Joan Morrone (3)
“For the first 30 years of my life I was a strict Catholic… I didn't dare question anything I heard. I didn't dare question the authority of the Pope; he was infallible and could not err. I couldn't question the priest and what he was telling me. I couldn't read the Bible; the interpretation of it could only be given by those in authority, never laymen.”
Paul Umbaugh
“I would like to start off by telling you a little about myself. I was born and raised as a catholic. I was told that I was ‘baptized’ into the gates of heaven as a baby. I had always been told that if you were a good person and did the best that you could, that when you died, you would go to heaven.”
SetCaptivesFree
“The form of ‘Christianity’ I was taught when younger really was not truly what the Bible teaches. I was raised as a Catholic although I hardly ever went to church. We were taught that the way a person is saved was by taking communion. Jesus to me was some distant figure in the stained glass window who held a lamb over his shoulder.”
Mary R.
“I was raised in a Catholic home, though there was definitely more tradition than faith or actual belief… I had never been to a Protestant church before… Total shock to me -- much different than a Catholic church. I clapped and sang along, reading the words projected on the wall behind the band. I had never really heard Jesus portrayed that way. What was grace?”
Eddie Roman
“When I was 21 years old, I began to have a desire to get closer to God. Having grown up in the Catholic Church, I figured that getting back to weekly mass was the best place to start… Having never studied nor read the Bible (or been encouraged to by the Catholic Church), I enjoyed the sermons very much.”
Heath Pithouse
“I remembered how church had been growing up; bad music, uncomfortable seats, boring and irrelevant. I had gone to a Catholic boy’s school and I couldn’t think of anything more boring… there was more to the Bible than I first thought.”
Christine Uwizera Coleman
“Growing up, my mother used to take us to a Catholic Church every Sunday. There again, the word of God was read and I enjoyed it. Once back home, before we go to sleep, she would lead us in long memorized prayers. Those memorized prayers repeated over and over again did not make much sense to me compared to the relationship I had started with God. But I would stay in tune and say them anyway.”
Jeff Miller
“I knew Catholics and some people from other religions. But, I was taught if you were not a Jew, you were a Christian… He was a Catholic that told me he had been born again, and was now a Baptist. I mocked him and wanted nothing to do with some crazy religious fanatic.”
Gene Sullivan
“The boys' grandmother saw to it that they attended Catholic mass and instruction regularly. Gene says that from the time he began going to mass until committing his life totally to Jesus, he was very much aware that God had a plan for him and that God was very much aware of him and the things he did.”
Kevin Richard
“I had remained Catholic even though I was a born again christian. One day I prayed to God to find the right church… The service started and the music was out of this world. I had never heard songs about God sung this way. Contemporary music lifting Jesus up. My first thought was, ‘Where has this been all of my life?’”
“Marie”
“I was raised agnostic. My Father was agnostic and my mother a non-practicing Catholic… So these stories stayed with me through my teenage years, even though I wasn't sure what was truth and what wasn't.”
Pete McMaster
“I lived with my parents on a farm in Western Victoria, Australia and was raised a Roman Catholic. Dad was pretty hard at times and would often drag me out of bed on Sundays to get me to church.”
Marlene Malachi (8)
“The last maid was a Catholic woman who desired to have this job, and told me that she was a Christian. I was glad. After we talked I understood that she wasn’t a born again believer. So I prayed for her.”