The following story first appeared in the Spring 2001 Glenmary Challenge.
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Sharon Henderson

Loved Into the Fullness of Life—By God and Her Husband

By Karen Hurley

Sharon Henderson (center), a life-long Baptist, is received into the Catholic Church along with two others by Father Dennis Holly at the Glenmary mission in Franklin, Ky. Sharon’s husband, Dean, a "cradle Catholic," stands behind her.

Why is a life-long Southern Baptist dreaming about a youth choir for St. Mary Catholic Church? Because Sharon Henderson, baptized in the First Baptist Church of Russellville, Ky., at age 10, was received into the Catholic Church, in Franklin, Ky., during the 2000 Easter Vigil. And she is wasting no time getting involved in making St. Mary’s the best Church community it can be.

Sharon has always taken her religion seriously. And her Baptist tradition meant everything to her for many, many years. In an interview shortly after her full initiation as a Catholic, Sharon emphasized how impressed—and relieved—she was that the Catholic Church would recognize as valid her baptism so many years ago.

When she became engaged to Dean, a "cradle Catholic," they planned an interfaith wedding service. But, in 1962, interfaith relations were not what they are today. She found it impossible to imagine being married in a Catholic Church. So she made a trip to Owensboro to seek permission from the bishop to have the wedding at home—with a priest and her own Baptist minister presiding. ("To have asked to have the interfaith service in my Baptist church was unthinkable in 1962," Sharon says.) The wedding did take place at Sharon’s home.

Thirty-eight years later she made another trip to Owensboro to visit another bishop. This time, to participate in the Chrism Mass at which Bishop John McRaith presided and to which all those preparing to enter the Church at Easter were invited.

When she returned home, she received a letter from Bishop McRaith which included these words: "The only reason we have put up with Dean all these years, Sharon, was to have a shot at you." When she read the letter to her husband, a very involved Catholic in the parish and the diocese, he laughed, assuming she made the whole thing up. But then she showed him the letter—on the bishop’s stationery!

Sharon and Dean met as teenagers—and even broke up once because of faith concerns. She (a child of divorce) wanted a trouble-free marriage to a committed Christian husband. And she didn’t think a Catholic could qualify.

Finally she remembers saying to herself, "You ninny! Dean’s the most wonderful Christian man you’ve ever met—despite the fact he is a Catholic."

Over the years Sharon and Dean worked out an ecumenical approach to family—one Sharon describes as "both deeply Catholic and deeply Baptist." Their two sons were raised Catholic; their daughter Baptist. And, "On Sunday we all went to Mass and then to Baptist Sunday School."

Sharon appreciates the fact that her family was always spiritually supported by the Glenmary pastors who served the Franklin mission. "They all recognized me as a child of God," Sharon says. "Without any proselytizing, they prepared the way into the Catholic Church for me."

Glenmary Father Frank Ruff—whom Sharon describes as "a key person in her faith journey"—e-mailed a message from the Holy Land that was delivered to her by a common friend as she entered the church for the Easter Vigil: "I will be walking on the Mount of Olives at the very time you are receiving your First Communion with Dean."

That message cuts to the heart of what motivated Sharon to enter the Church—and what has always been most important to her: a committed Christian life with Dean at her side. Now she could be at his side receiving Communion—as well as everywhere else!

"Our faith has been the same from the beginning," Sharon says. "And God has loved me so much through my husband."

Sharon longed to take Communion with Dean, to be completely one in their Church life as well as the rest of their life. "I always prayed for spiritual communion," she says. But now, receiving Communion regularly with Dean, "I am aware of an emptiness that is no longer there."

Her Baptist community holds no grudges, she says. And, she emphasizes, "I am thankful for all I experienced in the Baptist Church."

An incident at St. Mary’s not long before she publicly entered the RCIA program helped her realize how deeply rooted she already was in that local Catholic community. At an open forum about a controversial building project, she found herself "just speaking up and talking about how we are all called to be crucified."

Afterwards, a member of the parish said to her: "You said it like one of us!" And Sharon remembers responding, "I feel like one of you."

Now she is!