I was born and raised in Namur (Belgium). I was baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church, did my first communion, but stopped short of going through the Confirmation process. In my teenage years, being a “non-practicing Catholic” appeared to be perfectly fine.

Through a series of events, I converted to the Protestant evangelical faith at age 20. After getting the vision of becoming a pastor, I dropped out of University to go study theology at an evangelical school called “Calvary Chapel Bible College”. I became convinced that it was the Protestants who “got Christianity right”, because they could always justify their beliefs “Bible in hand”, with a verse to quote. While Catholics appeared to be following merely human traditions without any biblical support. I then began to develop some resentment against my Catholic upbringing. I also started to feel a sense of pride in presenting myself as an ex-Catholic, saved from heresy and determined more than ever to fight it. I was re-baptized in 2009 (age 22), because in my eyes, the baptism I had received in the Catholic Church as an infant was meaningless since it was not my personal decision.

Fast-forwarding to 2018, the senior pastor of a Calvary Chapel church in California invited me to join his staff. It was a megachurch (over 6,000 members and about fifteen associate pastors). Not only was I going to immigrate to the United States (which I had dreamed of for many years), but I was getting to serve as a full-time pastor as my only occupation.

While working at that church, I was living a preacher’s dream perhaps, but this could not outweigh many other issues: I was becoming an absentee father, always having to pick Church needs over my own family’s (while preaching “family is your first ministry!”). Adding to that the financial struggle of living on one small income, and the fact that we were residing in a particularly rough and unsafe (with drugs and gang activities nearby). My wife and I could not imagine any long-term future there. I ended up resigning after a year. I considered returning to Belgium but a new opportunity presented itself at another Calvary Chapel church in Sacramento, California.

It was on the theological level that problems began to emerge with the senior pastor in Sacramento. Gender roles, Calvinism or eschatology where among the topics where we were on different pages. I truly could no longer subscribe to the Calvary Chapel confession of faith, and I realized that I no longer had a future within that so-called movement. Running out of options, my wife and I made the decision to leave the United States and return to Belgium.

Back in Brussels at the end of 2021, I found a secular job and we started attending an evangelical church planted by American missionaries. A year or two later, as my wife and I became more actively involved in the life of this church, we discovered “how the sausage was made” and many things displeased us greatly. My wife and I were slowly losing the respect we had for the leaders of that church and ended up leaving.

Our departure from that American church ushered in a dark period for my family and I. Every Sunday we were wondering where to go to church. We had acquaintances left and right, things we liked and disliked in each church, but we didn’t feel like we belonged anywhere. The language, the Sunday school, the pastor’s theological positions, and the worship style were all criteria that made us move from one congregation to another.

I experienced doctrinal disagreements with just about every Protestant church I was ever part of, and I even considered “starting my own church” at some point. Division is within the very fabric of Protestantism. The problem is always the same: my understanding of the biblical text versus yours. The idea is always to follow God rather than man—a noble idea, except that the interpreter himself also falls into the category of man. Each Protestant denomination sincerely believes to be following everything the Bible teaches, but the problem is that churches arrive at different conclusions about what the Bible teaches. Reaching agreement on the so-called “essentials” proves to be just as problematic.

It was in this context of “church-hopping” that my wife began working within a large ecumenical Christian ministry that serves English-speaking families in Brussels. She led a youth group, many of whose members happened to be Catholic. As part of this ministry, she was encouraged to visit the churches of the youth group members. That is how, one Sunday of July 2024, we decided to “check out” the English-speaking Catholic Parish of Kraainem, Saint Anthony. At first, I was hesitant to go. I did not want to set foot in a “Roman” church, much less expose my children to traditions and teachings that I considered heretical. I finally agreed, hoping that it would not be a sin. My wife, my three children and I made our way into this church which was packed out. We took our seats as discreetly as possible, hoping not to be spotted as outsiders. My wife, who had never really attended any Mass before, watched, trying her best to follow what was going on. As for me, I couldn’t believe I was passing for a Catholic. But something happened inside me that day. The Mass was celebrated by an Irish priest, and beyond the language difference, I felt as if I had been transported to the parish I attended as a child in my hometown of Namur. I was struck, right then and there, by the unity that exists within the Catholic Church: I realized that whether you are in Dublin, Seoul, Los Angeles or Rio de Janeiro, Masses have a common structure and liturgy, transcending time and space. The truly universal character of the Catholic Church suddenly became crystal-clear to me.

During this Mass at Saint Anthony, the prayer to the Virgin Mary was undoubtedly the only stumbling block for me. But I had to admit that there was nothing wrong with the homily, the songs of praise, and the particularly reverent reading of the biblical texts. This Mass was for me the beginning of a turning point and a constant back-and-forth between Protestantism and Catholicism that would last for months.

I began to think about all the classic objections I had against Catholicism: prayers to the Virgin Mary and the Saints, the papacy, purgatory, the place of works in salvation, confession to priests, etc… But for the first time, I went to see what the Catholic apologists themselves had to say on these questions, and I found their defense of the Catholic faith very compelling.

I then prayed to the Lord to make it clear to me whether I had indeed been lost in Protestantism for fifteen years, to show me clearly the path to follow if it was indeed the Catholic Church. Lo and behold, the next day, I came across the following verse:

“Thus says the LORD: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. […] ”

(Jeremiah 6:16).

Wouldn’t the “ancient paths” to ask for be those that are 1,500 years older than Protestantism? Rest for my soul was indeed what I needed after the turmoil of getting up in the morning a Protestant and going to bed at night a Catholic, or vice versa, day after day. The promise contained in this verse from Jeremiah was eventually fulfilled in my life, although this return to Catholicism triggered the greatest tensions within my family, as one would certainly expect After tirelessly researching Catholicism for an entire year, I finally “crossed the Tiber.”

The Step-In program that we started attending in 2025 came at a perfect time. My wife initially accepted to join as an inquirer while I was seeking the Sacrament of Confirmation. Session after session, her heart softened toward the Truth of the Catholic Church. Step-In became each week a much anticipated, refreshing and inspiring time for us. So much healing was taking place, both individually and as a family, after the year of confusion and turmoil we had been through. Six months into the program, my wife came into full Communion with the Catholic Church and received the Sacrament of Confirmation (she ironically beat me to it!). I thank the Lord for Saint Anthony’s Parish, Father Joe in particular, our Catholic brothers and sisters and all the Saints that interceded for us.

Guillaume Hoc