Hey Murdoch, I'm just now watching "Skydaddies," and this story came to mind.
The Miracle that Led Alec Guinness to Convert to Catholicism
"My son Matthew, then aged eleven, was stricken with polio and paralysed from the waist down. The future for Matthew looked doubtful, and in my anxiety I formed the habit of dropping in at a rather tawdry little Catholic church which lay on my route home. I didn't go to pray, to plead or to worship - just to sit quietly for ten minutes and gather what peace of spirit I could.
"After I had done this several times I struck a negative bargain with God. 'Let him recover', I said, 'and I will never put an obstacle in his way should he ever wish to become a Catholic.'
"It sounded to me like a supreme sacrifice on my part.
"About three months later he was able to walk in a stilted way. By Christmas he could play football. And not long afterwards I was taken up on the side of the bargain. We wanted to move out of London to the country, and we found only a Catholic school. The Rector explained to us: 'We only have three non-Catholic boys, and if he comes here I have no doubt that by the time he is sixteen he will wish to conform. They all do. No pressure will be put on him, I assure you, but it is most likely he will express the wish to be received. Would you object?'
"I hesitated, and then said, 'No.'
"Matthew went to Beaumont and at the age of fifteen announced that he was going to submit himself to the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church.
"I later went to spend some days in a Trappist monastery. The life at the Abbey impressed me deeply. If this was the worst that Rome had to offer, it was pretty good. On March 24, 1956, Fr Clarke accepted my reconciliation with the Church, with tact and kindness, at St Lawrence's, Petersfield. Like countless converts before and after me, I felt I had come home."
http://www.carlosvalles.com/ningles/151003ioc.htm 
