Family of Notre Dame student converted during Solemnity of the Assumption

A student at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana (United States) revealed this month that his entire family converted to Catholicism on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, a blessing he attributes to God “ defeated Satan at every turn.”

Colin Smith, who studies political science and theology at Notre Dame, wrote in X that “on the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, my entire family joined the Catholic Church.”

The family’s conversion came three years after Smith himself converted to Catholicism, he said. The family attended several Protestant churches for several years when Smith was younger, he told EWTN News’ CNA this week.

Smith explained in X that he wrote “probably over 100 pages of letters to members of his family explaining various doctrines and practices” of the Church.

And yet, “I played a rather small role in my family’s decision to enter the Church,” he added.

“It was really the enemies of the Church who did the most to help them convert to Catholicism,” he wrote, observing: “God defeated Satan at every turn. “Every one of his movements only helped God’s plan.”

As an example, Smith cited her sister’s experience at a “very secular progressive feminist school” in Nashville, which led her parents to send her to college. Santa Cecilia Academy of the city, directed by the Dominican Sisters of the Santa Cecilia Congregation.

Through the school, the family met the Dominican friars of the Province of St. Joseph and one of the friars, Fr. Dominic Legge, became Smith’s mentor, while the instruction of the Dominican sisters led to his sister to faith.

“I asked (Legge) a lot of questions about faith, which he answered with great skill, depth and grace,” Smith told CNA.

“It also introduced me to the Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas,” as well as some Thomistic podcasts, he added.

“At first, I listened to these podcasts a lot because the Summa It seemed a little inaccessible to someone without Catholic or philosophical training,” Smith said. “I became convinced of Christian teachings mostly in this way and through some other readings.”

Finally, “I decided to convert early in my senior year of high school,” Smith told CNA, “and was brought to the Church by Father Domingo in the St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel at the House of Dominican Studies on August 6, 2021”, the feast of the Transfiguration as well as the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Dominic.

Smith spent a summer in Rome; The visits from his family were “decisive” for the conversion of his mother, he wrote in X.

“Perhaps the most important step in his journey was visiting the Circus of Nero outside St. Peter’s Basilica,” he noted.

“His progressive atheist tour guide explained to him that Nero was truly ‘misunderstood.’ He didn’t hate Christians. “He thought they were weird for eating the flesh of his God,” he said.

“He took his biggest step toward the Church when he learned from this lay tour guide that Nero thought the early Christians affirmed the Real Presence, and that those Christians were willing to die for it,” Smith said.

His brother Andrew, for his part, was transferred last year after participating in a protest over a drag show at Notre Dame.

Andrew had “a mania for memorized prayer,” Smith wrote, and yet “he never felt more comfortable than in the cold of that protest.”

“He finally saw that the Catholics meant every word of their memorized prayers while we all prayed the Rosary, the St. Michael prayer, etc.,” he said.

Smith’s father also converted along with the family, having become “quite sympathetic” to the Catholic faith by the time his son converted, Smith told CNA.

Now that his family has joined the Church, Smith observed this month that it was “absolutely the enemies of the Church and of God that God paradoxically used” to bring them to faith.

Smith shared that his family attends Mass together whenever possible. Smith’s three children are at Notre Dame, while her parents still live in Nashville.

“My sister, Abigail Smith, is in the liturgical choir, so my brother and I usually choose Sunday Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart when she is singing,” he said.

Reflecting on the family’s journey toward faith despite the opposition they encountered, Smith wrote in “He doesn’t need them.”

“We are all his servants, and he has already won through his providence!” he concluded.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.