What I Was Before I Became a Catholic
I was baptized in the Methodist Church as an infant. Attended non-denominational churches as a girl (my parents were not churchgoers at that time) and then married a Lutheran man at 18 and took classes to become a Lutheran prior to my son's birth.
Why I Converted to Catholicism
I was divorced and still active in the Lutheran church my ex-husband and I attended along with my parents when I met a Catholic man and became deeply interested in his faith and his strong commitment to having his boys have their First Communions and Confirmations. (He and his ex-wife baptized their sons in the Church but didn't attend Mass regularly.) I started attending Mass with them on Saturday evenings while still teaching Sunday school at the Lutheran church on Sunday mornings.
I began to feel the real presence of Christ and knew I belonged there.
My now-husband proposed and the decision was obvious to us.
How I Converted to Catholicism
I began taking RCIA classes just to learn about more about the Church, not knowing if in fact I would become Catholic.
The more I learned the more excited I became about the Faith and how little I knew as a Lutheran Christian.
While taking classes I inquired about my divorced status and began the annulment process.
I was confirmed at the Easter Vigil and joyfully took Communion with my fiancé and his sons.
My fiancé started his annulment process, which took less time because he and his ex-wife were both Catholics but didn't marry in the Church, so it was almost automatically deemed "not a sacramental union."
Advice
- My annulment took less than a year and it was worth "jumping through the hoops" to get it right. But even then we jumped the gun and married outside the Church - just so we could get married. When we got back from our honeymoon, both of our annulment documents were waiting in the mailbox!!! Surprise!! We called and made an appointment with our parish priest and confessed what we had done. He was supportive and asked when we wanted to get it right and then performed the convalidation ceremony a few months later on Valentine's Day 2004.
