, I have come to believe, like a matrix a complex place in which ideas are shaped and developed.

After that first meeting I came away thinking, This is a very unusual lady. She is either going to kill people verbally, or inspire them to great deeds. Later, I discovered she would do both with equal dedication and enthusiasm.

As a young woman she had been an administrator at the University of London, which she had seemingly handled with ease. She is an awe-inspiring organizer and I believe could, one day, become a splendid Chancellor of a large university. Indeed, it was widely rumoured that she was shortlisted for the Chancellorship of Oxford university a post now held by my friend Chris Patten.

Ann and Ken Hargreaves, I learned, were members of a sort of unofficial club affectionately known as the Holy Gaggle. The other members were David Alton a former Chief Whip for the Liberal Party who, at the time of his elevation in July 1997, was the youngest Life Peer and David Amess, then Tory MP for Basildon and currently MP for Southend. All four are Catholics and leaders in the pro-life movement, opposing abortion and euthanasia and other related life-issues. I became the fifth musketeer.

In common with most of the events in Anns somewhat turbulent life, her conversion to Catholicism was characteristically dramatic and a media frenzy. It also earned me a severe ticking off from an irate Cardinal Hume.

Anns views on women priests matched that of many traditional theologians. The argument is complex, yet simple. For Ann, God the Father sent His Son, Jesus, human and divine, to teach his Word and Jesus chose only men to be His Apostles. Gods choice is good enough for me and should be good enough for the Church of England.

But, of course, not everyone agreed and on 11th November 1992 the Church of England General Synod voted by a majority of only two to bring in the ordination of women priests the following year. It almost didnt happen this way as two members of the Synod, both staunchly opposed to the ordination of women were delayed on a train from Brighton (a hotbed of High Church Anglican observance) and therefore were unable to vote on the matter. But as Lady Bracknell observed, the line is immaterial.

Elsewhere in this book, I allude to the enormous impact of that decision on the Catholic Church, but its impact on Ann was no less devastating. She believed that a male-only priesthood was something very special and very sacred and she just couldnt stomach the change. She sought Reception into the Catholic Church. Ann set a date of Wednesday, 21 April 1993 for her conversion (as it is commonly called) and she would have liked it to have been in the chapel in Parliament. But because this was in a palace, was the Queens chapel, that day happened to be the Queens birthday and as Ann was a Minister of the Queen, the Cardinal ruled it would cause too much furore and controversy and that I should change the date or change the venue or ideally both. I should have paid heed, but I didnt. As a compromise, it was agreed that Ann would be Received into the Catholic Church in the Crypt of Westminster Cathedral at 7am on the date set. As a kindness, the Cardinal agreed that I could give her a Catholic Mass in the Parliamentary chapel that evening.