Our Mother Brought Me Home

My Journey Back to the Catholic Church

- Bernz O. Caasi

Bernz, you’re being deceived by Satan.” That’s what one Protestant church leader told me after our weekly Bible study. Before I could even ask why, he continued, “You know that the Pope is the antichrist and that the Vatican is the Whore of Babylon.”

Pope Francis had just landed on Manila for his papal visit, and I was drawn by his presence. I wondered why non-Catholic Christians didn’t believe in the papacy. My excitement found its way to social media, and I posted about the Pope on Facebook.

Our pastors saw my post and got worried since I was one of the youth leaders of the community. I was part of an evangelical Protestant church, which happened to be anti-Catholic. Our pastors taught us that Catholics worship Mary and the saints, added books to the Bible, and invented man-made doctrines such as purgatory and the papacy.

After listening to what our leader had to say about the pope that Sunday afternoon, I asked him questions that brought me to an unexpected journey, “What if Catholics were right? Have we tried studying their claims objectively without our anti-Catholic biases? What if we just misinterpreted the teachings of their Church? What if we’re wrong?”

I could see his disappointment as we ended our conversation. It was an unforgettable moment when I found myself starting to protest against Protestantism. After all, I’ve heard all the “errors” of the Catholic Church from my anti-Catholic churchmates, but I had to be honest that before leaving Catholicism, I hadn’t really scrutinized the actual teachings of the Church.

Leaving the Church