A Reader Asks, "What led you to the Catholic Church?"

My father and I always used to talk about theology when we would go out on the weekends from as far back as I can remember. Whether we went out on the boat or out to the parks, once other topics had been exhausted, we'd go to that, and I'd have questions, and usually, he had answers. Yes, Baylor is Baptist, and I did convert to Catholicism while I was there. My parents were somewhat confused, since we attended a Lutheran Church for most of my childhood and they would have expected a conversion in a different direction. I could not really say we were Lutherans though, as my parents kind of beat to their own drum. They didn't have me baptized until I could declare Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior which I did when I was eight. 

My journey to full union with the Church was in several stages. First, and this was back in high school, I didn't like the fact that in the Lutheran Church we said the Nicene Creed, except instead of "catholic" we said "Christian". The Pastor told me it meant the same thing. It doesn't mean the same thing. I also didn't like the fact we said the Church is Apostolic. But we don't believe that ministers have to be appointed by successors to the apostles, and we didn't have apostolic succession or bishops the way the Catholics, Anglicans and Orthodox do in keeping with the ancient tradition of the Church. 

So by college, I'd decided I wanted to be either Catholic, Anglican or Orthodox, since they all claimed ancient origins and apostolic succession and were Trinitarian Christians who believed (or at least could accept) some form of the Real Presence. But Orthodox didn't seem very Universal either, as there were no easily accessible Orthodox Churches where I was, and the ones I'd been to were all extremely ethnic. There were a lot of other reasons why not Orthodoxy. I believe I wrote a blog post about it a few months back that was in the form of a book review. So Anglicanism it was. How pleasant to have Protestant theology with the catholic form of church government! It was the via media, the best of both worlds. And the music was superb. Until they told me that abortion was okay. That business about St. John Baptist kicking in the womb when Jesus approached was idle poetry. The fact St. Paul forbids againstpharmakeia, which covered abortifacients as well as narcotics was culturally locked to that time period! The Holy Spirit had a new truth for our age. I needed to be open to it.

...

So Catholicism was the only game in town, but I was at an impasse, because they believed in papal infallibility, Marian immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, and they had some weird Aristotelian Greek philosophy stuff they overlaid onto the Scriptural account of the Lord's Supper and forced Catholics to believe.

It took me a long time and many conversations and meditation and study, but I got past those issues, and I realized that the Catholic Church was the only place I could really be intellectually content. At this point, if I were not Catholic, I'm afraid I would be an atheist. So let's hope I'm here to stay. Only the Catholic Church possesses the four marks of the True Church by which all men may know her: She is One, Holy, Universal and Apostolic.