A homecoming

Anne Price describes her journey to Catholicism as ‘coming home’. She discusses that journey with Rosie Hoban.

Anne Price can’t remember when her journey began, but it culminated at the Easter Vigil at Our Lady of Dolours Parish in Sydney’s Chatswood.

Anne had been raised a Christian, educated in Church of England schools and was baptised more than a decade ago as a member of the Uniting Reform Church. But for many of those years she had thought of the Catholic Church as her place of refuge, her sanctuary.

Anne was one of thousands of people who were baptised or received into the Catholic Church over Easter at parishes around the world. It seems counter-culture to turn to the church at a time when so many people are turning away from it. In many Catholic schools around Australia only a handful of families would claim an association with their parish. Some people are antagonistic towards the church and many other Catholics are now indifferent. So why turn to the church? Anne herself has copped a few sideways glances from people on hearing she has become a Catholic.

‘Why would you do that’, she was asked after the Easter celebrations had subsided. Fair enough question if you have no sense of connection with the church and an even greater curiosity if you are struggling with your faith. For Anne, the answer was difficult to articulate. But there was no ambivalence, rather a longing to be a part of the Catholic Church, a longing she had lived with for many years as her relationship with God strengthened.

Anne was born in Surrey, England, but she had visited Australia from time to time, since she married Australian Steve Price more than fifteen years ago. Steve, Anne and their daughters Nina, 13, Hannah, 9, and Zoe, 4, left England last year for a stint in New Zealand, before heading to Australia to settle in September.

‘We had come to Australia to a wedding earlier last year and one of our friends who was getting married had recently become a Catholic. I started asking her questions and it went from there’, Anne says. The wedding had taken place at Our Lady of Dolours Parish in Chatswood and that seemed the place for Anne to begin her formal journey to the Catholic Church.

Anne joined the parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) program as a candidate in February and was received into the church at Easter. Meeting regularly with the twelve catechumens, or candidates, gave her strength and a great sense of fellowship with people she assumed shared a similar longing. Candidates were required to attend weekly gatherings where issues of faith and the Bible readings were discussed.

By Easter Anne, her sponsor and Teresa Pirola, the pastoral associate at Our Lady of Dolours who supported the RCIA program, felt she was ready to be received. Teresa notes how the Easter Vigil is the culmination of a very intense period for those being received and baptised. Some have overcome many challenges to get to the point of their lives where they want to become Catholics.

‘It is awesome to be part of the journey these people are on. It is very hard work but at the same time it is an extraordinary privilege and very inspiring for me’, Teresa says.

It was, Anne says, one of the most joyful experiences of her life, shared by many who had witnessed the yearning she had felt for so long. Steve, not a Catholic, offered no resistance when Anne told him of her plans.

‘In fact’, Anne says, ‘when I told Steve, he just said, “I always knew you would become a Catholic”.’ She agrees that deep down there’s a part of her that would love to see her husband and three daughters become part of the faith she has chosen, but she has no intention of lobbying for their conversion.

Steve has been a respectful witness to her conversion. In all their years together she has been drawn to the church, particularly in recent years as she struggled with breast cancer and the slow and traumatic decline in her mother after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

‘I always found that it was the Catholic church I went to when I was seeking comfort. It was there that felt at home with God, strengthened by God’s presence. There’s a part of me that feels guilty that I do seek and draw extra strength there when things are tough. I get so much out of going to Mass, such an inner peace, that I feel selfish sometimes’, Ann says.

It was three years ago during her cancer treatment in hospital in England that she made the final decision to become a Catholic. It was an ironic decision, considering she was at the time totally immersed in the Uniting Church, through Sunday school and other activities. She has great affection and respect for the Uniting Church, which has been such an important part of her life for many years.

When the family moved to New Zealand last year Anne was encouraged by a friend to convert to Catholicism in order to get her daughter into a particular Catholic College. But such opportunism went against the grain for Anne, who deliberately put off entering the church.

‘I just knew I couldn’t become a Catholic at that time for that reason’, she says.

Holy Week, with all its solemnity and celebration, mirrored Anne’s own emotional state as she prepared to be received. ‘I felt up and down throughout the week because it is such an incredible time for Christians.’

Anne feels like she has come home, and at the same time there’s a sense that another journey has just begun. It’s both a curious and exciting stage in her relationship with God.

And her favourite prayer? The Lord’s Prayer.