In the 1980s, Joseph Calvert held a deep hatred for Christianity. During his time at university and while working at a fast food restaurant, he purchased and distributed several copies of mathematician Bertrand Russell’s “Why I’m Not a Christian.” According to Russell, the organized Christian religion has been the main obstacle to moral progress worldwide. Calvert was a fervent believer in militant atheism and dedicated himself to Buddhist meditation.
To him, Catholics were unthinking followers who believed in superstitions passed down from their parents. The Catholic Church was just another institution hungry for power and wealth. Even the Pope, Saint John Paul II, was a mere spreader of superstitions whom he ridiculed.
However, his perception of the Catholic Church changed when he read Saint Teresa of Avila’s works. Her life and writings contradicted what he had been taught in universities about the Church. He had been told that the Church had suppressed women for two thousand years, yet Saint Teresa was a brilliant, intellectual woman from Spain during the time of the Inquisition who exuded joy and love for life and the Church.
From that moment, Calvert’s opinion of Catholics began to shift, and he started to see their dignity. He read the “Catechism” from cover to cover and found nothing that was not logical or reliable.
Finally, on December 23, 1995, at the age of 35, Calvert became a Catholic with the sacrament of Confirmation.
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