Kevin Lara’s conversion history, a young Venezuelan Protestant

Kevin Lara arrived in the United States in 2010, when he was only 17 years old. Born in Caracas, but raised on Margarita Island, it is one of the millions of Venezuelans who have left the country in search of a better future.

This week, he shared a news in his X account that was immediately viral: after 16 years as a Protestant, with his wife they decided to return to the Catholic Church.

“I love my Protestant brothers and sisters. And I have learned a lot from them. It has been a long and painful process. But I am returning home,” the 32 -year -old Venezuelan wrote in his post, who already has more than 260,000 visualizations and more than 10,000 likes.

In an interview with ACI Press, Kevin shared part of that path, which has forced him to shed tears and has tested his faith, but in the end he led him to meet the beauty of Catholicism.

Almost Protestant Pastor

Kevin was baptized in the Catholic Church by his parents, who were not very devout. He made the first communion, but ensures that there are few memories that have left that moment. His childhood and his youth passed in the midst of cultural Catholicism, without solid convictions about faith.

One of his cousins arrived from the United States and introduced him to Protestant thought. “There I threw at least intellectually the Christianity and the truth of the Gospel, that Christ had risen,” he said. Two years later, Venezuela would leave to move to Florida.

It is then that he begins to get involved more seriously with the renovated Baptists, becoming a time leader of his community. Eventually, he decided to enter the Baptist Seminar to become a pastor, but despite the four years of study he would not take that step.

At this time he met Patricia, the woman she would marry when she left the seminar and with whom she has three daughters today.

“There was always something in my

Kevin says it was during his time as a seminarian when his perspective on Catholicism began to change. The young Venezuelan went from the intrinsic aversion of the Protestants against the Church of Rome and the Holy Father, to have “a slightly more ecumenical perspective”, thanks to a teacher who says he must have a lot.

A fascination and an appreciation for the Catholic liturgy, which he says was crucial in his long conversion process was awakened. In no Protestant community found a liturgical reverence that filled his heart.

However, the cornerstone of his conversion was the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist: “I thought the Protestants had it. However, no one else around me believed in that. It was only me,” he said.

Catholic heroes seem to “shine with more intensity”

Kevin’s concern made him meet the Church’s parents. He studied San Ignacio de Antioquía and San Irenaeus. “The rest is history,” he said. This made him understand that “the tradition of the Catholic Church is consistent from the beginning. It has always been the same.”

“It is we evangelicals that we changed. It seemed extremely clear that not only was they in continuity with their faith, but the Catholic Church is in total continuity with them,” he added.

His conversion was not easy. Kevin explains that his pride prevented him from admitting that he was wrong. In addition, it ensures that decisions of this type imply “a change of identity”, is to discard all convictions fed for years.

“That is a difficult change to do because it is an epistemic change. It is a very deep change of mentality. That is, the foundation of what I believe is in ruins,” he said.

“It’s scary. It was painful and difficult for anxiety and fear of what can happen. How are they going to react? It’s 16 years that I have been a Protestant, and my friends are all reformed, all my connections. If I change now, we have to leave all that. Are they going to stop loving me, will they stop talking to me?” Added the young Venezuelan, visibly moved.

Things at home were no less complicated. Patricia was also a Protestant, but Kevin asked the Lord insistently: “If you want me to become Catholic, make my wife accept it too.” In the end, God worked and gave Patricia “the willingness to learn,” she also returning to Catholicism. The marriage now resides in Raleight, North Carolina.

Kevin still remembers the first time he went to Mass after so many years. Listening to the evangelical passage of miraculous fishing, he identified with San Pedro, who had been fishing all night without catching anything. “That is me,” he thought, “I am the one who is arguing with the Lord. I have been investigating and working for so many years, with so much effort and the Lord tells me: ‘Yes, but trust me'”.

The path traveled has confirmed that the Catholic Church is the one founded by Jesus. In another publication in X, Kevin highlights that “something in the life of the heroes of the Catholic faith seemed to shine with more intensity than in the heroes of my own tradition, the people to whom I admired.” The testimony of the saints has sustained him in his process.

“When considering the lives of so many people who have shaped protestantism, both contemporary and historically, I could not help feeling that many of my heroes fell short. Especially compared to the lives of so many Catholic saints. I cannot express it with words, but something in them simply said ‘Christ’,” he adds.

Be friends with Protestants

Kevin believes that much of the dialogue between Catholics and Protestants, especially on the Internet, is toxic. The young Venezuelan regrets the pride of both parties, and invites Catholics to be patient and become friends with Protestants, because conversion “is a change that is not easy, that takes a lot of time and persistence.”

“Make relationships, show the love of Christ and perhaps share with them. I believe that Protestants love God and Christ. They love the Holy Scriptures and we can learn from them and even imitate much of their lives,” he said.

“The Catholic faith has the fullness of the beauty and beauty of Christ and its Church. So, there is something yet to share and I think it is good that we share it. I do not think we have to hide that. Only that we must do so with a spirit of meekness, as Christ would, instead of a spirit of Phariseism and superiority,” he added.