You come across someone who is open to hear why you chose to be Catholic (or if you are a cradle catholic, continue) what would you say?
What would you say to sway someone already leaning towards Catholicism?
And, what would you suggest a person to do who wants to join the Church?
Side info…
This person has also heard the negative claims and stories about Catholicism basically being wrong- evil for lack of better words- and feels a little uneasy.
Ultimately, what reading materials and links would you suggest this person to read?
That sounds like me two years ago. When I was at that stage, I needed to believe it was the right Church and I needed to know it spiritually and intellectually. The spiritual part was easy because my life was never the same since the first Mass I attended. There was a need in me to prove the allegations of protestants false. I would spend time Googleing things like, “why are catholics not christian”, “Why do catholics worship idols”, “Why do catholics worship mary”, etc. As you can imagine, I found the most vile websites that had as a sole purpose, to campaign against the Catholic Church. I would take their claims and try to prove them false, which was a lot easier to do than you might think. After a while, when you see a website have 3-4 outright lies about Catholics, you can pretty much assume all they have to say is worthless.
Honestly, from my first Mass as an adult a couple of years ago, I wanted to be Catholic. In my heart, I desired them to be the Church for me and that bias was evident in me. However, I knew it was a serious step and it was important to me to be able to join the Church without reservation. A lot of the questions I had were answered here, at Catholic Answers. The Director of Adult Education at our Church has always made himself available when I needed to talk. In fact, we have a meeting today to discuss some questions I had. Some of the difficult doctrine and dogma, he would work through the processes with me when needed.
One of my friends, that converted two years before me, went about it in a different way. He read the Catechism, looking for things with which he could disagree. He finished without any problem.
This website was very important in my journey,
whyimcatholic.com was a favorite too, in fact, I still like that. I discovered that even though there is no Catholic radio station in my area, there are several over the internet and through my phone. I have unlimited data on my phone and some days I listed 8 hours or more.
