If I interject, since this is a discussion board for opinions after all, I don't think that it's a good idea for Ignatius to convert if he doesn't have issues with the dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church. Everything sounds more practical. on his end, which makes sense, but it's not the right thing to do.
I personally would have returned to Roman Catholicism on my Mom's side of the family no matter what if I would have thought it to be true, and the diocese where I grew up was pretty much a liturgical wasteland. The priests were kind from what I can recall. But the important thing is what is true, not the immediate inconveniences we face.
For example, when I was considering become Orthodox, I visited all of the parishes (about eight) in my city to get a feeling for how Orthodoxy looked on the ground in all different kinds of situations. I wanted to know I could be faithful in the worse of environments in case I moved and I only had one "bad" option or none at all. There was a particular Serbian Church in the city with almost no English, and I later found out that the priest there was a belligerent drunk who would yell at acolytes behind the iconostasis, scold people severely during confessions, and almost never make communion available to people, really only at Christmas, Easter and a few other times. Even if you were keeping all of the church fasts and confessing (and getting yelled at) regularly, still no communion.
Anyway, all of that to say that I decided that even if this was the only church available to me then I would still go there, because I knew deep in my heart that Orthodoxy was the true faith established by Christ and remaining through the centuries. It just so happens that my city offers many many reverent Latin masses in traditionalist communities. I could have enjoyed those places and gotten a far more personal feeling of spiritual benefit out of them than at the Serbian church that I just mentioned. But at the end of the day I just couldn't buy into Papal Supremacy and Papal Infallibility as dogmatic truths of the Catholic faith. I just couldn't do it, because it's not the story I saw in history. Sure there were traces of their development over time, but I didn't see them as anything essential to the Catholic faith.
Anyway, all of that to say that I was fortunate to have the best of both worlds: a great parish with a loving priest to help me grow, and it was Eastern Orthodox. But everything that Ignatius is saying seems to have little to do with objecting to Roman Catholic teaching, which makes me think that any conversion might not be permanent or honest. For example, were he to move to another city after conversion with all that he wanted in the RCC of his previous town, would he "switch back"? I think that ultimately the decision has to be in pursuit of Truth no matter where it leads, even if it is not practically beneficial. When I became Orthodox, I became spiritually separated and alienated from my wife. But it was for His Truth, and He said that He would divide households, so I must be faithful to Truth no matter the immediate circumstances. IF we don't have Truth, what do we have?
I fully agree with you. From my end, I did the same. In my town, there was a very nice Greek Orthodox parish, and I was a member of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship at my university. The local Catholic parish left much to be desired! I'll spare you the horror stories. There was also a wonderful traditional Anglican parish in this town.
But I went Catholic for a reason, because I believed the Catholic Church is the church of Jesus Christ most fully and rightly ordered through time. It didn't matter how bad things looked on the ground where I was---all that meant was that God had given me an opportunity (with the help of his grace) to do something about it!
