It’s confusing to me, too. When I was a drifting Protestant - my “existentialist period” - I discovered Pope John Paul II, and said, “I want to be like him.” It took a while to process through the bureacracy - our daughter was a Catholic before my husband and I were - but now I have JP2 and so many more right with me all the time.
Perhaps the sentinel event is an Act of Submission
Gifting our Selves to THE LORD
And in a Catholic sense
to the Priests, Bishops, Pope
Tradition, Scripture
From that standpoint, it is the Submission of Self
Surrendering to Christ
Accepting His Path for our Lives
That matters