{"id":285496,"date":"2018-04-04T08:26:55","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T12:26:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=285496"},"modified":"2018-04-04T08:26:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T12:26:55","slug":"welcome-home-founder-of-40-days-for-life-joins-catholic-church-at-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/04\/welcome-home-founder-of-40-days-for-life-joins-catholic-church-at-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome home: Founder of &#8217;40 Days for Life&#8217; joins Catholic Church at Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><figure id=\"attachment_285499\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-285499\" style=\"width: 575px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2018\/04\/29744967_10155236671506990_2583562501426730970_o.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-285499\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2018\/04\/29744967_10155236671506990_2583562501426730970_o-575x384.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"575\" height=\"384\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-285499\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">by Lori Diane Elizabeth Fowlkes of Lori Elizabeth Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>From<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/founder-of-40-days-for-life-enters-catholic-church-on-easter-29878\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"> CNA:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>David Bereit, the founder of 40 Days for Life, entered the Catholic Church on Easter, giving thanks for the inspiration of influential Catholics, including his wife and children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter years of prayer, discernment, and a whole lot of wrestling with God, I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at last night\u2019s Easter Vigil,\u201d wrote Bereit in an April 1 Facebook post.<\/p>\n<p>Bereit celebrated Easter with his family at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His wife Margaret was his sponsor, and his son Patrick was an altar server at the Mass. His daughter Claire and mother-in-law Helen were also in attendance.<\/p>\n<p>Bereit said that he had been attending Sunday Mass with his wife \u2013 who is Catholic \u2013 every week for the last 28 years, ever since their second date at St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Center at Texas A&amp;M in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>But while he and Margaret shared many things in common as Christians, Bereit said he also longed to be more unified in their church affiliation and therefore spent years wrestling with the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI struggled with many questions, misconceptions, and hangups along the way. I have endeavored to continually learn and grow through prayer, studying Scripture, theology, and church history, reading, and seeking wise counsel,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/founder-of-40-days-for-life-enters-catholic-church-on-easter-29878\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Read on.<\/a><\/strong> Welcome!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From CNA:\u00a0 David Bereit, the founder of 40 Days for Life, entered the Catholic Church on Easter, giving thanks for the inspiration of influential Catholics, including his wife and children. \u201cAfter years of prayer, discernment, and a whole lot of wrestling with God, I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at last [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":285499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11549,43],"tags":[62,11170,11195],"class_list":["post-285496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-converts","category-easter","category-pro-life","tag-abortion","tag-converts","tag-pro-life"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Welcome home: Founder of &#039;40 Days for Life&#039; 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