Wonderful article, and I can relate! I come from a lapsed Catholic family. They used to be very religious, my grandmother was a missionary even…But for whatever reason they fell out with the church and turned Protestant. Not all of my family, just my immediate family. My mother became nondenominational and my father became Calvinist when he remarried, and his new wife was a Catholic whom he converted from the faith causing problems with her family as well. I spent most of my upbringing around Catholics though, so never really got too far away from it. I just never went to mass growing up or being properly taught the faith. In adulthood I decided to really study the Catholic faith and go to it. My family was appalled by this, just utterly appalled and disrespectful to me. A lot of hurtful things were said and done, to try and steer me away from the faith but I’ve prevailed. Even today I still get hate thrown at me, and attempts to drag me away from Catholicism. That alone shows me that I’m doing something right, and at the end of the day it is my soul at stake, not theirs. I do wonder what scares them so much about the church or why they hate it so much. I’ve got family everywhere though, mostly in southern California and some in Brazil who are devout Catholics and have been tremendously supportive of me. In debating with my father, I have defended the church against his reformed theology attacks on me, and CA has been a tremendous help in learning so much and being able to counter the claims made against the church. Its a very wonderful thing to discover Catholicism and all the facets of the church. Its like finding a beautiful jewel that you want to carry with you everywhere for all eternity.
