Going as a boy with his parents door to door, Zachary Fortin was terrified of bumping into a schoolmate. Born into the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion, he grew up evangelizing and didn’t know anything different. It was a unique upbringing in the sense that most everyone celebrates holidays—Christmas, Easter, birthdays, and other milestones in life—but not so for Jehovah’s Witnesses. And so not so for Zachary. But this wasn’t a problem for him; there was something else.
Fundamentally Frustrated
As a logical person, Zachary understood chapter 6 of John’s Gospel clearly. All Christians must partake of Holy Eucharist for the forgiveness of sins. We all need that, he thought.
Trying to make sense of Scripture, Zachary found his way into a fundamentalist Baptist church. However, he kept running into conflicts. With hundreds of Baptist denominations, nearly every Baptist had his own private interpretation of Scripture. In addition, the Baptist Eucharist is merely symbolic. Zachary became increasingly frustrated in his search for truth.
What’s Google Got to Do with It?
Zachary turned to Google. He searched for “apostolic church” and “apostolic succession,” hoping to find answers that lay hidden within history. Google led to Catholic.com. A Catholic friend asked Zachary, “Why don’t you look at the Catholic Church?” Zachary started asking his friend a lot of questions. His friend used Catholic Answers resources to help explain the Faith.
Zachary began listening to Catholic Answers Live online. One afternoon, Trent Horn was covering the topic of sola scriptura. “Catholic Answers helped me realize that Sacred Tradition is not just important, it’s necessary, because it preserves the correct interpretation of Sacred Scripture,” Zachary says. “Trent explained that an infallible book requires an infallible interpreter, the Church.”
We Need to Be Ready to Make a Defense
“As a Jehovah’s Witness, my experience with Catholics was a hurdle for me,” Zachary said. “Catholics must not take their Faith seriously, because they can’t readily explain it or answer questions about it. As a Jehovah’s Witness, your life is centered on evangelizing. Shouldn’t Catholics do the same?”
Zachary did encounter many Catholics that could and did make a defense on his way to becoming Catholic. In fact, he attended the recent Catholic Answers conference, “The Reunion of All Christians,” in San Diego and met many faithful witnesses to Christ.
Catholic Answers offers many resources for anyone struggling with questions such as Zachary’s. With our help, Zachary continues to build a solid foundation, grow in faith, and lead others into the fullness of the truth.