Protestant youth conference opened eyes to Catholic Church

Christopher Sherren, 25, was born and lived in Charlottetown until 2003 when he came to Toronto to attend St. Augustine’s Seminary and discern his call to the priesthood.

Having grown up in what he would call a culturally Catholic family, Sherren spent most of his senior high school years associated with a Baptist congregation.

It was one weekend when he was at a youth conference with Baptist friends when “things began to change for me,” he said.

“It was just this deep experience of the presence of God in my life that I had never experienced before,” said Sherren. “There was a deep joy that I never had before, a deep peace that I never had before, a deep happiness that I never had before. And there was a real knowledge that came with that, of the fact that Christ died for my sins, out of love for me. And so finally things began to make sense, my faith, the Catholic faith began to make sense to me, it began to be real. And on that night, I felt both a call to conversion, a call to change my life, a call to become a disciple of Christ, and to model my life after Him who died for me.”

After a few more years of study and discernment, it became clear that God’s will was that he should remain Catholic, and that the call he was experiencing was really a call to the priesthood.

He is now looking forward to returning to his home diocese and serving God in His Church as a priest.