Years of thought, and I am finally making the decision.

When I was a child I was raised without faith. I was raised to be tolerant and respectful of any and all faiths and I purposely took a theme of religion when I entered college to hopefully gain an open view on as many faiths as I could. Throughout this I had gone through lots of hardships in my personal life and a friend and his family were there for me. I also attended a service with them and joined in some volunteer work with their  church.

Before I met this wonderful woman I have been seeing, I have thought about joining the Catholic Church, because I have felt something was missing from my life, and I purposely approached my old roommate to try and learn about the Catholic faith and I greatly respect the fact that he let me borrow a Bible of his and he gained greater respect from me for not trying to push me in any direction, and he made of point to make sure I was aware of that. With all of this and knowing that this wonderful woman's faiths are very important to her, I have made a decision that if my old roommate would have spoken a bit differently, I probably would have done back then. Below is a copy of a message I emailed the local Catholic Parish, minus some personal information.



"Hello,

My name is ... as a child I was not really raised with any religious values, but to be respectful of all faiths. I have always wanted to treat everyone right and have taken time to learn a bit about each faith, including taking the Religion theme at [College Name] to help me learn. I have attended a Catholic service with a close friend once before and have enjoyed the service I attended at Holy Rosary Church located in .... Before I say too much more, I have also started seeing a wonderful young woman and her faith is very important to her and I will be attending the campus service tomorrow and I am looking forward to it.

I will be completely honest with you, and I feel I would like to join the Catholic Church. I am unsure what the process is to join, and I want to do this right. My choice in wanting to join the Church is something I have honestly thought about for a long time. Could you pass a long to me the information of getting set up to join the Church and I would also like to purchase a Bible, I have read some parts of a few different religious texts including my old roommate's Bible (my old roommate attends your services) and I would like to continue reading it.

I do hope it is alright that I will be attending your service tomorrow on [College Name]'s campus. I look forward to your response and to hopefully joining the Catholic Church."