I highly recommend this book. At the beginning of the new Millenium, I discovered a whole new world of Catholic teaching and wonderful books written by the new breed of Catholics - former Protestant clergy who became Catholic converts. My experience of 15 years worshipping in the Assembly of God churches had led me to believe that unhappy Catholics seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus routinely LEFT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH in order to be fulfilled spiritually. I remember Wednesday evening church services at the AoG churches where it was a lighter service, more open to fellowship, sharing, and "witnessing." Much of what was shared and witnessed was from former Catholics who passionately shared their disappointment in Catholicism and how they had "left the Catholic church and became real Christians." I personally had never, ever met a Protestant-turned-Catholic convert in my Catholic life. I assumed it just didn't happen. Pastor Jim Batts, at our church, Pentecostal Holiness Church in Jacksonville, Florida, used to love to point out my hubby and me during church services. "Mike and Rose used to be Catholic, but the Lord delivered them from all that and they're real Christians now...."
Fast forward to the fall of 2000 when I decided to return to full communion with the Catholic Church. I wasn't excited about it, but it was something familiar and, from my experience, didn't require much from me personally. In a sense, I saw it as a lazy Christianity and I was fine with that. I made some promises to myself. I would never pray to or worship Mary (that meant no rosaries) and I would make sure that anything I did as a Catholic was based in scripture. I solidified my decision by preparing my daughter for her first communion at home (with my parish's consent). She was already 9 years old and, if we were going to be Catholic again, she was overdue for her first communion. We did that.
During early 2000, I started googling (that was new for the time) Catholicism. The search results that were appearing on my computer screen were not what I expected. The first one I found was catholicity.com. This site proved to be the doorway to a whole new world of faith and hope and charity, and was to become my source for my Catholic reversion studies. Catholicity.com led me to discover the world of modern Catholic Apologetics. I discovered the books of Scott and Kimberly Hahn, Jeff Cavins, Tim Staples, Jimmy Akin, and to the stories of these very people, most of whom were not born or raised Catholic but instead had discovered Catholicism as Protestant clergy converts. This was seriously big news to me. I didn't think Protestants became Catholic. I had only known it the other way around. I had met more ex-Catholic Evangelicals than I could count. I read all the books I could find, Rome Sweet Home, My Life on the Rock, Crossing the Tiber. I wanted to know what it was that these former Protestants had discovered in the Catholic Church that I had obviously missed out on despite 13 years of Catholic schooling. God opened up a world of knowledge that consisted of learning and reading the teachings of the Early Church Fathers (apostolic, ante-Nicene, etc.), Catholic apologetics (my father had thought this meant that Catholics were apologizing for the Inquisition, and I was able to tell him that Apologia means to defend). These apologists were the newest generation of Catholic defenders.
This particular book, Rome Sweet Home, was the first book that I read after deciding to return to Catholicism. It was a life and heart changer. I highly recommend it. I learned more about my faith and church history from books written by former Protestants than I had learned in all my years in Catholic school. (I won't tell my mom that, poor thing. She and my dad had sacrificed a lot to put me and my siblings through Catholic schools).
If you haven't read Rome Sweet Home, I highly recommend that you do. Your faith will never be the same.
Have a beautiful, blessed day!
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