How a non-Christian converted me to Catholicism

How a non-Christian converted me to Catholicism

My first real conscious contact with Catholicism came through my friend Dennis. My friend Dennis was a roommate in a shared flat in Giessen (Germany). There, in Giessen, I lived to study Protestant theology. And Dennis had very strong opinions about Catholicism and one of those opinions was that the Pope was the Antichrist. And I had never really studied Catholicism. Intuitively, that seemed a bit harsh to me, but I didn’t really know what to say to him either. I had never really looked into Catholicism. I grew up in a Protestant, evangelical family. My father was a pastor in Simmering in Vienna for quite a long time in a church planting project. And I was also able to enjoy a very good Jesus-centered upbringing. The only thing that was certainly always very difficult for me was being connected to the church. Because I grew up in a church planting project, the Sunday service wasn’t as regular and we were always jumping around. And as a child, I often refused to go to church, it was all very boring for me.

It all just makes more sense

But be that as it may, in my late teenage years, I then spent a lot of time looking into the philosophical side of the Christian faith and came closer to God via a very rational path and simply thought to myself „Yes, so it all just makes more sense if God actually exists, or rather the hypothesis that God exists simply makes more sense to me and Jesus, died, was crucified, rose again. There is pretty good evidence for this. The Bible is a very well historically verifiable document, yes, it just makes more sense to me.“ And so I decided to study theology because I thought to myself, what could be more important than God? And if you’re allowed to study that, why shouldn’t I study theology and so I came to Germany and at the university there, which was influenced by pentecostalism, I was confronted with completely new impressions, all kinds of views and different opinions. Yes, and that wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy for many students there, I think, because there were a lot of people there with very strong and very rigid opinions, and if you hadn’t dealt with a few things so well beforehand, then you were often a bit overwhelmed by these specific opinions. And that was also the case with Catholicism. For me, it was a bit „Yes, there is a church that actually claims to have been founded by Jesus and to have had apostolic succession from then until now, that’s a very strong statement.“ And if that’s not true, then it must be somehow, then it can’t really be that great, but if it is true… Then my thoughts actually stopped and I returned to Vienna relatively soon after three semesters and Catholicism was a bit out of my thoughts.

We need a home in faith

I was then able to get to know my wife, or rather I already knew her, no, I was finally able to get involved in a relationship with her and after a year we got married in a civil ceremony and our child, our first child, Paul, was born relatively quickly. And so, we actually lived our lives relatively freely as far as faith was concerned until our first child, until our second child, the first was already there, our second child, Peter, was born. And then we thought to ourselves „Yes, we really need a home in faith now. We can raise our children, we should raise our children, we must not simply raise our children free from a Christian community. We want them to have Christian friends, we want them to be brought up in the faith by other people, not just our immediate family, and we want them to have other role models in the faith. And so, yes, we started looking for a church, for a congregation. And that’s when we started thinking again. „Hey, my wife, Lili, you’re actually Catholic“. My wife was baptized Protestant as a baby, but in elementary school she saw that everyone else was preparing for their First Communion, she felt the need to join in. And so, she became Catholic. After her First Communion, however, the whole thing faded away again and her family didn’t really bring up the subject of her getting confirmed.

A lot of questions were answered well for me

And yes, when she got to know me, the topic of faith came back into her life all over again. At first it was probably clear to her when we got married that she would also become evangelical, I don’t really know what she was thinking. In any case, the idea that she was actually Catholic first came up from me and not from her, funnily enough, and I thought to myself „Yes, we have to do something about that, we have to resolve it somehow. We have to get to grips with Catholicism too, and so I started looking into Catholicism on the internet and in books. And relatively soon I had the feeling that a lot of things fit together and that a lot of questions that I had been „itching“ to ask about Protestant theology for some time were answered quite well. But I couldn’t quite admit to myself that there might really be something to it. And so, it went on for a year, a little bit on the sidelines. But then there were a few experiences in evangelical churches where I simply felt more and more like taking a step towards the Catholic Church. Yes, and so I said „So Lilli, Paul, Peter, let’s go to the Catholic Church and have a look.“ And the first few times in the Catholic Church were very difficult for us. Our children weren’t used to it at all. Not used to it at all. In the parish or in the parishes where we were, the children were actually outside most of the time and didn’t actually participate in the service at all and now they were supposed to sit there quietly, which was incredibly difficult for us and we thought to ourselves, how is that ever going to work out? But then it got better over time, or a little better. But we found it very difficult to get to know Catholic Christians and approach people.

God really acted extremely strongly here and unusually clearly for my life

And then Lilly saw a story on Instagram, she’d been doing a lot of motherhood and children’s stuff on Instagram for a while and she was still following a very big Instagrammer on Instagram, who then posted a story showing her going to mass on Sundays, and somehow, we didn’t even know what that was, what kind of service it was, was it evangelical? Or no, there’s a crucifix at the back. „What is that?“ Lili wrote to her. “Where was she today, on Sunday?“ And this influencer immediately wrote back, very nicely, and the very next Sunday we went to this place, to the John Paul II Center, and we immediately felt extremely spoken to by the liturgy, by the music and by the people and the many families who attended the service on Sunday. And yes, we somehow thought straight away that this could be good for our children and that we also have role models in faith here, possibly probably, I mean of course at the beginning this thought was still very superficial, but these initial thoughts then solidified as we continued to attend mass. And yes, Father George was incredibly welcoming and he had conversations with me. About doubts. About further steps. And I personally was also wonderfully welcomed into the music team by Eva. And yes, I think that God really acted extremely strongly here and unusually clearly for my life.

We have experienced so much grace

And Lili and I, and our three boys, have experienced a lot of grace since we started going to Mass on Sundays and we are truly amazed every week at what God is doing in our lives and how strongly he is guiding our lives in new directions. What has really appealed to me most about the John Paul Center for a year now, or what I believe God has shown me most, or what I believe God has shown me through my regular visits to the Center, is how it can be possible to be a Christian in this day and age. I really believe that the center is the bridge of being a Christian in the true sense, as Jesus taught us, of course with some limitations, as it always is with people, but still being in the world and having a hand outstretched to the world and to new faces that need Jesus. But I think that being a Christian in this day and age is a very big question. And that Catholicism, and above all the Center, knows how to deal with it very well, or that the community at the Center knows how to deal with it very well, and that God is an extremely strong guide and shows this path at the Center in a really great and strong way. Yes, now, at Easter, we, the whole family, can really take the step towards joining the Catholic Church. We are very happy, we are extremely happy. It was challenging, the long wait. But yes, it feels like the right step. It doesn’t feel like a hurdle, it feels quite logical and it feels like the logical next step, which is associated with a great deal of joy. We are happy for all those who have prayed for us and we are grateful for them. We are grateful for the community at the John Paul Center and for God. And what he is doing here.

Dear Johannes, dear Lili, dear Paul, Peter and Johann, thank you for being part of our community. That you shared your joy with us at the Easter Vigil and that we were able to celebrate with you! We are wholeheartedly happy with and for you.
On behalf of the whole parish
Father George