(LifeSiteNews) — On this special Christmas episode of Faith and Reason, co-host Deacon Keith Fournier shares the story of his incredible journey from being a fallen-away Catholic living as a hippie before returning to the Catholic faith and eventually becoming a deacon. The panel then discussed Bishop Joseph Strickland’s letter on Archbishop Lefebvre and the crisis in the Church.
Westen began the episode by asking the deacon to share his reversion story. Deacon Keith explained that he grew up in a culturally Catholic household in Boston that regularly attended Mass, sent him to Catholic school, and had him receive the sacraments. But a terrible house fire shook his father’s faith and eventually his own faith, leading him to search for the truth in various counterculture and New Age movements.
“And so, I grew up in the era of the so-called counterculture, and … I just wanted to know what was true. I was the kind of kid … who, instead of playing baseball, would read the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. I was wondering why we were going to war in Vietnam. I dabbled in radical politics, marched on Washington, D.C., to end the Vietnam War,” the deacon said.
“And there were other groups at the time that were dabbling in all the so-called New Age spiritualities that grew up all over Boston. And my friend and I, we’d go to many of them, whether it was the Unification Church or all of these different [groups.] … We danced with the Hare Krishnas on the Boston Common,” he added.
Deacon Keith then recalled that all this led to him dropping out of high school and hitchhiking across the country with his friends.
“I thought, like everybody else, that what was happening in California would help me find truth. So a friend of mine and I, and I was, you know, just 17 years old, hitchhiked across the country. And when I left, we were all thinking we were nonconformists while we wore army jackets and bell-bottom jeans and earth shoes and all looked the same,” he said.
Amidst his travels, the deacon was still searching for the truth. He explained he received a copy of the New Testament from a Baptist pastor who offered hospitality to the group and devoured the writings of C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton at another home where they were offered hospitality. Then, after finally returning home, he continued reading Scripture before discovering the writings of the Church Fathers in a library.
“I began to read Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp. And what did I see in their writings? I saw the Holy Mass, and I began to see the Catholic experience I had as a little boy. And so I said to myself, ‘I need to look more deeply into this,’” Deacon Keith said.
Later in the episode, the panel discussed Bishop Strickland’s recent letter reflecting on the founder of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, walking “an apostle’s path,” the drastic changes in the Church since the Second Vatican Council, and the rise of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s prophesized “Ape of the Church.”
Westen noted how confusing these times are when the true Church and a false Church seemingly exist simultaneously.
Deacon Keith highlighted the need to cling to Jesus Christ and His true Church during this trying period.
“If you study the lives of the saints, particularly at difficult times in history, you’ll see the corruption. Yes, even among the clergy. You and I have had many conversations about Francis of Assisi, yet he stayed faithful to the Church because he knew the Church. As the early Fathers would say, ‘Whoever has God for his Father has the Church for his Mother.’ There is no other place to go,” he said.
“So we need to know what the Church really teaches, which is why every Catholic today needs to be immersed in the Sacred Scripture, immersed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and aware of what the Church really teaches, because there are false teachers who are claiming they’re speaking on behalf of her and they are not,” he added.
For Deacon Keith’s full reversion story, more discussion on Bishop Strickland’s recent letter, and more, watch or listen to this episode of Faith and Reason. Merry Christmas!
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