Ingrid and Justin Geldart went from Baptist to Reformed Baptist, Presbyterian and Anglican churches before settling on the Catholic Church. They tell their story to Debbie Warrier
Ingrid:
I grew up in South Africa. I think that South Africans generally believe that there is a God. I was baptised Catholic and my sister was baptised Methodist to keep our respective Catholic and Methodist grannies happy.
When I was 13 I joined a kid’s club at a Baptist Church. I met my husband Justin at church and we went together to New Zealand when I was 18. We were there for seven and a half years. We went from Baptist, to Reformed Baptist, to Presbyterian, to Anglican.
Justin began researching Catholicism and often discussed it with me. I would generally “agree” with him, but said “I am not going to become Catholic”. Eventually I agreed to start the RCIA process with Justin. After attending some of the classes I started to see that Catholicism wasn’t so bad.
When I realised that Justin was set on becoming Catholic, I thought that I couldn’t have a family where there were two different faiths held by two different parents. We have three children Elizabeth, 3,Danielle, 2 and Sean, 5 months, and that would make them horribly confused.
It forced me to make a choice. I decided that I trusted Justin and believed he knew what he was doing. We knew that there were people that didn’t support our decision to be Catholic. They weren’t mean about it. We knew that they didn’t agree, but they also respected our decision.
Justin’s side of the family is Seventh Day Adventist, which generally speaking tends to be against Catholicism. We were quite worried that Justin’s granny might be upset about our decision – but she was wonderfully supportive of us, which was a real blessing. Fr Sam Pulanco told us, “When you go to heaven, God isn’t going to ask you what your granny believed, or what your mother believed or what your dad believed. He is going to ask you what you believed.” That settled it for me because I realised that it ultimately doesn’t really matter what everyone else thinks.
We moved to Perth in February this year. We completed the RCIA process we had begun in New Zealand and were formally accepted into the Catholic Church. As the structure of the RCIA process is different here I am going through it again to catch up on what I missed. It is my main source of information about Catholicism and I have got a lot out of it.
Catholicism was nothing like what I thought it would be. I originally thought that Catholics were misled idolaters and Mary-worshippers. More recently, I have grown fond of praying the rosary. I relate to Mary as a woman, wife and mother. I learn from her and appreciate her humanness. It makes her more approachable. I especially ask her to pray that I might have patience being a mother of three pre-schoolers.
I found my first confession very special though stressful. I realised that it is necessary. Prior to becoming Catholic I thought reconciliation was unnecessary and just the priest wanting to know your secrets.
Finally, I discovered that Catholics were in fact normal, genuine people. The Catholic Church just accepts you the way you are. You can be human and still be Catholic. My faith is who I am and what I do. It’s my life.
Justin:
I grew up in South Africa. As a child I attended the Seventh Day Adventist Church with my grandmother. When my parents got divorced, I moved in with my dad and step-mum. We ended up in a Baptist Church, where I met my wife Ingrid.
After I left school, I went off the rails and got excommunicated from our Baptist Church. God brought me back and I started studying theology seriously. Sadly, I regressed and was excommunicated again.
In 2002, Ingrid and I moved to New Zealand. We attended a Baptist Church, initially to keep up appearances – but it drew us back into our faith. Following our wedding, we underwent substantial theological shifts as I delved more into theology – these shifts led us to change from Baptist, to Reformed Baptist, to Presbyterian, to Anglican.
Prior to converting, I thought Catholics were idolaters worshipping bread, and praying to Mary. A friend explained that Catholics don’t worship bread, but Jesus who is present in the consecrated Host and they don’t pray to Mary, but ask her for her prayers. I finally admitted that I could call Catholics “Christians”, but I was adamant that I’d never become one.
Around this time I took a job near a Catholic Cathedral. Passing by I thought, “These poor people are so deceived – if only they could know Christ”. One day I decided to have a look inside. I was struck by the reverence of the place. It was like stepping onto holy ground. I even took Ingrid there saying “You have to see this. The reason Catholics are so blinded by their religion is because it’s so beautiful.”
Previously I had thought Catholics were simple, superstitious people. I couldn’t understand why anyone studying the Scriptures would want to be Catholic. I decided to attend Mass at the Cathedral and was astounded by how Scriptural it was, and the people attending were ordinary people like me. I had been so indoctrinated against Catholicism I almost believed Catholics were a different breed.
I started going to the Cathedral more often for Mass and prayer. By chance, I also stumbled across a newspaper advertisement for the Catholic Enquiry Centre, so I applied for their booklets on the basics of Catholicism. When the booklets arrived, I was surprised by how solidly Biblical the theology was.
At the same time, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury was trying to deal with the homosexual ordination issue. I started to appreciate the validity of having a figure like the Pope to guide the Church on issues of faith and morality. Surprisingly, I also started to find the Catholic Church fitting my search for a Church with the authority of the Apostles.
The Catholic doctrine of Apostolic Succession asserts that properly ordained bishops are the chosen successors of the Twelve Apostles, who have therefore inherited the spiritual, ecclesiastical, and sacramental authority that Christ originally gave the Apostles.
By the time I joined RCIA, I was already Catholic in my heart. Ingrid and I completed the RCIA process in Australia where we moved with our children in February this year.
My faith has always been real to me – even when I fell away I never really stopped believing in God. Being Catholic gives me hope. The Catholic Church is where I found Christ in His fullness.