It took me a number of years to become Catholic after ceasing to believe in Mormonism. But there has to be something that ignites a desire to go beyond Mormonism. That something can often be a Catholic who is willing to discuss their faith with a Mormon. For me it was a great aunt who explained what the difference was for Catholics when they were praying to a saint and praying to God. She lived her Catholic faith in front of me even though she was just about the only Catholic in our extended family. It took me awhile before what she was saying began to sink in, but eventually it did.
Yeah, my story is similar. I realized Mormonism was a hoax about 7 years ago, but it took me a while to become Catholic (or even nominally Christian). There were a lot of people who guided me along the way, ironically, one of them is a Mormon best friend of mine. She was concerned about me being an atheist and gave me a book about Jesus written by a Protestant. Then I had an English professor who was a Catholic deacon and he gave us passages to read from the New Testament and some short stories written by Catholics. Of course, he put a heavy theological focus on it, but he did so in secular terms, so that no one would feel alienated. Then I met someone who had also been a Mormon but had become a Christian. He was far beyond where I was, spiritually speaking, and that really intrigued me.
(As a side note: I had only become a Christian because I could not refute the claims of Jesus, not because I particularly believed
in him. This friend of mine, though, would talk about faith, Jesus, miracles, as though they were obvious facts, plain as day. I wanted to have a relationship with God where I wasn’t a skeptic who had been cornered into acknowledging that he existed, but where I
actually believed.)
We became best friends and would talk about Mormonism vs. Christianity some times. I’ve always loved to read, so I got a pocket-sized New Testament and would read little bits here and there throughout the day. The more I read, the more I noticed how CATHOLIC (!!!) it sounded.
That was
quite a shock to me, since I’d always been taught that the Catholic Church = the Mother of All Harlots, Whore of All the Earth, Church of Satan/Babylon!!
As I read through the New Testament several more times, I became convinced that Christ was truly present as body and blood in the Eucharist, that he established a tangible Church with a priesthood and a hierarchy, that St. Peter was indeed endowed with a special status in that Church, that salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ which is manifest through loving God and keeping his commandments, that Christ instituted a number of other Sacraments: Baptism, Marriage, Holy Orders, etc. That can only be legitimately found in one Church. I also saw, that in the Old Testament, God had prophesied that his Kingdom would never be taken from the Earth, and then in the New, Jesus said the same thing. There are also other teachings that I became convinced of, that aren’t explicitly taught in the Bible, like contraception, abortion/euthanasia, the immaculate conception, purgatory, the role of Mary and the Saints, etc. All these things pointed toward Catholicism, but I was still concerned about some other things.
I eventually had the fortune of becoming good friends with a Catholic girl at school who was delighted to know that I was an “ex-Mormon” (she loves to evangalize to Mormons and “exMormons”). Well, she made up her mind to make me be a Catholic, and when she found out that I was already leaning that direction anyway, that just about did it in for me. I gave feeble objections about this or that doctrine or custom, and she would completely shut me down. I made a list of my objections to Catholicism and began to study the Catechism and catholic apologists. When I found myself no longer looking for answers to
my questions, but was studying apologetics so that I could defend the Church against
other people’s objections, I knew that it was time for me to go join the Church.
After a little bit more hesitation, I finally got into the RCIA at my parish in January. And now, Here I am! :extrahappy:
Patty: Go here to this website: www.bcmmin.org
