Roberto

My family has always been involved in the Catholic life. I have my baptism, I have my Communion and somewhere along the way, I just forgot to do my confirmation. I kept being involved – I have done a couple of mission trips with the Jesuit priests – so [I’ve] always been very present in the Catholic lifestyle, but again, my confirmation for some reason I didn’t do. Then I met this beautiful woman, Cynthia, and we started dating, got engaged as as we were getting ready to get married, she asked me, “Hey, are you confirmed?” And I’m like, “Oh God, I’m not!” So at that point, I’m having a minor freak-out, and I start Googling how to get confirmed, and I finally find out about the archdiocese program [with the Office of Adult Faith Formation].
 
For me the program was way above expectation. I was nervous going into it…. When I got there, I found there was an incredible group. I would say a fourth of us were getting married; others were going to be godparents, maybe another third just wanted to get confirmed as adults. [The leader] went through the basics, everything we should know.
For me he was able to tackle the tough questions. We had students constantly mention the things they did not agree with, and he actually sort of opened the conversation for us to ask the things we are uncomfortable with about the Catholic Church. I think being able to just voice that, and hear his way of always tying it into Jesus and what Jesus would have done and what Jesus really wanted, really helped each of us open our eyes to the fact that we can’t let human actions stain the reputation of the Church – and to focus on what Jesus taught us and to see the beauty in that.