Shannon Kurtz grew up in Bay City, MI as one of six children in an devout Irish Catholic family. Fully immersed in the Catholic school and parish life, Shannon loved
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I was bored with the Catholic Church! All I did was daydream through Mass and my catechism classes. When I was 10, my parents stopped going to Mass, but my father would still drop off my sister and I at the church.
As I began to describe my works-laden justification, Mr. Pharis told me bluntly, “You’re not getting into heaven.” … He got my attention. I was not saved!
Frank Cronin spent his life through his first year in college in Catholic educational institutions, though, for the most part, it was a cultural rather than spiritual endeavor. Working and
My father was the pastor of a few different churches throughout Ohio and West Virginia during this time. He began as a Pentecostal minister, and would later go on to pastor a Baptist church. My father never attended a seminary, although he received his preaching credentials under the teaching of another Evangelist via postal-mail. I remember as a young girl, my father worked hard at his biblical studies. He continued to work full-time as a carpenter to provide a decent living for his family, but on many evenings, he would slave over a stack of books for long hours.
I grew up in Trinidad, in the West Indies, of British parentage. My parents were delightful people, loved by me and by everyone else who knew them. They were baptized Christians and lived as Christians should: helping others when necessary and sharing with those who needed it; but like many non-Catholics in those days, attending church regularly was not considered necessary. My two sisters and myself were baptized Anglicans, confirmed when we reached the proper age and as younger children were sent to Sunday school. Our parents attended church services on Easter Sunday, Christmas morning, and perhaps twice otherwise during the year. As we grew older, we stopped attending Sunday school, and only went to church when our parents did. We were believers but religion did not play an important role in our lives.
Maria Romine explains that she was “entrenched” in the Presbyterian church of her childhood; active as a youth elder, deacon, choir member and liturgist. Her real passion, discovered in the
Marcus welcomes Vaughn Kohler, a former evangelical protestant, to the program. Vaughn’s earliest memories are living in South Bend, IN in a family secure in its protestant faith amidst a
Kelly Nieto grew up in a home where God and religion had no place. As a result, for the first 35 years of her life, Kelly battled with an emptiness
Even as a sophomore I knew that I wanted to attend Notre Dame. Its Catholic identity wasn’t really a factor at all; its academic reputation, quality of student life (as reported by Princeton Review), and the memories of my first visit there drove my decision. I didn’t know what to make of Catholicism at all. One of the essays on the Notre Dame application dealt with a “spiritual topic” of our choosing. I chose to write about my impressions of Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.
Trevor Lipscombe was born in London and lived in England through his scholastic studies at Oxford University where he received his doctorate in theoretical physics. His parents’ divorce and his
Kenneth Cramer, grandson to Italian immigrants, grew up in Chicago. Though nominally Catholic, there was not much offered as foundation in the faith. In fact, an abusive father directly attributed
