Loyola Student Comes Home to Catholicism

It’s Monday night in Cuneo Hall and a group of about five students from Loyola’s Catholic Student Organization (CSO) are here to partake in a Bible study led by someone who would not have thought about leading a Catholic Bible study a year ago.

The group’s leader, sophomore Caley Terry, says, “I’ve been Christian my whole life. I see it as one very long continuum.”

However, earlier this year, Terry, after being a Protestant most of her life, converted to Catholicism after she began attending Mass at Loyola’s Madonna Della Strada Chapel.

The Holy Mass- A Starting Point
Caley Terry had a difficult time finding a Protestant church in the Rogers Park area so she attended Catholic Mass at Loyola to have some form of worship.

According to Terry, the Mass “was definitely a very different tone and I didn’t understand why. In a Protestant service, it’s a worship and teaching lesson.”

To Catholics, the Mass is a sacrifice where the body of Jesus Christ becomes physically present in the Eucharist.

This distinct difference led her to become friends with students who also attended the same Masses as her so that she could ask them questions about the differences between the Catholic Mass and Protestant services.

Terry eventually became friends with seminarians and other Catholic students from Loyola who were passionate about their faith.

“I had lots of conversations with my Catholic friends, different people I was in CLC [Christian Life Community] with, different authorities or semi-authorities, like the seminarians or theology majors, Catholic studies minors, that kind of stuff.”

The Investigation
It got to a point where she decided that if she was serious about looking into Catholicism she would have to do more than just talk to her friends. So she enrolled in a Roman Catholicism course for the spring semester of her freshman year.

“All Truth is God’s Truth, so investigating any certain religion, you shouldn’t be afraid of it because it’s either false or you should believe it. So that’s what I did.”

Before taking the course, she participated in a silent retreat and spent her time reading and investigating the Eucharist, the Catholic teaching on the physical presence of Christ in communion, since it is central and unique to Catholicism.

Regarding her sources, she said, “Coming from a protestant background, Biblical evidence was very important to me so I read all the gospel stories on the Eucharist like the last supper. And then I read some of the Pauline letters that talked about how to celebrate communion and was convinced of the divinity of the Eucharist in that.”

Once she accepted the doctrine of the Eucharist, it became hard for her not to admit that she had to become a Catholic. It is a belief held only by Catholics and to hold such a strong belief in the physical presence of body of Christ in the Eucharist it became hard to ignore Catholicism.

By the time spring semester started, she used her Roman Catholicism class to learn as much as she could about the faith and to make sure she was not agreeing to anything terrible out of ignorance by joining the Catholic Church.
Stumbling Blocks
When people convert to Catholicism, or any faith, there are stumbling blocks—beliefs that are hard to accept. Terry was no exception. Although she readily accepted the Catholic teachings such as the Eucharist and Sacred Tradition, she found it hard to accept and deal with two Catholic beliefs.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is a popular title for devotion to the Virgin Mary

• Infant Baptism- “I’m still unsure of what physical baptism it’s necessity. Just coming from a protestant background I’ve seen and known people who’ve had very intimate and personal experiences with God that have not been baptized yet or waited until they were an adult. So infant baptism, I don’t see the necessity of it like Catholics do.”

• Virgin Mary- “I’m working on it. I’m talking to her, asking her to pray for me but there’s still some tension there. She was never really emphasized in my faith before, so I’m learning and trying to understand things that aren’t really talked about in the Bible, like perpetual virginity and that stuff is very difficult for me to accept.”

Although she may not fully understand these teachings, it is not something she will leave the faith over. She is praying and talking to her Catholic friends to get a better understanding of these doctrines.

Returning Home
While it was easy for her to embrace her new found Catholicism at Loyola, leaving Loyola and returning home is strange now for Terry.

She explains, “I went to a nondenominational but majority Baptist high school, most of my friends are of a Baptist tradition.”

While her friends may now be of a different faith tradition than her, they understand she is the same person and that her conversion was a necessary step for her relationship with God.

“It’s added a new dimension to our conversations and the way we relate to each other,” Terry says about her new relationships with old friends.

She still goes to her old Presbyterian church while on vacation because, while it feels like there is something missing, she has a connection to the people.

Ministry
As a Christian her entire life, she has had a passion for ministry. That has not changed now that she is a Catholic Christian.

“I can’t say that there’s necessarily a shift in how much I was involved but just where I’m involved.”

Terry was active in Protestant ministry on campus last year, so as she began her journey into Catholicism, she became active with Catholic organizations on campus.

She is now a CLC leader and a member of Loyola’s Catholic Student Organization. She explains, “If I hadn’t become Catholic I probably still would be a CLC leader, just a Protestant one instead of a Catholic one. I’m part of CSO. I led a retreat earlier this year. I lead Bible study for CSO.”

Terry is ambitious and plans on continuing in ministry no matter what faith tradition she belongs to.

Fruits of the Faith
How has her faith and relationship with God changed?

Terry has come to find consolation in the sacraments.

The sacraments are, as St. Augustine wrote, “A visible sing of an invisible grace.” They are physical signs of God’s presence on Earth.

Vatican Coat of Arms

She says that as a Protestant, “That was always a problem in my faith and something I struggled with: that God couldn’t hold my hand. He made me physical but he wouldn’t come to me that way other than Jesus.”

Now she finds comfort in the Sacrament of Confession when the priest holds her hands and says, “You are forgiven.” She finds comfort in Christ present in the Eucharist.

These sacraments give her a greater intimacy with God that she could not find elsewhere.

While becoming a Catholic was a big step for her faith journey, she does not see herself as any more or less Christian. She sees her conversion as a natural step along the way to God.

“It doesn’t feel like my spirituality has taken a U-turn or a huge sharp turn, it’s seems like this is the natural progression and path towards God is becoming Catholic. This is the next step…Looking back on it now it doesn’t seem like it could be any other way."




written by: Andrew Gonzalez
Photo of Caley on her Confirmation by: Dan Rogers
Photo of Our Lady of Guadalupe by: Simona Eulalia/Creative Commons
Photo of Vatican Coat of Arms by: NielsF/Creative Commons