Hello everyone!
I am a Sedevacantist Catholic from North Carolina, USA. I converted to Catholicism this year, received the supplied ceremonies for baptism back in the summer since I had a valid baptism beforehand, and I received Confirmation by His Excellency Bishop Mark Pivarunas of the CMRI back in September (I picked St Augustine as my confirmation Saint). I primarily attend Mass at CMRI missions, but I have recently, after consulting with my confessor and verifying that their priest was ordained by one of the SSPX bishops, started attending at an SSPX chapel in my state alongside my normal Mass attendance. Being able to now go to a weekly Sunday Mass in my state instead of being restricted to CMRI missions out of state bi-monthly on Saturdays has been a tremendous blessing for my spiritual life, especially since I can now go to weekly confession.
I was raised as an independent Baptist, but my parents and grandparents quit going to church when I was young and preferred to be Christians at home due to church drama and mobility issues. Right before I started high school, I started having doubts about God and Christianity due to secular culture, secular friends, and the nonsensical theology of Baptists (once saved always saved made no sense to me even as a young child). I eventually became an agnostic atheist entering high school, but I had stated to God in my mind that if he showed me proof of Him I would become religious again. It only took two years of me being an edgy atheist before I opened my eyes and realized the evils in modern society that stemmed from a rejection of God. I spent my last two years in high school gradually coming back around to Christianity, but I did not commit to a particular denomination or church. I just prayed to God and stayed home.
In college, I had two friends that became infatuated with Eastern Orthodoxy, but I never did anything more than read up on them and admire their traditional values. In 2020, I was perusing the infamous website 4chan and saw a thread on their political board about the Baptist pastor Steven Anderson. Someone in that thread had linked the docuмentary that Most Holy Family Monastery made about Steven Anderson exposing him. I didn't care for Steven Anderson to begin with, so I watched the video. It's worth mentioning that I was still heavily biased against Catholicism during this time due to my Bible belt upbringing (even the public school I went to had a Protestant bias against Catholicism in the history curriculum, but that isn't surprising since I do live in the United States) and the fact I didn't like Francis because of how liberal he was and still is. Anyways, I made it through the entire docuмentary and I was captivated. The Catholic teaching in that video were effectively proven entirely from scripture. I started watching more of Most Holy Family Monastery's videos, and their charisma and blunt presentation started to convince me that traditional Catholicism was legit and that I had a bogus understanding of it growing up.
Later on, I discovered Novus Ordo Watch and found out that Most Holy Family Monastery was not without flaws in their teachings. Their Feeneyism always rubbed me the wrong way, so I was relieved to learn that their position did not reflect the true Catholic position in that regard. Finally, at the beginning of this year, after discovering that there was a CMRI mission in South Carolina (unfortunately there were none in North Carolina), I decided to cross the Rubicon and attend Mass there as it was the closest Sedevacantist Mass site for me. Of course, I made sure to call the priest beforehand to ask numerous questions before making such a commitment, and I prayed for God's guidance. Thankfully he had helpful and encouraging answers, so I decided to go. I'm glad I went, because witnessing Mass for the first time, even as a Low Mass, was such a beautiful experience. The small, tight-knit group of parishioners were very welcoming of me, and invited me to come and eat with them and the priest afterwards in town. I realized then that I had found a spiritual home, and that I was ready to commit to being a catechumen so that I could one day officially become a Catholic. I never would have envisioned years ago becoming a regular church-attending Catholic, but yet here I am. Thankfully my immediate family has been supportive/neutral of my conversion.
Anyways, sorry for the long post. I just wanted to share my journey to Catholicism, but more importantly my journey in returning to our Lord Jesus Christ.
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