Why I became Catholic: My appearance on “The Journey Home”

From time to time people ask me how a nice Dutch Calvinist boy like me wound up converting from Evangelical Protestantism to Catholicism.

I’ve written and talked about this in the past, notably in a 2003 appearance on EWTN’s “The Journey Home” with Marcus Grodi, but this hasn’t been readily available — until now!

Thanks to an alert friend on Twitter, I’ve just learned that EWTN has posted my appearance on  “The Journey Home” on YouTube for all to see. So here it is! 

Revisiting this early TV appearance, years before “Reel Faith,” I find that, despite some mistakes, I’m reasonably pleased with how I did, given my level of inexperience. (It occurs to me that “The Journey Home” occasionally brings guests back … and with my journey to the permanent diaconate well underway, I have a new story to tell. Maybe I’ll drop them an email and see if they’d like to have me back!)

One omission that has always nagged me about this appearance: I talk quite a bit about my father, a former Dutch Reformed pastor, and how, despite his anti-Catholic beliefs, he helped set me on the path to Catholicism with his emphasis on apologetics and following the argument. I never got around to mentioning that, two years after I was received into the Church, I was his sponsor at his own reception! He is now Catholic and often attends Mass with us. 

Wow, I looked young 11 years ago. Anyway. 

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis