It’s been another great year of sharing conversion testimonies and other articles! We have lots of favorites, but here were the ten most popular among our readers in 2025:
*****
10. No Longer a None – Rae-Mi LeRoy
“In June 2016, about a week before I was going to attend a Buddhist Retreat, I had a dream of Jesus. I woke up completely confused. I thought, ‘Why would Jesus come to me? I do not pray or go to church. He must have gotten lost!'” Read Rae-Mi’s story.
9. Authority, Adoration, and Assent – Barry Hamlin
“While churches were shut down, we watched services together most Sundays online on the couch. We would typically watch her Mass at 8:00am, and then watch my church service at 9:30am. I remember thinking that, while I could get much out of my church service sitting at home on the couch, Annette’s experience was fundamentally different. You couldn’t replicate the Mass and the Eucharist with an online service.” Read Barry’s story.
8. Papal Transitions as Moments of Conversion
The funeral of one pope and the election of another can spark lots of questions among non-Catholics. What is the Church? What constitutes legitimate Christian authority? How does what I am seeing unfold compare to the historical and hierarchical experience of my own faith tradition?
These questions can open up seekers of good will to the possibility of wanting to know about Catholicism beyond the mere practical mechanics of a conclave.
In fact, several of our Coming Home Network members have shared that witnessing a papal transition has played a significant role in causing them to consider taking a fresh look at the Catholic Church. Read their stories.
7. My Lord and My God – Gary Wiley
“Upon graduation in 1983, I accepted the pastorate of a newly-formed congregation church in Michigan. Four years later, in 1987, Charlotte and I sensed that it was time to take that important step to go overseas. We were appointed by the Wesleyan Church to serve as missionaries in Peru. We left the United States with our two young daughters for the country of Costa Rica to learn Spanish.” Read Gary’s story.
6. Love is the Only Reasonable Response – Jasmin Johnson
“I was a committed Methodist; after all, I was married to the pastor. I engaged in a mediocre, comfortable Christianity, never facing the difficult things of life in myself or others. I paid little attention to those childhood experiences, and a false self evolved — a glittering facade of my true, sunny personality. I was proud of the shiny persona I had developed. As the years ticked by, though, the separation between that glittering image and the true self became greater. Life was busy, and I never stopped to recognize how lost I had become.” Read Jasmin’s story.
5. Eiji Tsuburaya: The Catholic Convert Behind Godzilla
“One of my fondest memories growing up in the 1980s was the weekly Saturday afternoon creature double feature that used to play on our local UHF station in Detroit. My favorite movies during this time were the Godzilla films. While there were many ‘fathers’ of the Godzilla franchise, it was really one man’s imagination and creativity which gave Godzilla the look and personality that has made him the ‘mon-star’ I grew to love — Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects master and convert to the Catholic Faith.” Read the article.
4. From Satanist to Saint: The Story of Bartolo Longo
Over the past 30+ years, we’ve assisted clergy from every background imaginable on their journey to the Catholic Faith.
But perhaps no clergy conversion story is more dramatic than that of Bartolo Longo, a former satanic priest, whose feast day is October 5th and who was formally canonized by Pope Leo XIV on October 19th, 2025. Read his story.
3. Finding my Family of Faith – Heidi Hess Saxton
“I began playing piano and directing the choir of a small Baptist church in Orange, California. It was a wonderful, close-knit church with a pastor who had been serving there for seventeen years. It was my favorite ‘gig’ of the week… until just before I left on a summer outreach program to Poland, when the pastor announced from the pulpit that he was resigning his position in order to become Catholic. No one saw it coming, least of all me!” Read Heidi’s story.
2. The Challenge that Led Me to Catholicism – Joshua Morris
“In 2018, we joined the launch team of a multi-ethnic Non-denominational church being planted in Duluth, GA. My wife and I served as the directors of the childrens’ ministry, while I also occasionally preached on Sundays. The church was remarkable; it combined what we considered the best from the ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ traditions within Protestantism. It was deeply grounded in the Scriptures, with a theology steeped in grace, while also insisting we take social justice seriously… Most of my friends were from this church; the last thing I wanted was to leave these friends and the congregation that I loved.” Read Joshua’s story.
1. From Jesus People to Vineyard Pastor to Catholic – Steve Sjogren
“I once heard John Wimber, leader of the Vineyard movement, comment that the greatest tragedy in the history of the church was her division into factions due to the Reformation, as championed by Martin Luther. God used all that happened on the Protestant side and the later Counter-reformation launched among Catholics, but overall, it resembled a tragic divorce. Coming to the macro picture of God’s work on earth was a paradigm shift — a correction from my version of the church to something closer to God’s big picture invitation.” Read Steve’s story.
*****
2025 was a year of great stories, and this list only scratches the surface. To view our full archive of written stories from the past year and beyond, visit chnetwork.org/story.
Read the Top 10 articles and stories from previous years: 2024 – 2023 – 2022 – 2021
And if you’re interested in submitting your own written testimony for us to review and see if it’s a fit for our readership, please let us know! You can find our written story submission guidelines here.
