Journey Home

Fr. Scott Woods’ family wasn’t Catholic, but because they sent him to Catholic school, he developed some strong associations with Catholicism, and especially the priesthood. He began telling everyone that he wanted to be a priest, even though he wasn’t yet a Catholic. He began attending daily Mass in high school, and his parents, seeing that he was so serious, allowed him to enter the Catholic Church. He continued to pursue that vocation, and eventually was ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington.

Rhonda Ortiz had roots in Evangelical experience, including some in Pentecostalism, but a search for a Christian home during her college years led her to begin exploring the Catholic Faith. Her love for and study of the “Great Books” of history helped further point her toward Catholic ideas, and meeting her husband, who was going through the same kind of awakening of faith, was a crucial step in her decision to enter the Catholic Church. She now uses her gifts as a writer and editor of novels and other forms of literature.

Ashley Stinnett attended numerous Evangelical congregations growing up, and even explored RCIA in the early 2000’s before dropping out due to family medical reasons. His wife was the daughter of a Protestant minister, and when COVID hit, it caused them both to completely re-evaluate questions about authority and Christian unity, and the purpose of worship. They began to see the Eucharist as the center of Christian life, and took the steps necessary to complete Christian initiation and come home to the Catholic Church.

Lucas Koach came to faith as a teenager through Young Life, and pursued a call to ministry, entering Denver Seminary. That trajectory eventually led him to the Anglican Church of North America, where he served as an ordained priest for several years. Drawn by Catholic Social Teaching, a desire for Christian unity, and the thought of St. John Henry Newman, Lucas eventually became convicted of the truth and beauty of the Catholic Faith and made the journey home.

Tsh Oxenreider was raised Evangelical, and even felt called to do missionary work, but her desire to grow deeper in her faith began to lead her toward liturgy and the sacraments, which she began exploring through the Anglican tradition. However, she still felt as though God was calling her to deeper roots, and the more she prayed and discerned her way through her questions, the more she felt that the Holy Spirit was leading her to become Catholic.

Phillip Seeberg grew up in a Reformed Jewish household, but stopped attending synagogue after his Bar Mitzvah. In college, he met some Christians who were handing out New Testaments, and he began to read the story of Jesus. Powerfully moved by what he read, he became a Christian, and joined InterVarsity Fellowship, but the divisions between denominations led him to seek the historical roots of the Christian faith, and to find his true spiritual home in the Catholic Church.

Debbie Capen came from a Catholic family, but was not well-formed in her faith. An unplanned pregnancy in college, followed by an abortion, led to a dark turn in her life. Searching for answers, she began to pray the Our Father, the only prayer she remembered from her Catholic childhood. That opened a door for her to make a slow and steady return to the sacraments, beginning with Confession. Debbie now works full time in pro-life ministry, supplying college students in unplanned pregnancies with the resources they need to help them choose life.

Justus Hunter’s dad was a Methodist pastor, and he himself decided to pursue academic study in theology, attending Asbury College and Seminary, where he encountered Church history in a way that made him want to learn more about the world of the early Christians. After getting a doctorate from Southern Methodist University, he went on to teach theology at the seminary level, and it was during this time that all the threads he’d been following regarding history, liturgy, and the sacramental life came together, and he and his family felt led to enter the Catholic Church.

Sr. John Dominic Rasmussen, O.P., grew up in Nashville, and her dad worked in the country music industry. Though not always serious about questions of faith, it was while she was in high school that she felt called to enter the Catholic Church, and began to discern a vocation to religious life. She would go on to help found the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, a teaching order that has also found major success with their recordings of sacred music.

Dr. Brian Duncan graduated high school early and went straight into Baptist ministry training. On fire for Jesus, he was constantly seeking deeper resources to help him teach the faith, which led him to discover the Church Fathers. Teaching from them caused problems in his independent Baptist congregation, so he spent a little time in a Reformed Baptist church, which also didn’t work out. Disillusioned, he sought a house church environment, at which point he realized it was time for him to stop trying to reinvent and reclaim the Christianity of the early Church; and what he'd been trying to rebuild on his own initiative was present in its fulness right in front of him in the Catholic Faith. He has since gone on to found Catholic Fightwear, and work as a martial arts instructor.