About

I was raised Catholic, but during high school I fell away from the faith. I never stopped believing in God or a Higher Power, but I just didn’t think of that God as personal, relevant, or even interested in what I would be up to. During a bout with Hodgkin’s disease, I had long talks during chemo with my grandpa about faith and Catholicism, which planted the initial seed. My ex-fiancé started going to a nondenominational church and I felt like I should, too. I started going to a Catholic Church, however, as I had grown up with. I didn’t take it seriously, though.

After I met my wife, she pressed me harder to be a believer. She is a Protestant Christian and had wanted to marry a good, godly Christian man. I never stopped being a believer; I had only stopped practicing. At her behest, I tried harder to be a practicing Protestant. I wrote an apologetics and philosophy blog, I volunteered for the Worship Team and Youth Ministry at our church and tried to raise our kids in the faith. I enjoyed my ministry, but never felt “home.”

Meanwhile, my apologetics blog came to the attention of fellow Patheos writer Dave Armstrong. He wrote responses to many of my anti-Catholic articles. Since Dave was a former sola-Scriptura-Protestant, it was difficult to counter the Catholic dogma in his articles because they all contained multitudes of Scripture citations and very rarely did Dave ever venture into a Catholic Church document to make his case. Dave helped me come home to Rome, but not right away. First, I wanted to be able to argue with Catholics as I argued with atheists. So, I began to research the historic foundations of the Catholic faith.

That was the end of my Protestant days.

The Catholic faith, I found out, has deep roots in history in the teachings of the early Church Fathers, the Scriptures, and various councils of the Church. The Catholic Church is the original Christian faith; there is no “early” non-Catholic faith lost to the ages for Protestants to recapture. It explains why they only sparsely quote the early Fathers even though they claim to want to restore the original Christian faith. There isn’t much support for their doctrines in history.

And that leaves me where I am today. I hope to be a full-time Catholic chaplain one day in a hospital or hospice. Meanwhile, I blog here about my Catholic faith and talk about devotions that bring me closer to Jesus on my TikTok channel and my podcast Back Rome Again (along with some editorial news and views). Please, if you’re blessed in any way by my content Buy Me a Coffee. One-time or monthly gifts are always appreciated.