Every year, Arkansas Catholic asks candidates and catechumens from around the state why they decided to join the Church. Here are just some of the responses we received.
“I was raised in Cuba until I was 15. During that time, religion was suppressed. Growing up, I had no idea what Christmas was. The 24th and 25th of December were like any other day. Coming to the U.S., my goals were to adapt and succeed. Religion wasn’t even a thought. However, I always felt something else was missing. Now that I am older, I have a wonderful family, health and a fulfilling job. I realized the missing piece was God. I have been very fortunate. Yet, I never thanked God for everything he gave me. I am becoming a Catholic to better understand and praise God.”
Noel Trabanco, Christ the King Church, Little Rock
“Being a Catholic means taking away bad habits and praying. It means spreading love and staying away from hate. This is for the ultimate gift of eternal life, heaven. My time as a Catholic has been beneficial for me, as I have gotten rid of the negative energy, and replaced it with positive, as my relationship with God is strengthening as he gives me strength for everything I do.”
Gabriel Trabanco, Christ the King Church, Little Rock
“I have been asked several times by family members and friends the question, ‘Why am I becoming a Catholic?’ The answer is straightforward: the Holy Spirit has led me to become a Catholic. The first time I attended Mass, I felt Jesus’ presence and immediately knew I had found my home in the Catholic Church.”
Regina Carter, Immaculate Conception Church, North Little Rock
“The Eucharist. In our former tradition, communion was purely symbolic. When we learned about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, we thought, ‘If the Catholic Church is correct about this, the rest of us have been missing out.’ If this is truly Jesus, we wanted it. Once we came to believe and understand that it indeed WAS true, and that Christians have held the Eucharist to be the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus since the beginning of the Church, we were all in.”
Trey and Bonnie Chandler, Immaculate Heart of Mary, North Little Rock (Marche)
“I have always considered myself to be a Christian. However, I never wanted to devote myself to one denomination. In the past few years, I wanted to have a better understanding of my faith and began listening to Bible studies while driving back and forth to work. I also started attending Mass with my wife, Kari. The more information I was presented, the more I wanted to know. As I continued my studies, I developed a love for Jesus, a love for our Father and a love for the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Church is whole. In becoming Catholic, I become part of God’s family that honors our holy mother Mary — who I have come to adore, the saints — who I can lean on for help through their life stories, their writings and their prayers, and the acknowledgment of my guardian angel who has been at my side the entire time. I know in my heart that I am in the right place.”
John Hankins, Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church, Little Rock
“I never imagined I’d become Catholic — it’s truly the work of the one true, triune God. I was raised Baptist and, from a young age, fed many misconceptions about Catholicism and the Vatican. By 13, I had more questions than answers, which led me down some misguided paths, including Hebrew Israelite doctrines and later, the New Age spiritual movement… About a year ago, after a decade of wandering, I gave my life back to Christ. I dove deep into theology, apologetics and early Church history, determined to find the true expression of the Christian faith. Faced with thousands of denominations, I asked the Holy Spirit for guidance and was led to the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church.”
Antonio Elevación Veritas, St. Edward Church, Little Rock
“I grew up around Catholicism, but it always felt like it was just a tradition, not something I truly understood. With time, this special person planted a seed in me and showed me faith in a new light. It wasn’t a tradition for them — it was something real. I knew I wanted to pursue my faith to a deeper spiritual point. I feel personally called to fully convert and embrace Catholicism. Now, when I go to Mass or take part in the Church, I feel connected, like there is a meaning. I’m starting to understand what it means to have a relationship with God, and I feel like I’m growing in my faith with my heart, mind and soul.”
Nery Flores, St. Edward Church, Little Rock
“I’ve had a lot of life events that happened within the last year. But, through it all, it felt like the one entity that was consistent was the Catholic Church. … I had a lot of doubts, but I leaned toward God, leaned toward the Church and especially the tradition that it offered. It really helped me go through a lot. … I wasn’t raised in any religion, so I’m going to be baptized here. So, it was zero to 100. … Receiving the Eucharist is one thing that I want to do. It’s a combination of a bunch of life events that happened throughout the past year and even before then. It was just gentle pushes and nudges toward the faith.”
Cesar Torres, St. Joseph Church, Conway
“It started with my brother Johan, who is Catholic, wanting me to take the classes to see what I thought. Well, I fell in love with the word of God and how beautiful the tradition and love is. I just felt like I was in the right place.”
Majid Adineh-Kharat, St. Jude the Apostle Church, Jacksonville
“Because it comes from my heart to do it. I want to be closer to God, for my life to have more meaning and to teach my family that, above all, God comes first. To serve him with my wife and children, to be an example for them so that in the future, they will always remember that God is the most important.”
Hector Leonardo Merida, St. Theresa Church, Little Rock
“Catholicism represents a love story, one that began before time itself. It represents a sacrificial love that transforms each and every life in a way that allows us to give up our own lives, sacrificially for each other. Through that reciprocated love, we begin to transform the world. Even if I could be a small pebble in that mountain of history, taking part in that love story would be the greatest fulfillment of my life, a life that was filled with darkness and chaos before the Blessed Virgin took my hand and guided me back to our Lord.”
Colton Garrett, Cathedral of St. Andrew, Little Rock
“My great-grandmother was Catholic. My grandmother fell away from the Church when she met my grandfather. She was Protestant. My great-grandmother moved in with my grandmother when I was young. I was over there all the time. She prayed the rosary daily, and I was always really interested in it. And my grandma would say, ‘Don’t pay attention to any of that.’ She said, ‘That’s not what we believe.’ But it was the pulling away that drew me closer. I talked to my dad about it growing up because we were big in our church. He’d say, ‘We don’t believe in that. Don’t believe any of that.’ I graduated high school, and I finally decided to attend Masses and do more research on the Church. So I had about three years of a lot of digging, a lot of meditation, devotion, prayer. I decided to start the classes here because I truly believe that this is the true Church, and this is where I am now.”
Alexander Oliver, Cathedral of St. Andrew, Little Rock
“Growing up, I never really had a good foothold in my faith. My previous school was a Catholic school, and I never really took my faith into account that much. But over the summer I started praying a lot more and I would pray that God would send me a sign that he wanted me to get baptized and after an entire summer of praying, I came to OCA and met Oscar Burney. Oscar showed me how to pray the liturgy of the hours and the moment I met him I thought of Isaiah 60:22, which says, ‘When the time is right, I, the Lord, will make it happen.’ It was at that point that I knew he was the sign I had been waiting for. Since then Oscar has helped me grow in my faith in ways he can’t even imagine.”
Samuel Scott, St. Joseph, Fayetteville
“I was raised Protestant and attended church regularly, but always felt something was missing. I had friends who were Catholic and would attend special services like Midnight Mass or Ash Wednesday. I fell in love with all the traditions and reverence they had for the Church. I started looking into it, and the more I delved the more I felt it was the right fit. God has always been a huge part of my life, and this journey has drawn me closer to him. When I attend Mass, I just feel like I’m home.”
Kathryn “Kasey” Duncan, St. Vincent De Paul, Rogers
“After homeschooling my children during the pandemic, I felt called to make a mid-life career change, obtained a teaching certification and began teaching third grade at Immaculate Conception School. My co-teacher Lindsay Schwartz, who taught religion to my students, answered my questions about the faith and suggested I might want to go to classes. I was very drawn to the Eucharist. My husband joined me, and we will be confirmed at the Easter vigil.”
Sara Webb, Immaculate Conception, Fort Smith
“For the first time in nearly 20 years together with Sara, we are realizing our individual spiritual purposes, leading us to have a stronger marriage that is working in unison together and more importantly within the body of Christ. I have found my happiness and joy once again in loving God and loving my neighbor, really striving to live out Matthew 25. When I met Father John Antony, I said to myself, ‘Here’s a pastor that I can understand, relate to, and connect with.’ This is somebody that understands my sin and struggles. He’s also not just telling us how to live but also showing us by example.”
Brenton Webb, Immaculate Conception, Fort Smith
“After years of alcoholism, a very good friend, Teri Martin, talked to me about getting sober. I spent a year at a program called CORE in Branson, where I went through their sober living course, got a job, went through continuing sobriety class and went to church twice a week. When I moved back to Arkansas, Teri told me about her church, Immaculate Conception, and I realized what I’d been missing all my life…. When I was an alcoholic, I always had an empty space inside me that I didn’t know how to fill, but in Catholicism I found the peace that fills it.”
Brent Pierce, Immaculate Conception, Fort Smith
“Being led to the Catholic faith at the age of 51 is so surprising for some, not God. After my diagnosis with PPMS, my life felt really heavy and dark. I now believe it was a blessing because it brought me here to Mercy Crest Assisted Living. Which brought me to catechism class. God was opening my heart and mind to the truth that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Not like the other Christian churches I once attended, they were very scattered and not consistent with God’s Word. I feel I’ve finally fully connected to God’s word. The true path was there. I just had to follow the signs.”
Loretta Prpich, St. Leo, Hartford
“At 50 years old, I had a calling to be active and involved in something, and I didn’t know exactly what it was. I told my wife one day that I was going to go and visit some churches and see how I felt about them. I was raised Baptist, but I didn’t feel like I was introduced to Christianity correctly. I wasn’t as accepting. As time went on, I looked at various societies and fraternities, and I felt that God wasn’t in that. I had a calling to serve the community, to be amongst people who are working for good. It just so happened the first church I attended was St. Bartholomew. I called my wife and told her that I was going to stop there. Everything lined up. I came home, and my wife had found the Catholic Catechism at a thrift store. My granddaughter had made me a peace pendant, which was something that stood out to me in the first Mass, when we offered each other the sign of peace. I’ve been going ever since.”
Eddie Williams, St. Bartholomew, Little Rock
“I was born and raised Baptist, and when my husband came home and told me about the Catholic Church, I was interested, but I kept going to the Baptist church. I kept telling my husband every Sunday, ‘I’m going to join that church.’ But I never did. Before, my husband was not into church — he was far away from Christianity. I used to pray every night for 10 plus years that he would come to the Baptist church. But it didn’t happen that way. … One night, I had a dream, and God appeared to me in my dream. My husband was lying beside me, but I knew it was for me, to confirm what I was wrestling with. I’m walking with my husband, we’re going to do this together, and that’s what we did.”
Barbara Williams, St. Bartholomew, Little Rock
