How Did You Become A Catholic Defender?

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My defense of the Catholic Church began when I was about fifteen. I was sitting in my Sunday School class, and the teacher was talking about sin. She whipped out a homemade poster with a partial list of sins on it. For example: Rock music, dancing, ouija boards, alcohol, and… (drum roll please) being Catholic. What!!! Wait just a minute, Catholics are Christians, just like us! I didn’t bring this up because I actually didn’t know anything about what Catholics believed, but I knew in the back of my mind that my teacher was dead wrong.

Then about the time I was sixteen or seventeen I was trying to watch a Notre Dame football game at my grandfather’s house. Well, he came in and snatched up the remote and changed it. I said something along the lines of, “What? You don’t want to watch the football game?” To which he replied, “I ain’t watching those Mary Worshipers! Those Catholics pray to Mary!” I knew this was way off base so I decided I needed to find out exactly what and who “those Catholics” did worship.

Thanks, to the extreme anti-Catholics in my life, I have crossed the Tiber to arrive home in Christ’s One, True Faith!!!
 
I was a cradle Catholic who left the church a couple of years after my first husband died. I met and married an Evanglical man who “seemed” to be a good knowledgable Christian man. After being told that I wasn’t a Christian and wasn’t a Biblical wife enough times, I started my journey back home. Found CA Live on my radio and became a sponge. I really did know a lot, just didn’t know the Biblical basis. And, I really am a Christian and a Biblical wife. I’m just married to an emotionally/verbally abusive man who uses the Bible to get what he wants. In July, my children and I returned to the Catholic church, much to the dislike of my husband. So, until I complete my exit strategy to this marriage, I am a Catholic defender very regularly IN MY OWN HOME.
C
 
AlaAnnie said:
I was a cradle Catholic who left the church a couple of years after my first husband died. I met and married an Evanglical man who “seemed” to be a good knowledgable Christian man. After being told that I wasn’t a Christian and wasn’t a Biblical wife enough times, I started my journey back home. Found CA Live on my radio and became a sponge. I really did know a lot, just didn’t know the Biblical basis. And, I really am a Christian and a Biblical wife. I’m just married to an emotionally/verbally abusive man who uses the Bible to get what he wants. In July, my children and I returned to the Catholic church, much to the dislike of my husband. So, until I complete my exit strategy to this marriage, I am a Catholic defender very regularly IN MY OWN HOME.
C
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You are in my prayers!!
 
Interesting as to how many of these testimonies involve the influence, good or bad, or spouses, girl friends, or boy friends.
 
I was also born and raised a “cradle Catholic” out here in Southern California. Both of my parents ensured that my siblings and I were raised in the Faith. My mother taught us the Faith by example, and my father taught through fear. Well, as I began to rebel against my father, I slipped away from the Church. I didn’t go to any other churches because, deep down, I knew thew the Catholic Church was right.

I went into the military to escape my father. Funny…, I don’t know which was worse. During that time, I neglected to go to Mass, even when a Catholic Chaplain was flown out to our ship position. By the time I got out of the Navy, I had been away for years. I went to college and I was mortified to hear a history professor exclaim that the Catholic Church was responsible for all the atrocities in this world. That was the first stepping stone.

Several years ago, I met a wonderful girl and quickly we started dating. She became my best friend and companion, and, soon, I realized that I was meant to be with her. One problem, She was a Methodist. At that point, I remembered something my father drummed into my head. He told us, “When you get married, you will get married in the Church.” And I knew he wasn’t kidding. Several years earlier, my maternal grandmother was getting re-married even though my grandfather was still alive. My parents kept us from that ceremony, at the expense of several years of isolation from my extended family.

My girlfriend and I talked about religion sometimes, but I shied away because I didn’t know how to talk to her. I went to my mother’s library and found “Catholicism and Fundementalism” on the bookshelf. I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was newly ablaze. The no-longer-smoldering ember that I was rekindled into a forest fire of Faith. I wanted to help my girlfriend (now, fiancee) understand and join my Faith, thinking that I could convert her myself, not allowing the Holy Spirit to call her to the Church. But, I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit had already went into motion because she, secretly, began taking RCIA classes at her local parish. After three months, she told me, with much trepidation, that she had begun RCIA to learn about my Faith, but not to convert. 😦 I began to read even more, hoping that something I would say would put her over the top. Well, to this day, she hasn’t swam the Tiber, but she does join me at Mass often. We are preparing for our wedding next June. I believe, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that we can raise a family to love and honor God and eachother.

I guess I can say that the reason I became a Catholic defender was to help her, but I inadvertantly began to help myself. Now, I can defend my faith and shelter her development in Faith. I learned so that I can know the Truth and that she could learn the Truth.👍
 
SwissGuard said:
Almost all of us have been there…standing in the spotlight while Protestants grill us about our faith like hamburgers on the 4th of July.
…
For me, it was my junior year in high school. I went to a Protestant (Mennonite) high school, and we had to take a Bible class every year as part of the requirement. The everyday class discussion eventually turned to Mary’s perpetual virginity…which I was helpless to defend at the time. Ironically, a week later we were given an assignment where we had to write about which church (denomination) we are a part of and what we believe.

When they had been graded, the teacher (who was a hardcore Protestant pastor who had made me look pretty darn foolish during the “virginity” debate) personally walked up to me, handed me my paper, gave me an “A+” and told me that it was the best Catholic paper he had ever read. …
I guarantee you from personal experience- The more you learn about your faith, the more opportunities God will give you to defend it.
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My applaud to you for such a good job. You may want to share the key points of your paper with us. Young generation is the future and hope of our Church.

I always defend Catholic church because Catholic Church is the true Apostolic Church from our Lord Jesus, and I love Jesus so much.

I have Protestant relatives and friends. I want to untwist their twisted view toward Catholic belief. Each time I heard those uneducated accuse, my heart hurts. I hope they could have open minds, seek and find the truth.
 
Well, I was a cradle, lukewarm (at best), uncaticized Catholic. My wife and I were having problems and seemed to be distancing ourselves from each other. I was only going to church about once a month and she had started going to Calvary Chapel with a friend of hers. At some point in our healing process I agreed to go to church with her at Calvary Chapel. I went one time and knew that this service was nothing more than a oversized blown up Bible study. I now knew in my heart that the Catholic church was the true church, but could not prove it in any way, shape, or form. My wife continued to go to Calvary and I started going to the Catholic Church every week. This at the time became a setback for my wife and I. She talked me into going to talk to the Calvary Pastor, Brian Bell (yes, the one thats on the radio) He told me about him being an ex-Catholic and Bla, bla, bla. I then asked him a few questions, the only one which I remember is the last one which was why do the protestants have less books in the Bible than Catholics. Somehow I had already known that they had been removed by Luther and had always been part of the Catholic Bible. Brian’s reply to me seemed really weak. About a month Later my wife returned with me to the Catholic church, only to bring us together and not have our faith as a stumbling block to our marriage. We went on like this for a couple of years, I was just happy that God had answered my prayers, but I still had this little burning desire to prove that the Catholic church was the true church. Unfortunately I kept putting it off until one day outside of church these two guys are standing at a table asking for volunteers to fly down to Acapulco to build a Church and housing for some nuns and seminarians. I was drawn to this table from the point that I walked out of the church doors. The guys explained to me that this was for some priest named Father Pablo Straub. At this point I only knew him as a visiting priest who had said mass at our church a couple of months prior. The trip was 5 days of hard work and spiritual growth for me and after the trip one of the guys Frank loaned me a book to read, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, by you know who and have since read: Theology for beginners, by Frank Sheed, A Father Who Keeps His Promises, by Scott Hahn, Scriputure Matters, by Scott Hahn, Surprised by Truth, By Patrick Madrid, More Catholic than the Pope, By Patrick Madrid, Four Witnesses (The Early Church in Her own Words), By Rod Bennett, Early Christian Writings, From Penguin Classics, and am now reading One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic (The Early Church was the Catholic Church) By Kenneth Whitehead. I’ve bought so many Tapes and Cd’s from St Joseph Comm. and others places that I started this past February to see if I could listen to all of them within a years time while driveing home from work which is about 6 hours per week and I still have 12 Cd’s till I’m done.
I look back often and realize that had my wife not gone to Calvary Chapel that the little spark inside of me may have never been fanned into the fire that it is today. In a nutshell thats how I became a Catholic Defender

May God bless and protect us,
JLC
 
This is such a wonderful idea for a thread. I’m a beginner apologetic, and find myself want to learn more and more. It’s quite an addiction, though I know a good one 🙂

I’m a cradle Catholic from New York, so I hadn’t really experienced any ant-Catholicism to speak for growing up since most of the people around me were Catholic. In graduate school, I started seriously dating a wonderful man, (who is now my husband of 3 months) from the south. His mother (a Baptist church hopper) was constantly warning him of the dangers of the RCC, with ignorant claims that we worship people, idols, that we don’t accept Jesus as our Savior (:eek: craziness!!) and so on. The first time I heard these things I was so astonished and hurt that I could barely speak. I knew all these things were ridiculous, but I started to really want to learn how to counter these attacks with Scripture. Amazingly, a little bit of online searching brought me to Catholic Answers, John Martignoni and his wonderful tapes, Karl Keating’s books, and EWTN. I was blown away by how many people were going through similar situations as I was and all the resources and support that are out there for us. I couldn’t get enough of it, and still can’t. My husband was received into the Church before we got married, and it is such a blessing. Mother-in-law has never apologized for all of the ugly comments she has made, but we don’t mind because we have the Church and the Truth, and from now on will not let another opportunity to spread the truth and correct the misconceptions go by.
 
AlaAnnie said:
I was a cradle Catholic who left the church a couple of years after my first husband died. I met and married an Evanglical man who “seemed” to be a good knowledgable Christian man. After being told that I wasn’t a Christian and wasn’t a Biblical wife enough times, I started my journey back home. Found CA Live on my radio and became a sponge. I really did know a lot, just didn’t know the Biblical basis. And, I really am a Christian and a Biblical wife. I’m just married to an emotionally/verbally abusive man who uses the Bible to get what he wants. In July, my children and I returned to the Catholic church, much to the dislike of my husband. So, until I complete my exit strategy to this marriage, I am a Catholic defender very regularly IN MY OWN HOME.
C
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God bless you. I’m so sorry that you have had this grief. Know that I will now remember you in all my prayers. Hold fast.
Pax tecum,
 
The last thing in the world I would have imagined myself becoming when I was a member of the Assemblies of God was a Catholic apologist, but here I am. When I was in the AoG I was a staunch defender of Christianity and an evangelist. I taught Bible classes, did street ministry, door to door witnessing, sang in Gospel groups, and even preached on occasion. So, I was already disposed towards getting the message out. From all that you might conclude that I was chomping at the bit to get into apologetics when I was received into the Church, but I wasn’t. Frankly, I was burned out and tired of trying to get people to convert (not merely explaining and encouraging people as I do now), which is why I believe God kept me away from apologetics for many years after becoming Catholic.

I had a lot of healing to do and readjustment of my worldview and needed to be more theologically grounded. I sat in Mass, read books, attended classes at my parish and waited for God to direct me where he wanted me–and I wasn’t even thinking of apologetics. I seemed to “fall” into it because my dh got me online where I found Steve Ray’s forum. I posted and learned a long time there. Then Steve advertised for a board administrator. I applied for the job, he hired me, and I did that for about 3 years. I feel God led me into apologetics, but his way–like Paul not going to the Apostles right away, but going into the desert to prepare for whatever God wanted him to do.

I was sitting in Mass one Sunday morning, listening to the Gospel reading. It was Jesus telling Peter that after Peter had been healed, he would help his brothers. That went right to my heart, and I knew it was for me. And it came to be–I’ve been actively answering questions and trying to help my fellow Christians understand the Catholic faith for quite some time and no matter what have not tired of it. I guess when you are sharing what is real and true you never can get tired of it–God gives us the grace, daily, to carry on, through good results and bad, just as Peter and Paul carried on in their ministries, just as we all are.
 
Thanks for sharing in this thread Della, I always look forward to your replying to threads. I have many who are my favorites for different reasons, but whenever things get beyond my knowledge on here I always find myself saying I wish Della would respond to this and most of the time you have. Thanks again for all you’ve helped me with.

May God bless and protect us,
JLC
 
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