Any Spanish speakers who can help?

Any Spanish speakers who can help? May 29, 2009

A reader writes:

A dear friend of mine is seriously considering conversion. (A wee bit of background: she is Latin American, was baptized into the Faith as an infant, and then her family life was disrupted and nothing was ever done about her formation again. She’s been “spiritual, but not religious” for decades.)

As a Latin American, most of her family and friends are Catholic, so she’s been tangentially exposed, and she has felt a tug back to the Church for many years. But now things are really coming to fruition.

She emailed me today to ask if I would talk to her about being Catholic, and if I had any suggestions of books she could read to familiarize herself with the nuts and bolts of the Faith. Of course, from reading your fine blog, I have some ideas, but there are two issues with which I am grappling:

1) She is not a native English speaker, and she has just a few years of formal education. She gets easily confused when she reads. I almost want to recommend a video for her — or at least a very simple book. She’s not grappling with huge theological issues, she just needs a gentle reminder about what being a Catholic means and why it’s wonderful.

B) Her husband was raised Evangelical (no longer practicing in any tradition), and he has some Catholic prejudices. He says he supports her conversion 100%, and he’ll even attend Mass with her, but he won’t convert. He says, “Catholics are too strict.” Ok, fine. But I’m keeping in mind that while she’s discerning he may pipe up with ill-informed objections that he half-remembers from his childhood. Of course I intend to gift her “By What Authority” for just that possibility, but if you or any of your readers have other ideas, especially as pertains to issue 1, I would melt from gratitude.

Who knows? Maybe the Lord will bring two children home!

Any ideas? I don’t know anything about Spanish language resources, but I assume there must be heaps and gobs.


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