- Feb 5, 2002
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You’re never too old to become Catholic, according to Betty Baker of Clarkson, Kentucky, who entered the Church this past Easter at the age of 87.
“I can’t kneel, and I can’t remember the prayers, but being Catholic is the right thing for me,” she told the Register. I had caught sight of Betty’s white hair and sweet smiling face alongside her daughter Lisa who had posted on Twitter @CatholicLisa that her mother became Catholic during the Easter Vigil. Mother and daughter agreed to a phone interview to talk about this momentous event.
Betty had spent a lifetime following Jesus as a Protestant beginning in a small country church in Poplar, Kentucky, where she was baptized at the age of 13. “I always felt God’s presence in my life,” she said.
After her husband died in 2000, Betty began spending more time visiting Lisa and would join her for Sunday Mass at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Clarkson.
“I believed everything I heard,” Betty said. “When my daughter and granddaughter, Bethany (Wagner), asked if I would like to become Catholic, I prayed and asked God what he wanted me to do, and I knew it was the right thing for me.”
But Betty was concerned, given her short-term memory problems and inability to kneel. She brought her concerns to Father Steve Hohman, the pastor of St. Elizabeth’s.
“He explained that kneeling was a sign of humility,” Lisa said. “My mother has to use a walker, and not being able to kneel is very humbling for her.”
Betty enrolled in the OCIA program. Everything she learned resonated with her including the Blessed Mother, Confession, the Eucharist and Purgatory.
“It all felt right in my heart,” she said.
Continued below.
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“I can’t kneel, and I can’t remember the prayers, but being Catholic is the right thing for me,” she told the Register. I had caught sight of Betty’s white hair and sweet smiling face alongside her daughter Lisa who had posted on Twitter @CatholicLisa that her mother became Catholic during the Easter Vigil. Mother and daughter agreed to a phone interview to talk about this momentous event.
Betty had spent a lifetime following Jesus as a Protestant beginning in a small country church in Poplar, Kentucky, where she was baptized at the age of 13. “I always felt God’s presence in my life,” she said.
After her husband died in 2000, Betty began spending more time visiting Lisa and would join her for Sunday Mass at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Clarkson.
“I believed everything I heard,” Betty said. “When my daughter and granddaughter, Bethany (Wagner), asked if I would like to become Catholic, I prayed and asked God what he wanted me to do, and I knew it was the right thing for me.”
But Betty was concerned, given her short-term memory problems and inability to kneel. She brought her concerns to Father Steve Hohman, the pastor of St. Elizabeth’s.
“He explained that kneeling was a sign of humility,” Lisa said. “My mother has to use a walker, and not being able to kneel is very humbling for her.”
Betty enrolled in the OCIA program. Everything she learned resonated with her including the Blessed Mother, Confession, the Eucharist and Purgatory.
“It all felt right in my heart,” she said.
Continued below.
Meet Betty Baker of Kentucky, Who Just Became Catholic at Age 87
The lifelong Protestant began attending Mass with her daughter and hearing Church teaching on Mary, Confession and the Holy Eucharist — and says simply, ‘I believed everything I heard’
