April was brought up in a faithful United Pentecostal home. When she was a little girl her mother taught her about God and prayer. From and early age April had a close relationship with Jesus. By the time she was eight she began to see problems in Scripture with the United Pentecostal’s denial of the Holy Trinity, even though, at that time, she hadn’t heard of the Trinity. By the time she was 12, she began to feel that there must be something more. Feeling she was just pretending at church she stopped attending. In her later teens, April started searching the internet for a church. Studying many denominations, she couldn’t find one where she could see as home. This part of her journey lasted about 15 years. She attended a Baptist church for about a year until the pastor began preaching on doctrines she couldn’t accept, even though he was teaching from the infallible Bible that she did. Soon after a friend was inspired to look into the Catholic faith. Through viewing EWTN, April’s years of searching and her many questions began to be answered. Thus began the final leg of April’s journey Home to the Catholic Church.
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What a great testimony! Thank you for sharing, April.
At a young age I was baptized in a UPC in Florida but now I know the true Church is One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. The body of Christ.
To whom it may concerns as it weighs on my mind. Is April baptized Catholic because her “baptism” by the United Pentecostal church would not be valid since they don’t recognize the Trinity? Valid baptism must be done in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Great testimony wish I had such a strong relationship with Jesus while I was a child within the Lutheran church; while my Lutheran father worked for the Felician Convent and my mother was a Chilean non-practicing Catholic. I went from Lutheran confirmation to the Nazarene church; to an agnostic period in which I married a confirmed Catholic and later compromising to raise our children Baptist; to becoming widowed to which I went through another agnostic period but remarried to a life long Catholic, who was then recently confirmed, whom I like to say, “took me down Straight Street to the house of Judas and Ananias took the scales from my eyes;” henceforth, bringing me to the fullness of the Catholic faith. It wasn’t a great leap of faith, since as a Baptist I couldn’t lose salvation, so I had nothing of value to lose becoming Catholic; besides, my Chilean grandmother taught me a little bit of the Rosary while I was a child, although the weeds of a series of anti-Catholic sermons in an Alliance Missionary church I attended for a short time, while married to my first wife, could have choked it all. My second wife has too passed too but nothing can separate me from my love for the Catholic Church as nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ, Jesus. Now at 50, I am working out my salvation through a rehabilitation ministry held in a large Baptist church. I write poems with small Catholic overtones that I might plant seeds as I share in group while I chuckle to myself seeing they are unconsciously working out their salvation through this ministry. But the matter is serious as Hebrews points out apostates (ie. Protestants) are endanger of the fire intended for the adversary since they don’t acknowledge that perpetual sacrifice we Catholics re-present and celebrated at every Mass. Have a blessed and virtuous Lent.
“Is April baptized Catholic because her ‘baptism’ by the United Pentecostal church would not be valid since they don’t recognize the Trinity?”
This is correct. You have understood it perfectly, Eduardo.
“But the matter is serious as Hebrews points out apostates (ie. Protestants) are endanger of the fire intended for the adversary since they don’t acknowledge that perpetual sacrifice we Catholics re-present and celebrated at every Mass. Have a blessed and virtuous Lent.”
You didn’t do so well on this one. While the original Protestants may have been apostates, present-day Protestants were simply born into the system. It is not their fault that Protestantism is the only Christianity they know. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 818, quotes the Second Vatican Council document Unitatis Redintegratio, 3, as follows: “However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities (that resulted from such separation) and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers…. All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church.”
Thank you so much for pointing out my error for me. I sometimes forget the great mercy of God. I have been so worried about my friends and relatives of different Christian faiths after reading the passage in Hebrews. Now I can get some rest; however, are we to have this worry of the sin of separation for apostate Catholics who convert to Protestant faiths? I have friends there too in fact I sadly I ignorantly lead my first wife there (I should be wearing a millstone). I pray for my two late wive’s souls every night and before Mass along with those in Purgatory. I pray for friends and family of other faiths also just after consuming Jesus because my heart is so moved to think they are missing this great opportunity that is such a phenomenal privileged. I hope we all pray for unity in the Church as the Trinity is unified especially in the intentions of the Rosary. Have a blessed and virtuous Lent.
“Are we to have this worry of the sin of separation for apostate Catholics who convert to Protestant faiths?”
There seem to be mostly two kinds of Catholics who become Protestant, Eduardo.
The first kind — whether through the fault of those teaching them the faith or through the fault of the parents, who did not take either their religion or their role as parents seriously — never really learned the faith or came to believe in it. So then, when these people eventually drift away, their guilt is less than if they were simply to stop believing (the act of apostasy). In this sense, they are not apostates, but people who never had a chance to be genuinely Catholic. We see them instead “finding Jesus” outside of the Catholic Church because they could not find him inside it. This may not stop them from berating the Catholic Church from their Protestant point of view, but again, that is a mostly a matter of ignorance rather than malice.
The second kind, who find themselves leaving the Church because of sin or a bad experience that threw them into a turmoil, are best thought of as the victims of sin, either as the victim of sinful acts by others or as sinners themselves. Those who move to a Protestant denomination still obviously believe in Christ, but they have “issues” with the Catholic Church, so they go elsewhere. Because there is still some faith in them, I hesitate to call them apostates, even though they have given up the grand feast for a bread and water diet elsewhere because they “can’t go back there any more.”
The true apostate would be the person who, having once been a believing and devout Catholic, now decides that he no longer believes in God and wants to lead a non-Christian lifestyle. Again, there are probably (often sinful) influences that helped to bring this about, but he has made the decision on his own and must bear the consequences.
Yes, as Catholics we are privileged to have an “inside lane” to salvation. The errors of your past with regard to your late spouse are probably more a matter of ignorance than of malice. Our Lord will undoubtedly take that into account, especially now that you are doing penance for those faults. This is a good project for Lent, which we have just entered. You can renew your repentance and follow the guidelines of Lenten penance (confession, fasting/mortification to rid your life of sinful tendencies, prayer, and almsgiving) to more thoroughly expiate their consequences from your life.
Thank you, graciously thank you so much for the encouragement to live right this Lent. I hope it remains with me as a way of life while I trod this earth. You make great points breaking down the reasons for people leaving the Faith of Catholicism. I have friends and acquaintances that fit in these three categories. Yesterday I walked into daily Mass only to find Mass was a funeral Mass; not the first time this has happened. This time was a little different as Mass was for a man who was a priest for over 20 years who “dropped out” of the priesthood; as if that were possible. Our Father gave him a priestly ceremony as I totally agree the former priest should have. While I was a fundamentalist Baptist I met two former Catholic priests who converted to the fundamentalist Baptist faith. The one gave his testimony that Chuck Swindoll’s preaching influenced him greatly. I’ve heard Chuck’s preaching and he is very influential but at the same time very confused on his anti-Catholic and anti-Marianism rhetoric. I will more fervently pray for these men for their decisions may be more grave than the other two categories.
I’ve been meditating upon the Real Presences verses the symbolic representation of believers. To me it’s like taking the American flag (a symbol) into battle expecting to cut the enemy down with metal pole and piece of colourful cloth material while the foe is utilizing bazookas, uzies, assault riffles and IEDs. The same is true of this spiritual battle we fight in this world. The Eucharist is great defense against evil and the Rosary as St. Padre Pio said it’s the weapon. I like to share this with my daughter and son-in-law who are working on their M-Divs at Liberty University since both subjects of the Eucharist and the Rosary were brought up at our last meeting but I didn’t have the words to express myself at that time. I hope our conversations once again opens to share this.
You know I have this vision; not that I have had any divine visions mind you, of Protestant churches setting up tabernacles within their sanctuaries adorned with sacrementals and calling on the priesthood to carry out the Sacraments and to consecrate their buildings, while their children are drawn to vocations. I’m so broken over this I think similar to St Paul who so eloquently, with great sincerity prays in Romans, for the sake of my people, my flesh and blood, may I be under God’s curse and separate from Christ; though I honestly shudder at the thought, where he is so truly intrepid on the subject. I don’t think I will ever be able to attain his level of a conscience fully lead by the Holy Spirit. I struggle with my conscience in revealing my own sins as I corrupted it for so long. I hope it’s like a smoker who gives up cigarettes. The lungs quickly regain their health but sadly I think my conscience won’t bounce back so quickly. Thank you again for easing my mind and keep up the great work of answering everyone’s posers. You are a true blessing. May your Lent continue to be blessed and virtuous.
Thank you, Eduardo, for such an eloquent tribute to those who are endeavoring to follow Jesus in whatever way they know how.
Your own life, filled with as it is repentance, will be your ticket to heaven. Our Lord has said as much.
You need have no qualms over St. Paul’s words in Romans. It simply means that, were it possible to have such an influence, he would be willing to do whatever it takes to bring his own people, the Jews, to salvation.
Thank you for your kind words which reminds me of 2 Peter 3:9. God patiently waiting for us all to have the opportunity to repent that none should perish. I don’t know sometimes how much longer He’s going to put up with the culture of death in this world–just flabbergastedly don’t know. The oscillating waves of joys and sorrows; one day Pope Francis inducts 20 new Cardinals from remote lands of the globe and days later 21 Coptic priests are martyred in Libya and their families probably sold into slavery. (pause to reflect) I sometimes question my own sanity, but being influenced by this world are we all becoming certifiable? Our country’s in such a moral mess and I could go on to infinitude but my soul is too joyous to bear the languishing depression of the media headlines.
Lent is on the solemn side but we know the 15th station of the cross will come after these 40 days, giving charge to us the reason we can take our faith to the extremes which we may face; even martyrdom. Then 40 days after that is the Ascension where we are reminded in like fashion as Christ was taken up so shall He come back and the shofar shall sound. Then the righteous living ones won’t have to look through the glass dimly anymore. So there is much joy and excitement to be had during Lent and looking forward, especially with all the new prospective members of the Church we get to encourage. Continue to adore Christ; bless and praise Him, because by His holy cross He has redeemed the world!
Thank You so much for this testimony.It made me so happy. 🙂 With brother’s love to you all from still catholic Poland ;p Viva Cristo Rey !!!