Why am I becoming Catholic?

Published: April 13, 2017

“My husband Joe and I were having church problems; the people were not living their lives the way they professed to in our Protestant church. We were in college in Moscow, Idaho, and a friend there invited us to some informal Catholic functions. The people and priest were very sweet and loving. I didn’t look into the Catholic faith much, though, until we moved to New Boston, Texas, and searched for a church. St. Mary Catholic Church was near our house. I visited it and it was beautiful. And my friend in Idaho mailed us some Lighthouse Media lectures. I started listening and studying and was intrigued. I was feeding this information to Joe and I kept talking about it. We moved to Texarkana, Ark., and we started RCIA at St. Edward on Feb. 11. The Eucharist is what drew me and is very important to me. We are excited about becoming Catholic.”

Arika Pratt, candidate
St. Edward Church, Texarkana
She is joining the Church with her husband Josiah “Joe,” also a candidate.

“I’ve always been interested in religious studies and religious history, but it wasn’t until I really started studying the history of Christianity I decided to start looking into Catholicism. Once I did I basically never turned back. I felt like I should’ve been a lifelong Catholic now that I’ve studied Catholicism. Also I’m very impressed with the pope, he played a role in helping me convert. I believe just being inclusive, the way he has really acted in accordance with Matthew 25. I like the structure (of the Mass). To me Catholicism also brings accountability to my (spiritual) walk, and I find that helpful both personally and spiritually.”

Steve Harrelson, candidate
Cathedral of St. Andrew, Little Rock

“It’s kind of getting my husband to go into the Church. We’ve been married 16 years come May. So it was like a 14-year battle of getting him into a church … so he finally picked and said, ‘I want to go to the Catholic Church’ and I said, ‘OK we’ll go’ … I love the community here at St. Joe. It’s a really loving community. I actually had a lady come in the store and say, ‘I saw you at church, I know you’re joining at Easter,’ she hugged me and it was like ‘Aww’ … I like that (the Mass and homily) are to the point … You can actually go and find it in a Bible, you can relate it to something. It’s not ‘this is how we feel this Sunday.’”

Decloma Morrisey, elect
St. Joseph Church, Conway
She is joining the Church along with her husband, Donald Morrisey (Candidate) and two sons, Christopher, 14 and Aidan, 11.

“I was Muslim. I wasn’t really sure I wanted to leave Islam because it can be a dangerous thing. I was taken one night (when I lived in a different state). I really thought that death was coming for me. I was like, ‘God, if you help me get out of this, I know definitely this isn’t where you want me.’ I remember praying the rosary and there was such peace. I knew God wasn’t going to let them kill me. There were guys that came in there to hit me. The one guy that was causing all of the trouble was like, ‘just let her go.’ That is how I knew, from that one night.”

Sarah Rodriguez, elect
Holy Redeemer Church, El Dorado

“I grew up in the Baptist faith but began attending the Catholic Church when I started dating my wife, Kendra. We attended (marriage) preparation classes, and I knew we would raise our children as Catholics, but my work as a state trooper involves switching between day and night shifts, making it hard for me to attend RCIA classes. We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary in April and our son Wesley is 2 years old. I knew I’d been putting it off too long, and although it was a struggle getting to RCIA, I made it my top priority.”

Eric Wold, candidate
Christ the King Church, Fort Smith

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