I've never been to one in my life

"I've never been to one in my life."Instead, he begins to tell a seemingly endless series of parochially metropolitan stories, largely against himself, and insists I write them down for the Independent's diary column. He dictates bits of journalese with a curiously old-fashioned, William Hickeyish style: "Spotted late one night: Ann Widdecombe, the minister now in charge of all Her Majesty's prisons and the criminally insane ..." He chortles. Is it because he assumes a pre-lunch drink is what boozy journalists are accustomed to? Or is it because he just talks too much to get round to drinking?It is the first interview he has ever given, he says, and he only wants to talk because so much has been written about him in the past which was plain wrong - stuff about him spending "weekends in country seats sporting his dog collar amid the pearls-and-gum boots house parties where he is wined and dined, and then retires for 'a quiet talk' with his charge." It's all nonsense, he insists. He is surprisingly informal, and manages to conceal his real seriousness behind a facade of facetiousness."All this is much in evidence when we meet. "Let's go to the pub before we eat," he suggests, and then barely touches the lager he orders.

But Fr Michael has remained serious."Widdecombe, by contrast, praises his democratic style. He is, in her phrase, "a very effective fisherman for the Catholic Church, one who works with people from all backgrounds - from, literally, rich men in their castles to poor men at the gate. He can move freely among distinguished and interesting people, and he's accepted as part of the furniture. He's the prime social priest, and it's to his credit that he hasn't been made shallower by it. A lot get into the Catholic society mannerisms and style of speech. Clark, for instance, describes the priest's beautiful manners.

"He's very patient, very serene, extremely convivial, and completely at ease. They are prompted by a variety of motives, though for many the decision by the General Synod to ordain women proved the last straw in a growing disenchantment with the Church of England; but all of them have been encouraged, in different ways, by Fr Seed's personality. In that time, Fr Seed estimates, there have been about 25,000 conversions, and converting to Catholicism has been transformed from a private experience into a public phenomenon by the social standing of some who have been received by Rome.It was Fr Seed who, having become unofficial Catholic chaplain to the House of Commons, instructed John Gummer, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Home Office minister Ann Widdecombe, and Sir George Gardiner, the leading Conservative backbencher, and is now instructing the self-proclaimed roue and highest of high Tories, Alan Clark. In the Eighties, there were about 400 to 500 conversions a year nationwide But in the past five years, the rate has soared. He knew the money was going for something for his own good."Perhaps. More likely he could not find any other response to the boyish enthusiasm of the man who is now best known for having led many top Tories into the Roman Catholic Church in recent years He is an important part of a wider phenomenon.