Texas man's retreat inspires entire family to convert from Baptist faith to Catholicism

VICTORIA, Texas (The Catholic Lighthouse) - "I dropped my husband off at Assumption Catholic Church in preparation for his send off to an ACTS retreat last spring," said Tenna Genzer of Ganado, Texas. "That was where I said the words that I would soon have to eat."

"Don't even think we're going to become Catholic," she said to her husband, Ronnie, before saying good-bye to him for the weekend.

That was in May of 2007; a week later the whole family was active at Assumption Church, while Tenna cautiously yet excitedly studied everything about the Catholic faith that she could get her hands on.

Her husband returned from the ACTS retreat a changed man, Tenna said.

Their family has a Baptist background but had been going to a couple of different churches looking for that place they fit in best. Tenna thought she felt comfortable where they had been attending, but Ronnie always just sat in the pews cleaning his nails and occasionally nodding off, she said. He never paid much attention.

"But when Ronnie returned from the retreat, he couldn't stop talking about faith, his newfound faith," Tenna said. "That wasn't like him. That's all he talked about until our daughter, Allyson, hid in her bedroom," she said with a chuckle.

Quizzing the teachers

Ronnie and Tenna also have 7-year-old twins, Loren and Lance. The next day, Tenna began asking her children's teachers, who were Catholic, questions about the faith. A few staff she spoke to included Penny Bethel, Angela Petrash and Mike Sablatura. They helped explain a few things to her, but she still had questions, so she decided to talk to the man in charge, Father Michael Lyons, Assumption's pastor.

She said she wasn't nervous about talking with Father Michael until the six-foot, six-inch priest stood up to greet her. His size intimidated her at first, but she had some important things to discuss, so she began with her first question, "What did you do to my husband?"

It wasn't a bad thing; it was a beautiful thing. "I was raised to believe that Catholics were just above a cult and it surprised me that my husband had such a conversion," Tenna said.

Father Michael referred her to Scripture and to the Catholic Web site www.catholic.com. She said that the first chance she had to get on a computer, she printed as much about the Catholic faith as she could.

'I had been deceived my whole life'

After just one day's study of the Catholic faith, she became enraged. But the rage wasn't directed against the Catholic teaching.

"I was enraged because I felt I had been deceived my whole life," she said, of what she'd been told about the Catholic Church.

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She still wasn't sure about some Catholic teachings, such as the Eucharist, Mary, baptism and purgatory, but she didn't want to take Ronnie out of his newfound community, so they began attending Assumption Parish. "Everyone was so wonderful there, so inviting," she said.

However, when she heard that Catholics believe the Eucharist is the real body and blood of Christ, she thought her Catholic friends and her children's Catholic teachers were nuts. "I thought they were all loons," she said.

She continued reading about the Eucharist and was then invited with her daughter to come to the church's Life Teen XLT, where the Eucharist is adored. "I just asked Jesus if he was really present in the Eucharist; that night he definitely answered me," she said.

"For a couple of months I was obsessed with studying the faith," Tenna said. "I left the house cleaning ... everything got put on the back burner."

"Once I stopped fighting, I began to believe the Eucharist was really Christ," Tenna said. "And when I realized the Catholic Church was the only place I could get the Eucharist, it began to be easier to accept the rest of what the Church taught."

Awaiting the Easter Vigil

It took about six weeks, weekly Mass, attendance at the parish's Bible classes, and then Tenna was ready. "I went to the women's ACTS retreat in August and was then ready to begin the RCIA classes," she said.

By November, Tenna said she was ready to join the Church.

Father Michael said Tenna became almost angry when he told her she had to wait for the Easter Vigil to join the Church and receive her first Holy Communion. She was ready then and didn't want to wait.

"We wanted to make sure they had the full conversion experience, that it was truly their decision and not based on emotion," Father Michael said.

"The RCIA process is like the spiritual milk Scripture speaks of," he said. "That's what the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults is, the milk -- they're not ready for the meat and potatoes yet. You get brought along in your spiritual nourishment."

In the interview with Tenna the day before the Easter Vigil, she said it had been hard to wait for the Easter Vigil. "It has taken way too long. I couldn't wait, but now I'm scared to death," she said with excitement.

It was worth the wait though, for Tenna truly learned her faith, saying, "Through RCIA, Scripture study and Life Teen, I learned more about the faith and about any faith than I had known before. Because I didn't know that much as a Baptist, I never dreamed I could know this much now."

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"I love how deep the faith is. Everything has a deeper meaning and there's so much symbolism with even deeper meaning," she said. "It's the Eucharist and the faith ... the beauty of the faith" that has brought Tenna to the Church.

Closer to God

The whole family was received into the Church at the Easter Vigil Mass on March 22, 2008, at Assumption Church in Ganado. Ronnie and Tenna each received confirmation and Holy Communion; Allyson received Holy Communion; and the twins, Lance and Loren, received baptism. Ronnie and Tenna's sponsors were Rose and Richard Chovanec; Allyson's sponsor was Zeke Kuehn; Lance's godparents are Mike Sablatura and Rose Chavonec; and Loren's are Becky Sablatura and Richard Chavonec.

Ronnie wore the tie of his late grandfather, Francis Dinbow, to the Easter Vigil and also took his name for confirmation. Tenna wore, pinned to her dress, a rosary that her sponsor Rose Chovanec's daughter, Marsha, made for her.

Ronnie never thought that going to an ACTS retreat would bring his family to where it is now.

The ACTS retreat did it for him, he said. He had never gotten involved in a church before that.

When asked how it changed his life, he said, "I definitely got a lot closer relationship to God."

About coming into the Church on the Easter Vigil, he said he was just a little nervous, but was still excited.

The journey into the Catholic faith was not difficult for him, he said, for he looked at it like he had never had a faith before. What he received at his ACTS retreat was the first faith he had ever experienced.

'Never in a million years'

There was a history of the Catholic faith on Ronnie's father, Jerry's side, but his father didn't continue the faith into his adulthood. However, his father and mother, Kathy, and grandmother, Bertha Dinbow, came to the Vigil Mass to help with the twins and the grandkids. They told Ronnie and Tenna they were so happy for them because they could see how happy and at peace they and the whole family were.

However, regarding Tenna's family, she said, "My family is not happy about it at all." Her parents are concerned and definitely not supportive of it.

Their oldest daughter, Christina, who is married with two children, is curious as to why they were converting, but she's not upset, Tenna said.

"I still feel I had been deceived (about the Church)," said Tenna, "and I believe there are millions of people out there being deceived, and unfortunately many believe (what's maliciously said about the Catholic Church) is the truth."

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As to whether Tenna had ever thought about becoming a Catholic before, she responded, "Never in a million years. I'm going to have to eat the words I told my husband before that retreat."

(Assumption Parish had the largest number of catechumens and candidates since Father Michael became pastor. He attributed many of the conversions as fruits of the ACTS retreats. Also joining Assumption Parish with the adult reception into full communion along with the Genzers were Jayme Bure and Marnie Gabrysch. Those receiving adult baptism, confirmation and Eucharist were Travis Taylor, Dominick Morales, Oscar Cantu Jr. and Clinton Wooldridge.)

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This story was made available to Catholic Online by permission of The Catholic Lighthouse (www.victoriadiocese.org/lighthouse/lighthouse.htm), official newspaper of the Diocese of Victoria, Texas.