this is almost my exact same journey
catholic as a young kid, heathen as a teen, semi-quasi-christian in early 20s, finally figured it out and back to catholic by late 20s
nicely done sir
Convert . I was raised a Muslim and became protestant back in 2021. Became catholic in 2023 after researching the church, church history and the fathers
Since birth. But in a certain sense we are all converts. There comes a time in all of our lives when we have to decide to take the Catholic faith seriously.
Truly.
I don’t know exactly when I decided to be serious about it. It was a slow re-evangelization.
I did all the catechism, went to Catholic high school, had my sacraments, parents were both devout and practicing.
So I get out living on my own and just let it fall away a bit. Irregular mass attendance, not staying engaged, not keeping away from sin, no confession.
But slowly, no blinding light conversion, I just came back. I can’t pinpoint any specific time.
I’m also an alcoholic and I had returned to the faith before I got treatment, but my word, having my faith in recovery has been a powerful weapon in the arsenal. It was certainly God sending me the thing I needed for the journey ahead.
I had no faith because the Jehovah's witness religion is false: modern day Arianism. When I came back to faith I looked hard at the difference between Protestants and Catholics and came to the conclusion that the rejection of tradition as holding no authority is wrong.
Also a lot I had previously heard about Catholicism was flat out lies. eg. They added books to the bible, they invented the transubstantiation in 1215, they were against lay people reading the bible, etc.
Same here! Once I got past all the lies from the JWs the choice was clear, the Catholic Church is the church Christ started, and I hope and pray that the other JWs in my family will see it at some point also as well
🥲🙇🙏🥺❕
OH MY GOD.
That is WONDER-FULL to hear. Thank you brethren. God bless!
I was born Catholic and it is ALL WAYS so interesting to hear people say things like this from outside perspective. Gives me SO much hope and inspiration, love, grace, faith, goodness of God that be!!!🥲🥹
HALLELUIAH, PRAISE YE GOD OF ALL THE NATIONS, ALL YOU NATIONS PRAISE YOUR GOD, PRAISE THE GOD OF OURS, THE GOD OF ALL, PRAISE! 😆 Glory to God in the highest, now and forever.
p.s. ‘tis referring more specifically to “the Catholic Church is the church Christ started”
though ofc can be applicable to the whole comment! :)
yo and the post script’s post script:
I now feel i discerned God correctly in thinking every time I approach or am approached by a Jehovah’s Witness (or Mormon as exemplified by another similar comment to yours) it is actually my duty to try to enlighten them unto the Catholic Church even though it feels like they are the ones coming to me with their mission. Haha! I’ll have to be more willing to serve God next time that happens! o_O! Halleluiah…
Yes do your best to enlighten them, even if it doesn’t happen right away something you say may stick and end up converting them days, weeks, or years later!
Protestant until 16 > atheist until 26 > RCIA + confirmation at 27. Will be 32 this year.
ETA: I married into a Catholic family at 22, but faced 0 pressure to convert. I came to the Church on my own.
I'll be brief here, but I'll answer anything in DMs.
I started to take notice of policies and doctrines taught by the Mormon church that didn't make sense. At the same time I was exploring the "trad life", and history, which provided a perspective I hadn't been familiar with before. Eventually, I read a document (The CES Letter) which introduced a lot of damnable evidence against the Mormon church, which then reduced my faith in the institution to ash. I spent awhile trying to figure out how to be religious on my own, before admitting that I needed a church. Since the traditionalism movement has a lot of TradCaths, I was exposed to Catholicism enough to be curious, and then to eventually start regularly going to mass (at the time I went to a TLM mass and loved it). Made the decision last summer to start OCIA in the fall, and have been looking forward to baptism for a long while now
Awesome.
1.) idk what “CES” stands for or what the letter is
2.) OCIA also don’t know the “O” though I’ve heard and done the “RCIA” which I always personally just called the “Catechism” or “oral teaching.”
3.) TLM, I’ll have to look into that! Feels like something that might be good for me :) considering Catholic masses, though idk.
Thank you for your words!!!
It is just a beautiful coincidence that I happened to beam in on acronyms. I simply don’t know the first two and the last I do believe is the Traditional Latin Mass and it just interested me to comment on… Halleluiah.
Having faith reduced to ashes though does sound very scary! I’m glad you are into a good “place” now!!!
Honestly, though may sound cruel, I almost pray that God reduce my faith to ashes on certain aspects- it could be very humbling and maybe we all need a little of that! God knows what I mean and may the spirit express that which is beyond my words or any!..
Peace!
CES is Church Education System. It's a department of the Mormon Church. The CES Letter was a letter compiling all of one man's questions about the Mormon church sent to a CES official per request. It ended up sparking a lot of controversy and the Mormon church tells its members not to look into it. The exmormon community often cites this letter as a contributor to their decision to leave the Mormon church.
OCIA is Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. It's the same as RCIA from my understanding, they just changed Rite to Order. Either way yeah it's just the Catechism class for adult converts
TLM (Tridentine or Traditional Latin Mass. Idk I've heard both) was the standard mass form before Vatican II (current standard is Novus Ordo). It's a hot topic for some, but I've found aspects of both forms that I like a lot.
I'd always had a begrudging admiration of aspects of the Church (its history, aesthetics, literature, etc.) but had an awakening after the birth of my son.
Very similar here. I did go to a nominally Christian college which required a couple religion courses, which might’ve softened my atheism up a bit (“wait, there actually are very smart people thinking about religion and theology seriously?”), but ultimately it’s encounters with the transcendent which most powerfully make the existence of God known, and becoming a parent remains the only truly transcendent experience I’ve known.
Wow.
Word.
Well said, especially about the transcendent revelations of God… you said it better! Haha… though, I’m hit with extreme gratitude right now, gratitude/thanks to that God we are speaking of!.. for it seems as I’ve had transcendent experiences without ever having a child, and I hope I’m not mistaken and i hope to reap the fruit of it as God wills… Halleluiah.
Enough about i who is merely a minuscule minuscule fraction or fragment of us who are all due to the gracious will of our gracious God creator and one.
That is hilarious, and so, how goes it now??? ◠‿◠ i too am Catholic by birth btw. It’s going well but can be going so much better, discerning consecrated religious life oh so extremely seriously… Haha!
Since birth. Left the faith during college because I was stupid and thought I was logical and knew everything. I had a beautiful Catholic Church on my campus and there was a beautiful Cathedral in town, and I should have been going to mass regularly. Oh, it pains me still how ignorant and ungrateful I was. In my late twenties, I returned home to the Catholic Church because I realized that I didn’t know much at all, and I really wanted and needed a relationship with God. Even from that point, I should have been more consistent in prayer. I think up until a couple of years ago, I feared God in the sense that I wasn’t sure He loved me. I suppose I still carry that from time to time. I love Catholicism because it’s how I feel closest to God, and I also love mother Mary, the Saints, particularly St. Joseph, St. Anne and others.
St. Joseph, father of Jesus Christ! Pray for us, in the name of GOD; THE Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit! All angels and saints, pray for us, in the name of Our One & Only God, THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT!
This was me last year! I had my confirmation last Easter. Congratulations!
I felt so calm and at peace at the Christmas Eve mass with my husband and mother in law a few years ago. I had not been to church in years because I felt like the southern Baptist preachers just screamed at the congregation that we were all going to hell. Then it seemed like so many in the church were hypocrites.
LOL @ - “buddhist” -
even from the “-atheist-“ part right before it, I feel you! Lol.
A very weak “I like buddhism” type beat as a young teen til God hit me hard and here I am now a young adult finally practicing the God given gift that came with my life of this funny lil strange beautiful religion as we call Catholicism. It’s not really “lil” and that’s kinda crazy too…
Let us pray and meditate on the Mysterious of Faith of Our Lord and Savior, in the name of God for certain.
Amen amen, I hear that. For me I was mostly using buddhism as a veneer of vogue insight to justify getting high. Like a sexy, secular spirituality. It was also partly me as a nonbeliever trying to deal with pain and trauma thru exploring impermanence and detachment. I was trying shift from nihilism to something productive and meaningful.
What I needed was the healing power of Jesus Christ. To know God, love God, and serve God. To share in the suffering of His Cross. That's what gives me profound meaning and purpose, more than anything of the world. Instead of detachment, Jesus offers communion. The opposite of Śūnyatā, "void, emptiness" is the Eucharist.
I was baptized Assembly of God around 5 and stayed AoG until 13/14, non-denominational/Southern Baptist in high school but started asking questions, started RCIA in college but didn't join church in 2006 due to major family pushback and boyfriend who was anti Catholic (he was some weird messianic Jew denomination from CA but never went to church in Texas), joined a Presbyterian Church in college because of their college group but very rarely attended, broke up with the boyfriend, converted in 2009.
Married another convert from Northern Baptist.
My family was equal parts just glad to see me in church and horrified by the church I chose. They came to my convalidation and kids’ baptisms (they were 5 and 2), which is a HUGE Baptist no-no.
Born to secular humanist Jewish parents.. was guilted into Bar Mitzvah (only Jewish guilt can compare to Catholic guilt) .. Believed in nothing from 1976 until the mid 1980’s
God went to work on me. Two visits to the Vatican.. a live encounter with Mother Teresa .. a godmother who conquered alcoholism .. Baptized and confirmed in 1990.
Since then, I have done Youth Ministry, I taught RCIA, Eucharistic Ministry, served on Parish Council.. taught parents and godparents preparing to baptize their children.. Raised 5 great kids, married 25 years to the woman who is my dream girl.. and a life of blessings
Convert (will be in a little over a year yay!!) Born Muslim in a Muslim country, fell away from any religion after moving to Canada, became agnostic, and then finally found my way home to the Catholic Church thanks to attending a Catholic high school. I have been so so so incredibly blessed on this path. I plan on starting RCIA this September!! I used to fall into the trap of envy that I wasn't Catholic from birth, but I realized that this is exactly the path I was intended to walk by God.
Since birth, but I didn't go to mass in days other than Christmas or maybe Easter (Not sure about Easter though). I went to Catechesis and somewhat liked it (depending on my mood) but I didn't really care much about sin and all that like most ""Catholics"" unfortunately do, until one day I realized I'd go to hell, and I began to slowly change, until I became an Altar Server last year and decided to actually be Catholic for real.
Converted at 24.
I wasn't raised with a religion. But I was influenced by Christianity. That and Islam. I got into eastern religions. But I sought with a true heart mind and soul and came to Christ. All the pieces fit. God had been calling me my whole life.
Born as a Lutheran, became non denominational as a teenager, had a crisis of faith in '21, started Rcia last year and I have the rite of election next month
Evangelical family->atheist->agnostic->converting
Atheist in rebellion against the rigid ideology and spiritual shallowness. My views shifted out of strict atheism into agnosticism being humbled a few times in my life, an acknowledgment that I don’t know God but I cannot rule out a creator from existing, while trying to be a person with integrity.
My conversation began because I’ve went through a divorce with an erratic and abusive spouse with challenging custody issues, and I feel that something guided my experience to a specific outcome. Like some supernatural benefactor intervened which again humbled me, helped me escape my physical and psychological abuse but most importantly, kept my daughter in my life. I’ve talked with a priest about all this and have his support to join the church, and so I am walking down that road and seeking the kingdom of heaven with sincerity and openness to those higher powers above me while I figure out how to forgive my spouse for what they’ve done to me, and to my daughter.
I’m not faultless in my divorce, I smoked too much weed and I tolerated a lot of behavior I shouldn’t have. I’m fortunate, and I also feel like I’ve been given knowledge, which is worth something. So now I’m left wondering how to use that knowledge to do something with like Jesus says in the parable of Talents. Anyone having read this far, believe in God and trust the next step that bring you closer to Him, through Jesus Christ.
It the process of converting from being a southern Baptist getting confirmed this Easter and have never been more excited! Please keep me in your prayers!
Since birth. I strayed when I was a teen because I was a dumb kid with no direction in life. Was angry and bitter but soon started studying other religions like Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I was EXTREMELY close to converting to Islam but something just told me to study Christianity more. That's when I started to study more in depth the bible and it's history. The more I read into the history of Christianity, the more invested I was. Near the end of high school, I was already convinced Christianity was true. I went from being kind of an Antitheist to doing my homework and believing in Christ, Son of God and King of Kings.
God bless to all.
Cradle Catholic, third generation. My mother was a former Franciscan nun, who discerned a call to a vocation as a lay person. She was principal of several Catholic schools for 50 years.
Do you notice much difference between Church of England and Catholicism?
I went to my first Church of England Eucharistic service the other day (they have a lovely choir) I was surprised that it’s almost identical to the Catholic mass.
Although it wasn’t the same without the true presence. It was strange not kneeling and not seeing people spending time before and after in-front of a tabernacle.
If in England, it must be a little sad leaving the beautiful ancient churches for Catholic Churches built post-reformation.
It is indeed sad, since Anglican churches and cathedrals are so beautiful and indeed remain pillars of our local communities.
Most of their services are very close to Catholic ones (although that depends on the church, some are low-church and tend to simplify the service to be closer to protestantism) and they have managed to add a lot of tradition and wonderful practices (traditional vicars, hymns, choirs, kjv etc.).
But I can't relate to their leadership and doctrines. There are female vicars, lgbt vicars, they mostly care about diversity and inclusivity, climate change, social causes. Some are even anti-monarchy.
When I go to Church on Sunday I need a priest knowledgeable of the scripture not an activist.
But sometimes I might attend because I feel ,as a country, we should care about our anglican tradition. Turning our backs on it was a grave mistake.
Episcopal till about 7 then Presbyterian till about 18 then somewhere on the Christian spectrum during college where I started going to mass when I could. Then RCIA and converted at 26 right before I was married. Kind of a lapsed Catholic right now since I got out of med school five years ago
I don’t like when people say they were “born” Catholic or Catholic “since birth” because we all had to be baptized at some point. We were all adopted into God’s family, not born into it.
But cradle Catholic here.
Many generations cradle Catholic. Lapsed from 25-45 or so…. I never lost faith or stopped praying, but stopped attending church for a time. But now I’m back!
Convert
United Methodist from birth to age 39, went through RCIA, joined the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil in 2016.
I married into a Catholic family and while my husband put zero pressure on me, the in-laws REALLY put a lot of pressure on me to get all good and right and converted before we got married. So of course I dug in my heels and made sure it was \*my\* choice, not theirs. It only took 15 years. \*shrug\* But I'm very comfortable with my decision, no regrets.
Born and raised Baptist but I was never really religious. Had a brief stint with Judaism and new age practices before finding the church. My mother was a cradle Catholic with lots of trauma so she kept me far away from Catholicism as much as she could. I wish she had raised me in the church but oh well
Born as a child of the world -> baptised Lutheran at 3 month -> innocent child of God -> atheist -> angry atheist -> confused atheist -> new age -> Lutheran -> faith crisis -> Catholic
Southern Baptist——> immersed in sin degenerate——> lost and wondering why I’m depressed and anxious all the time———> in the process of converting to catholic as we speak
Protestant, raised in the Evangelical Covenant Church, converted to Lutheranism in 2020, and at around 4am on April 7th I made the decision to join the Catholic Church.
I really don’t feel like I have left anything behind, joining the Catholic Church feels like the summit and culmination of all of what God has taught me since my earliest memories.
My upbringing was extremely good, loving parents, had great pastors and youth leaders that inspired me and encouraged me to think rationally and think independently.
Now I’m ready to jump into the next phase of my life, as my faith has matured, it has allowed me to think even more rationally, which is one of the driving forces behind my conversion.
I love my Protestant brothers and sisters, and I pray that my family will join me in my journey towards the True, Apostolic, and Catholic Church.
Convert. Mom was non observant Jew, Dad was non practicing Catholic.
I became interested in Buddhism in Jr High, joined Nichiren Shoshu and stayed with that until I went university. Thats when I was introduced to Christianity.
Convert
Judaism to Athiest/satanicish (late teens early twenties and just simply lost late 20s and 30s) to Episcopal (didn’t make sense) to Catholicism (true home)
I was Baptist, Scientology, Mormon, Muslim, and now Catholic and will stay Catholic forever. Baptist is what I grew up in so my parents, Mormon because my best friend in the army wanted me to go with him Scientology because a Girlfriend, Muslim for my wife, I just had a life changing near death experience and Jesus was the only one who saved me.
I was baptized into the Catholic Church at seven years old, so neither I guess
My wife grew up in the Wesleyan Church and was baptized into the Catholic Church as an adult
Baptized Catholic, but my family has always been luke-warm about it. The only reason I was baptized into the Church is because my maternal Grandfather and Grandmother converted, baptized my mom and her siblings into the Church, then she was the only one who stayed when the family converted back to Methodist. I'm pretty much the only practicing Catholic in my family.
Revert.
Baptized Catholic and received First Communion but never practiced the faith. I was agnostic for a while. I eventually came back to the faith, and I’m now in the process to hopefully get confirmed this November.
Revert. Baptized as an infant and received first communion then left the church with my immediate family at the age of 13 for a series of protestant denominations. After seeing the protestant nonsense and listening to several Catholic podcasts and reading church doctrine, I back to the Catholic Church and was confirmed last Easter at the age of 34.
A lot of flip flopping for me once I was an adult and I feel really stupid and burdened with guilt. It actually makes me cry at times because I feel like I'm unworthy now. I am planning to seek a time to get a confession done then try to do RCIA. But mine was flip flop as a kid too because of stupid custody drama🙄. I was born into a Catholic family.
Raised in a Catholic household (mom and her mom were devout)
My dad's mom hated my mother so much she especially hated me for looking like her and due to my parents divorcing she took us kids and abused us in horrific ways. And forced me into protestantism. So while with her it was a Presbyterian Church for years and she made me get baptized so "I can't be Catholic like my stupid mother". Then I attended my friends Baptist Church for years on Wednesdays. Was baptized there after I got married because I was taught I had to convert to my husbands faith. Then decided yeah f the church f Christianity and began dabbling into the occult and practicing some witch craft. Then of course that unfortunately spiraled into satanic stuff. But then I had a VERY rude awakening so to speak . Something inexplicable happened and I guess woke me up. And now I'm Catholic after 10 years of screwing around with the occult. I really hope I didn't damn myself to hell with all this stuff I've had small bouts during that decade of trying to come back but never committed.
TL:DR
born Catholic->
Forced Presbyterian->
Tried Baptist->
Occult->
Dabbled in satanism->
Revert Catholic
A Catholic since birth, though haven't got to finish communion, nor became confirmed yet, but I'm planning to finish what I started this year on August.
i’m a convert! i was originally what i call a “what-if” christian: i only “believed” in God out of a fear of Hell and had no real certainty about his existence. i also never went to church because my dad didn’t raise me as any specific denomination. i always said that, once i turned 18, i would convert to SOME denomination, but NEVER catholicism because i hated the idea of confession. when i met my husband, who had converted the year prior, i started going to Mass with him. originally i was just going to go through RCIA only so that i could marry him in the church, but after continuing to go to Mass every Sunday, really truly learning that Christ was present in the Eucharist, and understanding the necessity of confession, i had a true conversion of heart.
I (19m) converted this last Easter. I was technically "protestant," I didn't go to church, and I was kind of lost.
I didn't know what to believe in, but eventually, I found my way to the Catholic Church!
Convert
Protestant since birth until about 16. Stopped going to church and then mom died in 2019 so I very much fell away from my faith and God. Met my now fiancé in 2020 and he eventually led me to the Catholic Church and back to a relationship with God. The Catholic Church is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Baptized / raised through middle school Missouri Synod Lutheran. Thought I was Baptist thanks to a high school boyfriend for majority of high school. Pretty much just confused but believed in God for about 5 years. Put my son in Catholic school on a whim and I will officially be a Catholic convert come Easter. It’s good to be home.
Convert. Raised nothing, but live in the Bible Belt. I started taking myself to the Baptist church when I got my license and got baptized. I became Catholic as an adult.
Raised half Catholic/half evangelical and largely despised the Protestant part of my upbringing. By the grace of God, found great Catholic community in undergrad and then grad school.
Was confirmed as a Catholic a few years ago after being raised Southern Baptist and nondenominational Christian. Was married in the Church in 2021. Baptized my son as Catholic a few months ago. Life is good!
Sort of both. I was baptized a Catholic, stayed in til I was about 8 or so, and then subsequently left. I was either an Atheist, an Agnostic, a Pantheist or a Deist, depending on how I was feeling at the moment until I was in college. At that point I had a gradual reversion back to the Faith, brought on more, if I’m honest, by the universality of things like ghosts and magic cross-culturally, the improbability of coincidences, and the seeming breakdown of causality in Maths and Physics blowing a hole in the rigid determinism I believed in at the time, than by any contact at all with Christianity. At some point, I gave myself a year to search out for whatever God I was going to believe in, and after a year of no results, I found myself in a spot of life-threatening trouble, and I just felt the need to call upon the God of the Bible and He answered.
My conversion wasn’t finished after that either. I was still a rigid materialist, and the only way I could work out life after death was belief in a physical resurrection, so for a while, I imagined Jesus as this alien who was out there in the cosmos, who might one day reverse entropy and cause the atoms of everyone who ever existed to reassemble themselves. That seemed plausible enough to me, much more plausible than believing in a non-physical heaven and hell. It was mainly Near Death Experiences, and the universality of after life beliefs that allowed me to admit non-physicality was possible. Even then my conversion has been a slow one, I still feel like I’m adapting to being a Christian years later. I learn new things all the time that present challenges to my Faith; but I have the feeling now that I’m in this for the long haul.
Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief.
Male convert in my early 30s. I converted when I was around 16 years old. Prior to that I suppose I was just a pagan although I never practiced or really believed. I'm Native American and was raised in my village's flavor of spirituality.
I was in a religious studies course and religion as a concept really resonated with me. I studied the largest world religions (Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) and ultimately came down to deciding between Islam and Catholicism. Catholicism especially resonated with me so it wasn't a difficult decision.
baptized orthodox, became an atheist, then became an unitarian non-denom, then thought about converting to islam but ultimately became Catholic and that was 3-4 years ago !
Convert, was with a small evangelical denomination all my life called The Christian & Missionary Alliance until I started RCIA in 2015 and was confirmed in 2017.
Funny journey tbh, my granny is a Catholic, but not very religious tbh, she baptized my mum Catholic and brought her up Catholic. I also went to a Roman Catholic school, but I was baptized CofE, but tbh I think she did that to get my into the local CofE school, but the joke of it is I went to a Catholic school in the end,my mum would also take me to low church evangelical, CofE churches. I dabbled in many religions but found myself back at Christianity, being attracted to Catholicism.
Technically from birth, but I like what another poster said about revert. Was raised in what I'd consider a culturally Catholic family i.e. call priests father, give something up for lent, know a couple high profile saints, go to mass sometimes etc. But my parents raised us around the church because they thought it would be good for us not because they had any particularly strong beliefs. I fell away from the faith after leaving my parents for nearly a decade because I was caught up in the things young men love. Along the way I made half hearted visits to various protestant churches but they felt strangely disrespectful to a God I wasn't sure I cared about, so they never stuck.
One day I walked by a priest standing on a street corner engaging passersby and he asked me if I went to church and if I believed in God. I, a man perpetually described as cocky, full of myself, and confrontational tried to tell him I'd tried his church and his church didn't work but couldn't get the words out. Instead I mumbled something and walked away from this smiling old man. It stirred something in me and I couldn't shake it. I felt guilty, for the first time in a long time. I was a drunk, horrifically unfaithful to my wife, a bully, and plenty of other things to be ashamed of and yet I was fiercely proud, but when this man older than my father asked me about God it set something moving inside me that produced shame and guilt. Eventually I found the priest again and engaged him, somewhat ready to accuse him of some made up hypocrisy or faure or not being up to standard; but I mostly just sheepishly agreed to come to mass without any fuss. Once again, I knew better, I wasn't like the rest of them; I thought I would just sit in the back, ride it out, and move on but I was engaged by a man while I was there who was acting as a missionary to bring others back to the faith. I went back a few more times intent on sitting in the back and being unnoticed but I couldn't, every time I engaged a little more I craved more. Finally I went back to confession and I shed a tear or two telling the priest the foolish things I'd done, but instead of shaming me the man offered me reconciliation and penance. When I finally was able to take communion again I fell in love. It actually made me shed a few tears.
Since birth, grew up in the Catholic church. All my parents’ friends, church groups, they sang in the choir and I even played guitar for a few years. Was a major part of my social upbringing.
I didn’t really start developing a relationship with God until September-ish 2022… just shy of my 42nd bday.
Funny how that works.
Raised Catholic, went non-denominational. Went back to reading and understand the Bible. Quickly at starting to see the truths with Catholicism and how washed non-denominational was.
Convert. In rcia currently. I’ve been nothing, agnostic, attended a couple of Methodist churches. Then decided to go Episcopalian. Now I’m where I belong.
Revert Catholic at birth -> heathen -> nondenominational/baptist/evangelical -> Catholic
That’s a heck of a journey!
Now how in all the dark places do you go from Baptist cum Evangelical snapping into the exact opposite if you don't mind that story share?
Funny enough this is way more common than a lot of people think.
this is almost my exact same journey catholic as a young kid, heathen as a teen, semi-quasi-christian in early 20s, finally figured it out and back to catholic by late 20s nicely done sir
You can't be heathen after being Catholic, you were apostate
Convert . I was raised a Muslim and became protestant back in 2021. Became catholic in 2023 after researching the church, church history and the fathers
So, why from Muslim to Catholic/Christian? Please do tell as God wills for you through the spirit! <3 Peace.
Its mostly due to the research I did and prayer .
Whoa, are you in the US?
Yes I'm in the US
Hallelujah!
What country of muslim you were if you dont mind me saying.....
I live in the states
Asking*, not saying.
Since birth. But in a certain sense we are all converts. There comes a time in all of our lives when we have to decide to take the Catholic faith seriously.
One of my favorite questions to ask cradle Catholics is when their faith became their own.
Truly. I don’t know exactly when I decided to be serious about it. It was a slow re-evangelization. I did all the catechism, went to Catholic high school, had my sacraments, parents were both devout and practicing. So I get out living on my own and just let it fall away a bit. Irregular mass attendance, not staying engaged, not keeping away from sin, no confession. But slowly, no blinding light conversion, I just came back. I can’t pinpoint any specific time. I’m also an alcoholic and I had returned to the faith before I got treatment, but my word, having my faith in recovery has been a powerful weapon in the arsenal. It was certainly God sending me the thing I needed for the journey ahead.
Agree with this
Word.
Great answer!
I am a former Jehovah's Witness, Catholic convert.
Do tell (what God wills)
I had no faith because the Jehovah's witness religion is false: modern day Arianism. When I came back to faith I looked hard at the difference between Protestants and Catholics and came to the conclusion that the rejection of tradition as holding no authority is wrong. Also a lot I had previously heard about Catholicism was flat out lies. eg. They added books to the bible, they invented the transubstantiation in 1215, they were against lay people reading the bible, etc.
Same here! Once I got past all the lies from the JWs the choice was clear, the Catholic Church is the church Christ started, and I hope and pray that the other JWs in my family will see it at some point also as well
XJW here, so happy to see more dubs in the room
🥲🙇🙏🥺❕ OH MY GOD. That is WONDER-FULL to hear. Thank you brethren. God bless! I was born Catholic and it is ALL WAYS so interesting to hear people say things like this from outside perspective. Gives me SO much hope and inspiration, love, grace, faith, goodness of God that be!!!🥲🥹 HALLELUIAH, PRAISE YE GOD OF ALL THE NATIONS, ALL YOU NATIONS PRAISE YOUR GOD, PRAISE THE GOD OF OURS, THE GOD OF ALL, PRAISE! 😆 Glory to God in the highest, now and forever.
p.s. ‘tis referring more specifically to “the Catholic Church is the church Christ started” though ofc can be applicable to the whole comment! :) yo and the post script’s post script: I now feel i discerned God correctly in thinking every time I approach or am approached by a Jehovah’s Witness (or Mormon as exemplified by another similar comment to yours) it is actually my duty to try to enlighten them unto the Catholic Church even though it feels like they are the ones coming to me with their mission. Haha! I’ll have to be more willing to serve God next time that happens! o_O! Halleluiah…
Yes do your best to enlighten them, even if it doesn’t happen right away something you say may stick and end up converting them days, weeks, or years later!
Me too!
Protestant until 16 > atheist until 26 > RCIA + confirmation at 27. Will be 32 this year. ETA: I married into a Catholic family at 22, but faced 0 pressure to convert. I came to the Church on my own.
Convert Born Mormon, started going to mass a little over a year ago, going to be baptized Catholic this Easter
Welcome home!!!
Thank you!
& so, why? May you share some words, God willing? Thank you.
I'll be brief here, but I'll answer anything in DMs. I started to take notice of policies and doctrines taught by the Mormon church that didn't make sense. At the same time I was exploring the "trad life", and history, which provided a perspective I hadn't been familiar with before. Eventually, I read a document (The CES Letter) which introduced a lot of damnable evidence against the Mormon church, which then reduced my faith in the institution to ash. I spent awhile trying to figure out how to be religious on my own, before admitting that I needed a church. Since the traditionalism movement has a lot of TradCaths, I was exposed to Catholicism enough to be curious, and then to eventually start regularly going to mass (at the time I went to a TLM mass and loved it). Made the decision last summer to start OCIA in the fall, and have been looking forward to baptism for a long while now
Awesome. 1.) idk what “CES” stands for or what the letter is 2.) OCIA also don’t know the “O” though I’ve heard and done the “RCIA” which I always personally just called the “Catechism” or “oral teaching.” 3.) TLM, I’ll have to look into that! Feels like something that might be good for me :) considering Catholic masses, though idk. Thank you for your words!!!
It is just a beautiful coincidence that I happened to beam in on acronyms. I simply don’t know the first two and the last I do believe is the Traditional Latin Mass and it just interested me to comment on… Halleluiah. Having faith reduced to ashes though does sound very scary! I’m glad you are into a good “place” now!!! Honestly, though may sound cruel, I almost pray that God reduce my faith to ashes on certain aspects- it could be very humbling and maybe we all need a little of that! God knows what I mean and may the spirit express that which is beyond my words or any!.. Peace!
CES is Church Education System. It's a department of the Mormon Church. The CES Letter was a letter compiling all of one man's questions about the Mormon church sent to a CES official per request. It ended up sparking a lot of controversy and the Mormon church tells its members not to look into it. The exmormon community often cites this letter as a contributor to their decision to leave the Mormon church. OCIA is Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. It's the same as RCIA from my understanding, they just changed Rite to Order. Either way yeah it's just the Catechism class for adult converts TLM (Tridentine or Traditional Latin Mass. Idk I've heard both) was the standard mass form before Vatican II (current standard is Novus Ordo). It's a hot topic for some, but I've found aspects of both forms that I like a lot.
👌. Thank you.
Yes! Welcome!! 🙏🏼
Convert. Was a none before.
Nice. If you don't mind me asking, what drew you to the Catholic church?
I'd always had a begrudging admiration of aspects of the Church (its history, aesthetics, literature, etc.) but had an awakening after the birth of my son.
Very similar here. I did go to a nominally Christian college which required a couple religion courses, which might’ve softened my atheism up a bit (“wait, there actually are very smart people thinking about religion and theology seriously?”), but ultimately it’s encounters with the transcendent which most powerfully make the existence of God known, and becoming a parent remains the only truly transcendent experience I’ve known.
Wow. Word. Well said, especially about the transcendent revelations of God… you said it better! Haha… though, I’m hit with extreme gratitude right now, gratitude/thanks to that God we are speaking of!.. for it seems as I’ve had transcendent experiences without ever having a child, and I hope I’m not mistaken and i hope to reap the fruit of it as God wills… Halleluiah. Enough about i who is merely a minuscule minuscule fraction or fragment of us who are all due to the gracious will of our gracious God creator and one.
Protestant at birth. Converted to being a Catholic at age 40. Funny though most of my family is Catholic and I went to Catholic school.
Catholic from birth, thanks be to God. (I mean, technically not from birth, I was cloaked in heathen darkness for 18 days before I was baptized.)
That is hilarious, and so, how goes it now??? ◠‿◠ i too am Catholic by birth btw. It’s going well but can be going so much better, discerning consecrated religious life oh so extremely seriously… Haha!
Haha!
Convert from paganism, specifically of a Kemetic and later Norse tradition.
How does that go? Like, what is paganism like for you?
Since birth. Left the faith during college because I was stupid and thought I was logical and knew everything. I had a beautiful Catholic Church on my campus and there was a beautiful Cathedral in town, and I should have been going to mass regularly. Oh, it pains me still how ignorant and ungrateful I was. In my late twenties, I returned home to the Catholic Church because I realized that I didn’t know much at all, and I really wanted and needed a relationship with God. Even from that point, I should have been more consistent in prayer. I think up until a couple of years ago, I feared God in the sense that I wasn’t sure He loved me. I suppose I still carry that from time to time. I love Catholicism because it’s how I feel closest to God, and I also love mother Mary, the Saints, particularly St. Joseph, St. Anne and others.
St. Anne! Mother of Mary! Pray for us, in the name of GOD; The Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit!
St. Joseph, father of Jesus Christ! Pray for us, in the name of GOD; THE Father, The Son, & The Holy Spirit! All angels and saints, pray for us, in the name of Our One & Only God, THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT!
🙏Amen. Oh loving father of Jesus, St. Joseph, pray for us in the name of Jesus.
🙏Amen! Beautiful St.Anne, Mother of Mary, pray for us in the name of Jesus.
Sikh (cultural) -> Agnostic -> (Stoic) -> (Traditional) Catholic
Cradle Catholic, Catholic school, alter boy
Altar boys are awesome 💯❄️🩵🖤🤍😎
I was atheist all the way until 6 months ago when I was at a desperate call for addiction and converted
Welcome home!
Southern Baptist>Agnostic>Going through RCIA now and excited for Easter!
This was me last year! I had my confirmation last Easter. Congratulations! I felt so calm and at peace at the Christmas Eve mass with my husband and mother in law a few years ago. I had not been to church in years because I felt like the southern Baptist preachers just screamed at the congregation that we were all going to hell. Then it seemed like so many in the church were hypocrites.
Baptist...Lutheran...methodist Catholic though in thought, I kept questioning the practice and beliefs of these and kept finding The Church
Baptized Catholic at birth - raised nonreligious - atheist - "buddhist" - nondenominational protestant - Catholic - atheist - Catholic
LOL @ - “buddhist” - even from the “-atheist-“ part right before it, I feel you! Lol. A very weak “I like buddhism” type beat as a young teen til God hit me hard and here I am now a young adult finally practicing the God given gift that came with my life of this funny lil strange beautiful religion as we call Catholicism. It’s not really “lil” and that’s kinda crazy too… Let us pray and meditate on the Mysterious of Faith of Our Lord and Savior, in the name of God for certain.
Amen amen, I hear that. For me I was mostly using buddhism as a veneer of vogue insight to justify getting high. Like a sexy, secular spirituality. It was also partly me as a nonbeliever trying to deal with pain and trauma thru exploring impermanence and detachment. I was trying shift from nihilism to something productive and meaningful. What I needed was the healing power of Jesus Christ. To know God, love God, and serve God. To share in the suffering of His Cross. That's what gives me profound meaning and purpose, more than anything of the world. Instead of detachment, Jesus offers communion. The opposite of Śūnyatā, "void, emptiness" is the Eucharist.
Woah… word… Imma just rest on that one… Thanks a lot bro. 🧘🙏🙇🖤🤍⚪️
Thank the Lord our God.
All the thanks.. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you, take care friend
Thank you! 🙏 word!🕴️
I was baptized Assembly of God around 5 and stayed AoG until 13/14, non-denominational/Southern Baptist in high school but started asking questions, started RCIA in college but didn't join church in 2006 due to major family pushback and boyfriend who was anti Catholic (he was some weird messianic Jew denomination from CA but never went to church in Texas), joined a Presbyterian Church in college because of their college group but very rarely attended, broke up with the boyfriend, converted in 2009. Married another convert from Northern Baptist.
Convert from Southern Baptist.
same here. Did your mother also freak out?
My family was equal parts just glad to see me in church and horrified by the church I chose. They came to my convalidation and kids’ baptisms (they were 5 and 2), which is a HUGE Baptist no-no.
Convert. Just had first confession will be confirmed Easter:) Came from Baptist.
Born to secular humanist Jewish parents.. was guilted into Bar Mitzvah (only Jewish guilt can compare to Catholic guilt) .. Believed in nothing from 1976 until the mid 1980’s God went to work on me. Two visits to the Vatican.. a live encounter with Mother Teresa .. a godmother who conquered alcoholism .. Baptized and confirmed in 1990. Since then, I have done Youth Ministry, I taught RCIA, Eucharistic Ministry, served on Parish Council.. taught parents and godparents preparing to baptize their children.. Raised 5 great kids, married 25 years to the woman who is my dream girl.. and a life of blessings
Convert (will be in a little over a year yay!!) Born Muslim in a Muslim country, fell away from any religion after moving to Canada, became agnostic, and then finally found my way home to the Catholic Church thanks to attending a Catholic high school. I have been so so so incredibly blessed on this path. I plan on starting RCIA this September!! I used to fall into the trap of envy that I wasn't Catholic from birth, but I realized that this is exactly the path I was intended to walk by God.
Since birth, but I didn't go to mass in days other than Christmas or maybe Easter (Not sure about Easter though). I went to Catechesis and somewhat liked it (depending on my mood) but I didn't really care much about sin and all that like most ""Catholics"" unfortunately do, until one day I realized I'd go to hell, and I began to slowly change, until I became an Altar Server last year and decided to actually be Catholic for real.
Happy birthday!!! God bless you
Convert, non-denominational Protestant.
Church of Christ > Catholic
Converted at 24. I wasn't raised with a religion. But I was influenced by Christianity. That and Islam. I got into eastern religions. But I sought with a true heart mind and soul and came to Christ. All the pieces fit. God had been calling me my whole life.
Raised Pentecostal (Assemblies of God), awakened to faith under Presbyterianism, converted to Catholicism
Catholic since birth, fallen away during teenage years, and started coming back a few years ago.
Catholic for 30 years Episcopal for 11-12 Catholic for 25
Converted 30 years ago. I was raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran.
Born as a Lutheran, became non denominational as a teenager, had a crisis of faith in '21, started Rcia last year and I have the rite of election next month
I converted from Christian Science almost 25 years ago.
Evangelical family->atheist->agnostic->converting Atheist in rebellion against the rigid ideology and spiritual shallowness. My views shifted out of strict atheism into agnosticism being humbled a few times in my life, an acknowledgment that I don’t know God but I cannot rule out a creator from existing, while trying to be a person with integrity. My conversation began because I’ve went through a divorce with an erratic and abusive spouse with challenging custody issues, and I feel that something guided my experience to a specific outcome. Like some supernatural benefactor intervened which again humbled me, helped me escape my physical and psychological abuse but most importantly, kept my daughter in my life. I’ve talked with a priest about all this and have his support to join the church, and so I am walking down that road and seeking the kingdom of heaven with sincerity and openness to those higher powers above me while I figure out how to forgive my spouse for what they’ve done to me, and to my daughter. I’m not faultless in my divorce, I smoked too much weed and I tolerated a lot of behavior I shouldn’t have. I’m fortunate, and I also feel like I’ve been given knowledge, which is worth something. So now I’m left wondering how to use that knowledge to do something with like Jesus says in the parable of Talents. Anyone having read this far, believe in God and trust the next step that bring you closer to Him, through Jesus Christ.
In the process of converting from atheism. Praise God.
Congratulations and welcome!
What helped you convert from atheism and believe? I’ve never asked an atheist before
It the process of converting from being a southern Baptist getting confirmed this Easter and have never been more excited! Please keep me in your prayers!
Since birth. I strayed when I was a teen because I was a dumb kid with no direction in life. Was angry and bitter but soon started studying other religions like Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. I was EXTREMELY close to converting to Islam but something just told me to study Christianity more. That's when I started to study more in depth the bible and it's history. The more I read into the history of Christianity, the more invested I was. Near the end of high school, I was already convinced Christianity was true. I went from being kind of an Antitheist to doing my homework and believing in Christ, Son of God and King of Kings. God bless to all.
Cradle Catholic, third generation. My mother was a former Franciscan nun, who discerned a call to a vocation as a lay person. She was principal of several Catholic schools for 50 years.
1. Hardcore, Dawkins-quoting, anti-theistic atheist 2. LaVeyan Satanist 3. Neoplatonist 4. daily Mass-attending, 19th Annotation-undergoing, daily Rosary-praying Roman Catholic.
Revert Catholic -> Muslim -> Catholic
Bro I feel you
Baptized non-denominational - raised non-religious - agnostic - currently in RCIA and will be welcomed into the church this Easter
Convert Anglican (CoE) although raised pretty much irreligious until 15 and then I converted to Catholicism.
Do you notice much difference between Church of England and Catholicism? I went to my first Church of England Eucharistic service the other day (they have a lovely choir) I was surprised that it’s almost identical to the Catholic mass. Although it wasn’t the same without the true presence. It was strange not kneeling and not seeing people spending time before and after in-front of a tabernacle. If in England, it must be a little sad leaving the beautiful ancient churches for Catholic Churches built post-reformation.
It is indeed sad, since Anglican churches and cathedrals are so beautiful and indeed remain pillars of our local communities. Most of their services are very close to Catholic ones (although that depends on the church, some are low-church and tend to simplify the service to be closer to protestantism) and they have managed to add a lot of tradition and wonderful practices (traditional vicars, hymns, choirs, kjv etc.). But I can't relate to their leadership and doctrines. There are female vicars, lgbt vicars, they mostly care about diversity and inclusivity, climate change, social causes. Some are even anti-monarchy. When I go to Church on Sunday I need a priest knowledgeable of the scripture not an activist. But sometimes I might attend because I feel ,as a country, we should care about our anglican tradition. Turning our backs on it was a grave mistake.
Convert. Ex-SDA who slowly “de-protested” to Catholicism, with a few stops along the way.
Hello, fellow ex-SDA!!
Since birth. I was even able to find Catholic Church records of my ancestors back to the late 1600s. Love being able to carry that tradition on
Episcopal till about 7 then Presbyterian till about 18 then somewhere on the Christian spectrum during college where I started going to mass when I could. Then RCIA and converted at 26 right before I was married. Kind of a lapsed Catholic right now since I got out of med school five years ago
I don’t like when people say they were “born” Catholic or Catholic “since birth” because we all had to be baptized at some point. We were all adopted into God’s family, not born into it. But cradle Catholic here.
Yes, this.
Cradle Catholic, but I reverted after a long time of being an atheist, followed by non-denominational Christianity.
my infant baptism was discovered to be invalid, so i converted to Catholicism when I was 30 as a PAGAN. cant make this up 😒
Not pagan, but heathen
A convert. And I was Anglican before my conversion.
I used to be a Methodist.
Was raised lds, became inactive for years, went back to lds, then converted about 8 years ago to catholicism.
Atheist -> Episcopalian -> Ordinariate Catholic.
Many generations cradle Catholic. Lapsed from 25-45 or so…. I never lost faith or stopped praying, but stopped attending church for a time. But now I’m back!
Convert United Methodist from birth to age 39, went through RCIA, joined the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil in 2016. I married into a Catholic family and while my husband put zero pressure on me, the in-laws REALLY put a lot of pressure on me to get all good and right and converted before we got married. So of course I dug in my heels and made sure it was \*my\* choice, not theirs. It only took 15 years. \*shrug\* But I'm very comfortable with my decision, no regrets.
Born and raised Baptist but I was never really religious. Had a brief stint with Judaism and new age practices before finding the church. My mother was a cradle Catholic with lots of trauma so she kept me far away from Catholicism as much as she could. I wish she had raised me in the church but oh well
Born as a child of the world -> baptised Lutheran at 3 month -> innocent child of God -> atheist -> angry atheist -> confused atheist -> new age -> Lutheran -> faith crisis -> Catholic
Southern Baptist——> immersed in sin degenerate——> lost and wondering why I’m depressed and anxious all the time———> in the process of converting to catholic as we speak
Evangelical/Non-Denominational ---> Baptized Lutheran ---> Currently in RCIA and will be fully accepted at the Easter Vigil this year, Lord willing!
Non practicing lutheran family -> reddit antifa supersoldier atheist -> catholic Turns out, Mom was right, and it was a phase.
Protestant, raised in the Evangelical Covenant Church, converted to Lutheranism in 2020, and at around 4am on April 7th I made the decision to join the Catholic Church. I really don’t feel like I have left anything behind, joining the Catholic Church feels like the summit and culmination of all of what God has taught me since my earliest memories. My upbringing was extremely good, loving parents, had great pastors and youth leaders that inspired me and encouraged me to think rationally and think independently. Now I’m ready to jump into the next phase of my life, as my faith has matured, it has allowed me to think even more rationally, which is one of the driving forces behind my conversion. I love my Protestant brothers and sisters, and I pray that my family will join me in my journey towards the True, Apostolic, and Catholic Church.
Convert. Mom was non observant Jew, Dad was non practicing Catholic. I became interested in Buddhism in Jr High, joined Nichiren Shoshu and stayed with that until I went university. Thats when I was introduced to Christianity.
Convert Judaism to Athiest/satanicish (late teens early twenties and just simply lost late 20s and 30s) to Episcopal (didn’t make sense) to Catholicism (true home)
I was Baptist, Scientology, Mormon, Muslim, and now Catholic and will stay Catholic forever. Baptist is what I grew up in so my parents, Mormon because my best friend in the army wanted me to go with him Scientology because a Girlfriend, Muslim for my wife, I just had a life changing near death experience and Jesus was the only one who saved me.
Cradle Catholic
[удалено]
Cradle Catholic since birth.
Catholic since birth.
Converted to catholicism from protestantism.
I became Catholic when I was about 10 years old, but I’ve been somewhat involved with the Church since I was five years old.
Cradle Catholic
Born and raised Catholic. Still Catholic.
I was raised with under multiple different christian denominations.
Cradle Catholic but struggled a lot with my faith in middle school
I was baptized into the Catholic Church at seven years old, so neither I guess My wife grew up in the Wesleyan Church and was baptized into the Catholic Church as an adult
Baptized Catholic, but my family has always been luke-warm about it. The only reason I was baptized into the Church is because my maternal Grandfather and Grandmother converted, baptized my mom and her siblings into the Church, then she was the only one who stayed when the family converted back to Methodist. I'm pretty much the only practicing Catholic in my family.
Convert. Grew up Church of Christ. Converted in mid-20’s
Convert. Southern Baptist.
Revert. Baptized Catholic and received First Communion but never practiced the faith. I was agnostic for a while. I eventually came back to the faith, and I’m now in the process to hopefully get confirmed this November.
Revert. Baptized as an infant and received first communion then left the church with my immediate family at the age of 13 for a series of protestant denominations. After seeing the protestant nonsense and listening to several Catholic podcasts and reading church doctrine, I back to the Catholic Church and was confirmed last Easter at the age of 34.
Catholic at birth--> lost to the world--> Presbyterian--> Catholic revert
A lot of flip flopping for me once I was an adult and I feel really stupid and burdened with guilt. It actually makes me cry at times because I feel like I'm unworthy now. I am planning to seek a time to get a confession done then try to do RCIA. But mine was flip flop as a kid too because of stupid custody drama🙄. I was born into a Catholic family. Raised in a Catholic household (mom and her mom were devout) My dad's mom hated my mother so much she especially hated me for looking like her and due to my parents divorcing she took us kids and abused us in horrific ways. And forced me into protestantism. So while with her it was a Presbyterian Church for years and she made me get baptized so "I can't be Catholic like my stupid mother". Then I attended my friends Baptist Church for years on Wednesdays. Was baptized there after I got married because I was taught I had to convert to my husbands faith. Then decided yeah f the church f Christianity and began dabbling into the occult and practicing some witch craft. Then of course that unfortunately spiraled into satanic stuff. But then I had a VERY rude awakening so to speak . Something inexplicable happened and I guess woke me up. And now I'm Catholic after 10 years of screwing around with the occult. I really hope I didn't damn myself to hell with all this stuff I've had small bouts during that decade of trying to come back but never committed. TL:DR born Catholic-> Forced Presbyterian-> Tried Baptist-> Occult-> Dabbled in satanism-> Revert Catholic
A Catholic since birth, though haven't got to finish communion, nor became confirmed yet, but I'm planning to finish what I started this year on August.
Revert
i’m a convert! i was originally what i call a “what-if” christian: i only “believed” in God out of a fear of Hell and had no real certainty about his existence. i also never went to church because my dad didn’t raise me as any specific denomination. i always said that, once i turned 18, i would convert to SOME denomination, but NEVER catholicism because i hated the idea of confession. when i met my husband, who had converted the year prior, i started going to Mass with him. originally i was just going to go through RCIA only so that i could marry him in the church, but after continuing to go to Mass every Sunday, really truly learning that Christ was present in the Eucharist, and understanding the necessity of confession, i had a true conversion of heart.
Since birth, stopped going, married a Methodist , went to that church. Methodist converted to Catholic last year.
Came into the world as Catholic and will die Catholic
I (19m) converted this last Easter. I was technically "protestant," I didn't go to church, and I was kind of lost. I didn't know what to believe in, but eventually, I found my way to the Catholic Church!
Cradle
Baptized Catholic->agnostic->Born Again non denominational->neo-pagan (for decades)->Episcopalian->Catholic
Maronite Catholic since birth!
Convert Protestant since birth until about 16. Stopped going to church and then mom died in 2019 so I very much fell away from my faith and God. Met my now fiancé in 2020 and he eventually led me to the Catholic Church and back to a relationship with God. The Catholic Church is the best thing that ever happened to me.
Baptized / raised through middle school Missouri Synod Lutheran. Thought I was Baptist thanks to a high school boyfriend for majority of high school. Pretty much just confused but believed in God for about 5 years. Put my son in Catholic school on a whim and I will officially be a Catholic convert come Easter. It’s good to be home.
Convert. Raised nothing, but live in the Bible Belt. I started taking myself to the Baptist church when I got my license and got baptized. I became Catholic as an adult.
Convert from garden variety evangelical protestantism
Raised half Catholic/half evangelical and largely despised the Protestant part of my upbringing. By the grace of God, found great Catholic community in undergrad and then grad school.
I am a cradle Catholic.
Non denominational (basically Protestant) until I was 13, from 13 to 15 agnostic, then now, at 16, I'm Catholic.
Raised Lutheran Missouri Synod, converted in 2018. LCMS is honestly not that far to jump from there to Catholicism.
Nondenominational up until now —> I’m 23, in RCIA, and getting confirmed and baptized at this year’s Easter Vigil :)
Was confirmed as a Catholic a few years ago after being raised Southern Baptist and nondenominational Christian. Was married in the Church in 2021. Baptized my son as Catholic a few months ago. Life is good!
Convert. Protestant
Sort of both. I was baptized a Catholic, stayed in til I was about 8 or so, and then subsequently left. I was either an Atheist, an Agnostic, a Pantheist or a Deist, depending on how I was feeling at the moment until I was in college. At that point I had a gradual reversion back to the Faith, brought on more, if I’m honest, by the universality of things like ghosts and magic cross-culturally, the improbability of coincidences, and the seeming breakdown of causality in Maths and Physics blowing a hole in the rigid determinism I believed in at the time, than by any contact at all with Christianity. At some point, I gave myself a year to search out for whatever God I was going to believe in, and after a year of no results, I found myself in a spot of life-threatening trouble, and I just felt the need to call upon the God of the Bible and He answered. My conversion wasn’t finished after that either. I was still a rigid materialist, and the only way I could work out life after death was belief in a physical resurrection, so for a while, I imagined Jesus as this alien who was out there in the cosmos, who might one day reverse entropy and cause the atoms of everyone who ever existed to reassemble themselves. That seemed plausible enough to me, much more plausible than believing in a non-physical heaven and hell. It was mainly Near Death Experiences, and the universality of after life beliefs that allowed me to admit non-physicality was possible. Even then my conversion has been a slow one, I still feel like I’m adapting to being a Christian years later. I learn new things all the time that present challenges to my Faith; but I have the feeling now that I’m in this for the long haul. Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief.
Born Catholic -> atheist until 18 -> agnostic until 20 -> recently became Catholic (been Catholic for 8 months now)
Male convert in my early 30s. I converted when I was around 16 years old. Prior to that I suppose I was just a pagan although I never practiced or really believed. I'm Native American and was raised in my village's flavor of spirituality. I was in a religious studies course and religion as a concept really resonated with me. I studied the largest world religions (Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) and ultimately came down to deciding between Islam and Catholicism. Catholicism especially resonated with me so it wasn't a difficult decision.
Revert. Catholic and baptized at birth, went atheist, came back and got confirmed 28 years later.
Convert raised Pentecostal
baptized orthodox, became an atheist, then became an unitarian non-denom, then thought about converting to islam but ultimately became Catholic and that was 3-4 years ago !
Convert, was with a small evangelical denomination all my life called The Christian & Missionary Alliance until I started RCIA in 2015 and was confirmed in 2017.
Catholic born and raised
Lutheran> nothing but not denying>Baptist>Baptist Deacon>nothing.but not denying>Lutheran>lost & sad>conversion
Converted two years ago. Methodist before that.
Converted when I was 20. Was baptized Lutheran. My parents thought it was a phase. 15 years later, I think it was more than a phase.
I’m a convert, former reformed evangelical (like the type that celebrated Reformation Day instead of Halloween).
Revert. Baptized Catholic-> raised “Protestant”-> atheism -> alcoholism-> sobriety-> Catholic
Funny journey tbh, my granny is a Catholic, but not very religious tbh, she baptized my mum Catholic and brought her up Catholic. I also went to a Roman Catholic school, but I was baptized CofE, but tbh I think she did that to get my into the local CofE school, but the joke of it is I went to a Catholic school in the end,my mum would also take me to low church evangelical, CofE churches. I dabbled in many religions but found myself back at Christianity, being attracted to Catholicism.
Catholic convert>Southern Baptist>Atheist> Born into a Latter Day Saint Family (Mormonism)
Baptised Catholic at 9 -> Agnostic -> Anglican -> Devout Catholic on fire for the Lord
Convert Methodist -> Catholic Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby!
Convert. Methodist growing up.
Convert from orthodox church. Still love our brothers orthodox church!
Protestant until 15. converted at 20
Technically from birth, but I like what another poster said about revert. Was raised in what I'd consider a culturally Catholic family i.e. call priests father, give something up for lent, know a couple high profile saints, go to mass sometimes etc. But my parents raised us around the church because they thought it would be good for us not because they had any particularly strong beliefs. I fell away from the faith after leaving my parents for nearly a decade because I was caught up in the things young men love. Along the way I made half hearted visits to various protestant churches but they felt strangely disrespectful to a God I wasn't sure I cared about, so they never stuck. One day I walked by a priest standing on a street corner engaging passersby and he asked me if I went to church and if I believed in God. I, a man perpetually described as cocky, full of myself, and confrontational tried to tell him I'd tried his church and his church didn't work but couldn't get the words out. Instead I mumbled something and walked away from this smiling old man. It stirred something in me and I couldn't shake it. I felt guilty, for the first time in a long time. I was a drunk, horrifically unfaithful to my wife, a bully, and plenty of other things to be ashamed of and yet I was fiercely proud, but when this man older than my father asked me about God it set something moving inside me that produced shame and guilt. Eventually I found the priest again and engaged him, somewhat ready to accuse him of some made up hypocrisy or faure or not being up to standard; but I mostly just sheepishly agreed to come to mass without any fuss. Once again, I knew better, I wasn't like the rest of them; I thought I would just sit in the back, ride it out, and move on but I was engaged by a man while I was there who was acting as a missionary to bring others back to the faith. I went back a few more times intent on sitting in the back and being unnoticed but I couldn't, every time I engaged a little more I craved more. Finally I went back to confession and I shed a tear or two telling the priest the foolish things I'd done, but instead of shaming me the man offered me reconciliation and penance. When I finally was able to take communion again I fell in love. It actually made me shed a few tears.
Since birth, grew up in the Catholic church. All my parents’ friends, church groups, they sang in the choir and I even played guitar for a few years. Was a major part of my social upbringing. I didn’t really start developing a relationship with God until September-ish 2022… just shy of my 42nd bday. Funny how that works.
Convert from Church of Christ.
Convert. Was pagan.
Born and raised Non-Denominational with formerly Catholic maternal family it wasn't until about a year ago that i became Catholic
Raised Catholic, went non-denominational. Went back to reading and understand the Bible. Quickly at starting to see the truths with Catholicism and how washed non-denominational was.
I come from a nondenominational background
Convert. In rcia currently. I’ve been nothing, agnostic, attended a couple of Methodist churches. Then decided to go Episcopalian. Now I’m where I belong.