Jesus answered, “Come and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day (cf. Jn 1:39).

17 Jan 2021. 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Cycle B-2021. 1Sm 3:3b-10, 19 + 1Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20 + Jn 1:35-42.

Prominent personalities from Protestant groups had converted to Catholicism, but not as celebrated as that of Scott Hahn.

He was a Presbyterian minister, topping his seminary class, and went on to become a brilliant Scripture scholar.

Typical of militantly anti-Catholic Scripture scholars he looked into Catholic beliefs and practices to try to discredit these through the Scriptures. But what he saw surprised him: the Catholic Church “had all the right answers.” He came, he saw, he stayed.

Because he converted to Catholicism, he had to give up his lucrative career as a Protestant minister. Woefully, his conversion cost him worse than that. His Protestant friends and associates abandoned him. His family almost disowned him.

Scott’s wife, Kimberly, who co-authored with him their conversion story, “Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey Towards Catholicism,” was herself a top-notch theologian. Imagine the shame suffered by her father, who himself was also a well-known Protestant minister. Kimberley, expectedly, went through “dark nights” over her husband’s conversion, but when she too came in, she too saw the light, and she too stayed.

Like Saint Paul, upon his Damascus conversion, the newly converted Catholic couple set the world on Catholic fire. Their testimony was so powerful it moved other Protestants into investigating themselves what those Biblical proofs of Catholicism were. What did their top-notch theologians find that they had missed?

Like the Hahns they were surprised by the Biblical truth of Catholicism. Led by Patrick Madrid, they swarmed into Catholicism, becoming even more Catholic than cradle Catholics, and more zealous Catholic apologists than the Catholic clergy. In three volumes of “Surprised by Truth” Patrick Madrid recounted the conversion story into Catholicism of these thirty-six prominent Protestants .

They came, they saw, they stayed. VSS