The Journey Home

Telling the story of my conversion

In 2001, I started work as an intern at a small insurance company in suburban Chicago. I was 26 year old divorcée with two young boys, going to school full time and working full time in an attempt to build back my life from the mess it had become. The first day, I was met in the lobby by my supervisor Greg Sucher, the man who would become my husband and the father not only of the two boys I already had, but seven more children. Needless to say, I never could have imagined this was part of God’s plan. I certainly wasn’t planning to date anyone, let alone someone at work - I had sworn off men, because I was apparently really bad at relationships… I was planning to raise these boys on my own, supporting them by being the best working mom I could be.

When Greg and I began to show a real interest in one another, I realized that our Faith was going to be a challenge. Again, I wasn’t very good at the whole relationship business, so I knew I couldn’t even consider a future with him unless we could figure out the whole religion thing. He was a practicing Catholic, and not interested in changing his church at all. I was between churches, so it made the most sense for me to figure out if the Catholic church was the right one.

I had been told a lot of things about the Church that made me think it was pretty terrible… superstitious, idolatrous, and even the Whore of Babylon. I honestly believed that all Catholics were going to hell, and I remember being so sad, since there were so many of them… how could God allow them to all be wrong?

I met with Mike, a family friend and Catholic deacon to find out what I had to do to look into the Church. I figured I would start with my biggest worry, and challenge him on the “worship” of Mary. I told him that Mary was the Mother of God, and not God, and, believe it or not he agreed with me! That made me think, and I decided I needed to learn more about what the Church taught, because not everything I had been told about Catholic belief was true.

Over the next several months, I read almost the entire Catechism, posted endlessly on Catholic Answers forums, read blog after blog, watched countless episodes of The Journey Home, and learned everything I could about the Catholic faith. On the Easter Vigil 2002, I was Confirmed in the Catholic Faith. It was not a happy day for me, because I profoundly felt the loss of unity with my family and my tradition. But I knew it was something I had to do, because the Church’s teachings were true, it was the Church that Christ founded, and it was where I could receive the Eucharist.

Back in May of this year, I traveled to the Coming Home Network studio in rural Ohio to record an episode about my conversion to the Catholic Faith. Twenty-three years after this apostolate helped me into the Church, I was blessed to have the opportunity to share my own story of conversion with others. It airs tonight on EWTN.

I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous about watching this program for the first time tonight. The format is open ended, and I didn’t have prepared talking points… I just let the Holy Spirit move where He willed. It’s OK - I’m fine being a fool for Christ.

If you’d like to watch live, it airs tonight, Monday, October 27th at 8PM ET on EWTN. You can find EWTN on cable and satellite or online here.

And now it’s up on YouTube. You can see it here.