My parents are nominally Catholic, pretty much just going to church for weddings and funerals. I was baptized, made my first communion, and was confirmed, but do not consider myself Catholic, or even Christian, as I am an atheist.
Technically I was “born into” the Presbyterian Church, as a result of infant Baptism. But that was only because my father was a “lapsed” Catholic (frankly he didn’t believe), and his choice of the Presbyterian Church was actually an act of rebellion.
Neither of my parents went to church, although I went to Sunday School for a few years, so I had some exposure to the Christian message. But i found it boring, and got out of it when I could.
I became atheist when I was about 15, and stayed that way till I was 28. Then at the tail end of the worst 4 years of my life so to speak, I became Christian. I kept getting this spiritual push to go back to the same church where i’d gone to Sunday School. But this time there was a truly outstanding pastor and his family in control (he was actually Methodist by training). I learnt a lot from him, although he did discourage me somewhat.
I left his church when I got married to my Baptist wife, and moved too far away to continue. He died about four months later from cancer anyway. I dabbled in the Wesleyan Methodist and Baptist Churches for a while but I felt dissatisfied with the divided nature of the Protestant Church. Then I started getting a spiritual push to start going to the Catholic Church, and I joined it circa 1996 or 97. I was in my early forties by that time.
But I’ve had quite definite spiritual experiences which is probably something the OP has never had. Even when I was an atheist, I had the peculiar experience of my father turning up in my bedroom the night he died. I’ve detailed that on a number of occasions.
There have been three “double whammies” (like a breath going through you from head to foot, each time in response to a phrase someone else was speaking, and I still remember the phrases to this day, for that very reason). On one memorable occasion I thought i was going to disintegrate on the spot (giving me some idea of what God’s wrath is going to be like), and other things.
For my money, the Catholic Church is “closest” to the truth. I say that for the simple reason that my old Presbyterian pastor turned up one night in a brief vision, and that’s precisely what he said, with a clear emphasis on the word “closest” viz. “The Catholic Church is
closest to the truth.”
He predicted I’d become Catholic before he died as well. He predicted a number of things, rather accurately, but this is not the time to go into them.
I didn’t become Catholic as the result of a ideological vacuum. God was at work, rescuing me in the first instance from an essentially atheist upbringing, a cruel and damaging father, a divided Protestant Church, and at a time of His own choosing, to the Church which is “closest” to the truth.
Well said.