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Running away from "Home" ( Rome)

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Revelation 18:4

This is another good conversion testimony.

The Scott Hahn Conversion Story

I’d be interested to know what year it was when he left the priesthood.

I thought that you could only swim across the Tiber one way. (/sarcasm) I’m glad that the Holy Spirit softened this man’s heart to allow him to see the truth.

“I had to admit to God and to myself that I was in love with Yvonne!”

So, the good Father fell in love with a nun and left the priesthood when she did? And then he came to the realization that the Catholic Church was wrong?

Puhlease. I know there have to be better examples out there than this.

Maybe you should call it “Running away from your vows”. Will he divorce his wife, too, when he finds someone prettier? Sad.

The Coming Home Network International

The CHNetwork collects and presents stories from non-Catholic clergy and lay people whom God has led “home” to the Catholic Church. Our Lord Jesus Christ is calling men and women from all backgrounds and walks of life into full communion with His Body.

Enjoy these inspiring stories and be sure to share them with those who might find them similarly inspiring or encouraging!

Conversion Stories

I’m fascinated yet disheartened by those who say that they were raised Catholic and then were “saved” and became Protestant. They hold onto this blackened part of their heart that they just can’t let go of. I can’t say the same for the many Protestants who converted to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church...many I know speak with fondness for their former church(es).

I'm curious if this story is even true.

This website (remnantofgod) also contains the largely debunked "conversion" of Alberto Rivera and the completely fabricated "Jesuit Oath", etc.

http://www.remnantofgod.org/jes-oth.htm

I'm always amazed at the sources that some frequent to advance an agenda. This thread helps me remember why I largely avoid the Religion Forum.

>>We did no real study of God's Word, just an academic smattering about the Bible, but nothing of any depth or consequence.<<

That tells us a lot doesn't it.

In the final analysis, the Roman Catholic Church teaches a gospel of works (i.e., salvation through man's own efforts to lead a good life and to do penance for sins -- as if Jesus Christ did not pay for it all with His shed blood on Calvary's cross).

He may have run away from his home, but he didn't run away from Rome.

He ran away from his own false caricature of what the Catholic Church teaches. I'm sure he'll feel right at home in his new church.

Remnant

Anecdotal conversion stories prove nothing.

In the final analysis, the Roman Catholic Church teaches a gospel of works (i.e., salvation through man's own efforts to lead a good life and to do penance for sins -- as if Jesus Christ did not pay for it all with His shed blood on Calvary's cross). Ephesians 2:8-9 makes it very clear that salvation is a free gift of God, received by faith: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."

So he left the Catholic Church to find a new church, one that teaches Epesians and maybe also Augustine:

Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.

Oh wait, that wonderful Augustine quote is quoted in full in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Maybe the Catholic Church doesn't teach salvation by man's own works after all?? We gotta look into this! What primary sources can we use to address this issue?

GRACE AND JUSTIFICATION from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm

The Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas:

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/2114.htm#article3

If, however, we speak of a meritorious work, inasmuch as it proceeds from the grace of the Holy Ghost moving us to life everlasting, it is meritorious of life everlasting condignly. For thus the value of its merit depends upon the power of the Holy Ghost moving us to life everlasting according to John 4:14: "Shall become in him a fount of water springing up into life everlasting." And the worth of the work depends on the dignity of grace, whereby a man, being made a partaker of the Divine Nature, is adopted as a son of God, to whom the inheritance is due by right of adoption, according to Romans 8:17: "If sons, heirs also."

Where are they now ? There is a faith community called "Paradise Four Square Promise Center" which claims them. It is led by a woman, called the "Senior Pastor Anna" ...

Anna Stebbins, senior pastor and ordained with Foursquare, came to pastor Promise Center in Paradise, California on Easter Sunday 2006. Pastor Anna came to Paradise from the Foursquare church in Vacaville, CA. Prior to that, she pastored churches in Washington state. Anna has three daughters, one in Idaho and two in southern California. Her passion is to lead others to the "hope" they have in the Lord who can recover, restore, and release every individual to a purpose-filled life. She devotes and invests herself to walking with those who have broken hearts and lives that they may know the highest purpose for which God has called them to. She is passionate about leading each church she pastors to grow in spiritual excellence and becoming a dynamic force in the community for the Kingdom of God. The acronym H.E.A.R.T.S. (see "What We Value") embraces her life and and is consistently underscored in many of the messages she teaches on Sunday mornings. "Always extrend grace", a frequent reminder she gives to the church, exemplifies her life. Anna is loving, compassionate, and vulnerable; yet bold in confronting and counseling issues that may devastate churches, personal lives and relationships.

...

Richard Zuris is the Pastor of Administration and Worship at Promise Center. Richard also serves as the Administrator and Principal of Promise Academy. Richard is a licensed Foursquare minister since 2007. As the church worship leader since 2006, he is also a band member since 2002. Rich was brought up in the Lord by Pastor Vince and Yvonne O'Shaughnessy, founders of our school, and served as a monitor and supervisor in the school from 1981 through 1987, and as a PE teacher upon returning to Paradise in 1998.

The very moment in the story that the cute sexy little nun appeared, it became a lot easier to understand his new direction...Priests are human beings and they are every bit as susceptable to temptation as are the rest of us....he sounds like a good person, but one that is trying his best to justify the poor decision that he made....it happens all the time and is VERY apparent here on FR...

I was in the criminal justice system and probably the most apparent attempts to "cover your butt" were made by those whose lives were affected by poor decisions that they had made and were now trying to justify...

I guess it let them sleep better, but it NEVER ceased to affect their lives.

Those who realized the error of their way, however, soon rectified the situation that they had caused and went on without looking over their shoulder to see if their past was following them...