For Catholics who converted from evangelical Protestantism ...?

Question

Were you negative or contemptuous about the Church before, to the point of being strongly anti-Catholic? If so, what or who changed your mind?

Answer 1

I probably would have been considered anti-Catholic. I remember when a girlfriend of mine converted, and I was scared to death she'd be going to hell! I ended up breaking up with her.

I didn't really look into Catholic doctrine myself until I was researching to write an essay to combat neo-gnosticism. I turned to the writings of the early Church, and I couldn't find my Pentecostal faith there. I eventually tried to construct a synthesis of what the early Church believed, and it really looked Catholic--though I didn't know that at the time. I didn't know what the Church taught.

Anyway, I ended up driving by St. Bernard's Catholic Church in Gate City, Virginia, and for some reason, I went in. I couldn't have told you why. Just curious, I guess.

I met Fr. Rollie there, and he really cemented everything in my heart--he showed me how the Church believed the things I had discovered, and how the Catholic Church was in fact the very same Church that was there in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries. Really a humbling experience.

Answer 2

I know Evangelical Protestantism covers a wide variety of people. I think on this board there are some of the more unreasoning fanatical elements expressing views.

I was born and raised in S. E.Texas. Our Bishop had brain malignancy and died about 10 years, ago. He and the Pastor of an Assemblies of God Church as well as the Jewish Rabbi all had a malignancy. They would meet and put their arms around each other and pray together at the Cancer Treatment Center. Actually that Assemblies of God pastor dialogued with a local Catholic priest.

I am 72, a product of the public school system. History back then being taught in P. S. not necessarily by history teachers but teachers of English Literature often times had an antiCathoic bias. I understand in Catholic schools they are more conscious about who they get teaching English Lit than History.

That is where we heard about Bloody Mary and Good Queen Bess. When I was in high school I had an English Lit teacher who had investigated most religions. She had an Irish Catholic grandfather who was determined they would all be raised Catholic but there were no Catholic churches where they lived so they were all raised Baptist. She called herself a Baptist back then. When she died she was an Episcopalian.

I remember her getting into a heated argument between classes with another English Lit teacher about the Bloody Mary and Good Queen Bess matter. She told the other teacher that "teachers of English Literature have an exagerated view of the virtures and goodness of Elizabethan England which is not in accordance with the fact." They called in the History teacher who agreed with my teacher. About a week later the other English Lit teacher came by an apologized to her. She had talked with some history profs and they had agreed with my teacher.

We learned that Mary put people to death for heresy when she could have tried and put them to death for treason. In the Elizabethan period they did pass the Act of Toleration. You could be any religion you wanted, but at the same time they made celebrating the Catholic Mass an act of treason. Therefore Catholics were hung,drawn and quartered for treason and their act of treason was practicing their religion.

I did not understand Catholicism and I would hear things and usually other Catholics could explain the why. I had a father whose background was orange and green Irish. Though they were not raised Catholic, their sentiments were very green.
My grandmother used to sing Let Erin Remember and she would sing, "ere the emerald gem of the western world was set in the claw of a stranger" and hold up her hand like a claw and say, "that's England."

Her mother Catholic. Their family immigrated to Savannah after the Rebellion of 98. Savannah had a large Irish Catholic population and they never saw a "No Irish Need Apply" sign there. They later moved to North Georgia and were isolated. I don't think at that time period the South was any more prejudice of hostile toward Catholicism than the North. However, they were isolated and they made marriages that were not Catholic.

I love history and I believe that is what lead me to the Catholic Church. I have been a Catholic for 47 years.

Answer 3

I was always a believing Catholic,but a friend of mine was raised very anti-Catholic and the study of history at first intensified his negative reactions but after a while he saw the continuity with the Catholic Church and the Apostolic Church(especially when he started to read the Church Fathers.)

Then he started to see all sorts of " Catholic stuff"in the Bible,like papal primacy,the Real Presence in the Eucharist,Baptismal regeneration,veneration of the saints,relics,etc. Then he started reading the Catechism

It took him years to go to a Catholic Mass(fortunately,it was a devoutly celebrated Mass with real preaching of the faith) but then he was hooked.His wife ,however, still refuses even to cross the threshold of a Catholic Church.

He became friends with the priest and found the priest to be "truly Born-Again". He is now a very active Catholic and sees the Catholic Church not as a pagan corruption of the Church of Christ,but the fullest and truest Church of Christ,founded by Him.