The John-Henry Westen Show - Redemption ｜ Eric Tafoya From Murderer To Catholic Convert PART 1

00:00:00.000 It was like seven times the demons came inside of me and I went on the biggest drug crystal meth

00:00:06.300 binge that I had ever been in my life. I remember driving down the street and I went by this little

00:00:10.220 church and I was struggling. I had been up for like maybe three weeks. I parked and it was a

00:00:14.580 Catholic church, of course. You said if I ask anything in your name that you would take away

00:00:19.640 my addiction. Why isn't it going away?

00:00:21.520 Hey my friends, do you know how it's said that for those who are forgiven much, much is expected

00:00:34.360 and they love much? Well, there is a guy who I've met who is just overflowing with zeal and love for

00:00:43.060 the Lord as because he was forgiven much. He's not just a prodigal son returned from having done one

00:00:50.700 thing. Get this. He was an ex-gang member. He was an ex-drug dealer and an addict, of course. He was

00:00:59.320 ex-convict. He was an ex-murderer. He's an ex-criminal, an ex-Jehovah Witness person, and then also an ex-

00:01:08.800 homeless person. He's an ex-Protestant. That's a Calvinist, anti-Catholic Protestant, and then became

00:01:16.900 a Catholic. We're going to give you this in two parts. Stay tuned for part one of this John

00:01:23.860 Hunter Weston show with Eric Tafoya.

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00:02:11.600 Eric Tafoya, welcome to the program.

00:02:13.580 Thank you very much. It's a privilege. It's an honor to be able to be here. Yeah, you know,

00:02:18.780 it's awesome because the devil doesn't want us to have joy. He doesn't want us to share the gospel

00:02:24.260 of Jesus Christ around the world. So, I'm Eric Tafoya, YouTube channel, The Traditional Urban

00:02:28.920 Christian, where I share the faith. And it's not just by, oh, I'm out here sharing the faith. It's

00:02:34.440 that God's love and mercy that was showed to us from the cross right here. And that's the only reason

00:02:41.520 why I'm here right now. So, I want to tell you, thank you, because this is a very humbling experience.

00:02:45.120 I was in this car. I was in my car this morning listening to the mass. And just really just,

00:02:50.820 sometimes people can take our zeal and what God's done in our life and think that, oh, that you're

00:02:56.160 being proud, Eric. You're too proud, Eric. Why are you always preaching the gospel, Eric? Why are you

00:03:00.620 always in your scriptures, Eric? Why are you always? And I'm like, oh, my brothers and sisters,

00:03:04.620 like, I converted to the faith, but God's done so much for me. It's like, you know, the story of the

00:03:10.320 two people that were forgiven. One, let's just say, I'm going to kind of like paraphrase it,

00:03:14.720 but one was forgiven $500. The other one was forgiven $5 million. And Jesus asked him, well,

00:03:21.460 which one do you think is going to, you know, receive that forgiveness more? And looks at the

00:03:26.440 apostles and they tell him, well, the one who was forgiven more, you know, of course, hey,

00:03:31.920 common sense, hey, he was forgiven 5 million. He's, of course, he's going to be forgiven more.

00:03:35.720 Jesus goes, yes. Well, those who have been forgiven more, well, they have more to give. They have

00:03:41.120 more to share. And that's where my passion and my zeal comes from. Because there was a time in my

00:03:46.180 life where I was literally tore up from the floor up. I was beat up from the feet up.

00:03:51.720 Right before we get to that, Eric, let's, let's start with the sign of the cross,

00:03:55.020 the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:04:00.100 Amen. Amen.

00:04:00.940 So pick up from there. You were telling us about your past. And I said in the intro, you know,

00:04:07.120 people aren't going to believe your past, where you came from. But I think it's so good to tell us

00:04:14.240 about that so that people can realize there's hope. Amen. You know, so I was raised out here in San

00:04:20.620 Bernardino, California. It's a, it's a metropolitan area of Los Angeles. And so I was raised up at a time

00:04:28.020 where, yeah, my mom was great. So I don't want to just act like, oh yeah, I had this horrible life.

00:04:32.140 My mom was great. But from a young age, I was away from my mom. So drugs, I was living with my dad.

00:04:37.700 My dad, rest his soul, pray for me, dad. I know he's in heaven praying for me right now. It's been a

00:04:43.440 few years or I pray for his soul. However, it may be if he's still on his journey to purgatory, but like

00:04:48.680 drugs, gangs, very involved in drugs and gangs, very involved for a large part of my life. I started

00:04:55.560 using drugs when I was 12 years old. Got affiliated with my gang when I was 13. Incarceration started

00:05:01.800 happening at the same time. At a young age, homelessness, all the vices that people have,

00:05:07.660 I probably had them. All those deadly sins, they were a part of my life. And they weren't just a

00:05:12.360 part of my life, but they had grown to be a part of who I was. The hate, the lust, just everything that

00:05:19.780 I was doing that was opposite of what God wanted to do in my life. I could never find my identity.

00:05:24.380 All the 10 commandments, I violated them. And I violated not just violated the 10 of them,

00:05:30.520 but I had violated them over and over and over again. Self-proclaimed atheist, agnostic,

00:05:36.980 in and out of incarceration for most of my life. Praise God that there's been a change in that. But

00:05:42.640 most of my life, in and out of incarceration, I could never see the light. I always saw hate.

00:05:48.480 I always wanted to hate people. I never had a smile on my face. I was never joyful.

00:05:54.620 But praise God that he does do things in our life that changes that. And so I struggled for many years,

00:05:59.880 struggled for it through my atheism, through being agnostic. I never could get it right. I lived in

00:06:06.300 Arizona. I lived in New Mexico. I lived in Northern California. I was kicked around from every single

00:06:12.240 family member. They just couldn't get ahold of me. Growing up, I was always kept from person to person.

00:06:17.380 Nobody could understand why I was so crazy. This is what psychologists would say, that it was mental

00:06:23.320 health, that I was bipolar, that I was schizophrenic, that I would never be able to take care of

00:06:28.540 myself, that I would never be self-sufficient. And so there was these people literally would say that

00:06:33.920 I was a demon, my family members. And so at one time, they just all started shunning me because of

00:06:39.060 these struggles that I was having in my life. And so then finally, one time when I was incarcerated

00:06:44.280 over the years after battling, it was a hard battle. It was like, I can't explain living on the

00:06:50.220 streets for a year how that was. I can't explain struggling with heroin, addiction, slamming heroin.

00:06:57.300 I was using heroin and I was using cocaine at the same time, smoking crystal meth, smoking marijuana all the

00:07:04.060 time. Cigarettes, alcoholism, pills, ecstasy, acid, everything that you could think about. I would do

00:07:11.680 them. And it was like, I wanted to go full fledged. It was almost like I was drowning out this shame that

00:07:18.500 I had inside of me. And I never realized it because I never loved me. It seemed like I left a terror of

00:07:23.180 destruction everywhere I went. Every woman that I would date, every one of my family members, I was using 1.00

00:07:29.420 and manipulating. So just to know the full extent of who I was, kind of like that man we were talking

00:07:35.360 about in the Bible, who was living amongst the graves. I was thrown off to live with the dead.

00:07:41.280 I believe it was in the city of Decapolis. There's two names for that city, actually, in scriptures.

00:07:45.740 But I'll go with the Decapolis one, where he has a legion of demons inside of him. And nobody wants to

00:07:51.300 be around him. They even said that he had shackles on him because he was locked up. They wanted to put

00:07:56.540 shackles on him and throw him amongst the dead because we just cannot deal with this man no

00:08:00.620 more. His family members probably put him there. And he was living amongst him. And what he was 0.92

00:08:04.820 doing was he was getting rocks. He was bashing himself, it said. And there were scars all over

00:08:09.960 his body and lacerations all over him. And it's kind of like I was doing that to myself, but within my

00:08:16.200 soul, from all the things that I was doing, living that certain lifestyle, being that person that I was

00:08:23.560 being, I was torturing myself. I was hurting myself. And I just didn't love myself at all.

00:08:29.100 And that's what it did. That's what it stemmed from, a non-love of myself. But only by falling

00:08:35.380 at Jesus's feet and asking Jesus for help was the legion of demons able to be taken out of that man

00:08:43.200 because he actually cries out to Jesus before the demons take hold and start talking to Jesus, 0.59

00:08:48.160 asking Jesus what he's doing there and to take him out and put him in the pigs. But that man went to

00:08:52.360 Jesus's feet on his own. And that's what it takes sometimes is like, we have to be contrite and go

00:08:57.660 to Jesus's feet. But it's not like this was like the first time. So like, this wasn't the first time

00:09:02.720 that I was going to Jesus's feet, though. So even like I said, I was atheist, I was agnostic. While I

00:09:08.480 was incarcerated, we have a lot of time to read scriptures. We have a ton of time to be in the Bible

00:09:14.480 because you're locked in your cell most of the time. And so while being in there, I actually started

00:09:18.920 studying with Jehovah Witnesses. And so at one time, I was an unbaptized publisher reading

00:09:25.240 through their doctrinal books, what the Bible teaches, drawing close to Jehovah. And so because

00:09:30.680 they try to engrave reasoning from scriptures, they try to start engraving a certain type of

00:09:35.240 doctrinal teachings on you that's not necessarily scripturally based, but manipulating you to believe

00:09:40.580 and to learn how to use tactics to talk to people so that you can help them capitulate away from

00:09:47.060 there, especially Catholics. They're extreme anti-Catholics, the Jehovah Witnesses. And so 1.00

00:09:53.440 I did study with them. It was about a good year while I was incarcerated. So I started really getting

00:09:58.060 grounded in their scriptures. And they are keen on you reading the Bible all the time. But as I was

00:10:04.280 reading the Bible, I was reaching, I could, I know, God, you, I understand who you are, God. Things

00:10:10.940 started transforming in my heart. At this time, at this time, I'm only like about, I'm about 26, 27

00:10:18.720 years old at the time. And so as I'm reading the scriptures, I have a New World Translation, but I

00:10:23.520 also have a New King James, a Good News Bible, the Message, and an NIV. So I'm reading them all at one

00:10:30.480 time. And then I started thinking, why do these four other Bibles that I have, even if they say Catholic,

00:10:37.060 even if one's literal, the other ones are like, they're not so literal, they're more of about a

00:10:42.420 message. Why do they still have the same scripture soundings like in John 1? In the beginning was the

00:10:49.820 Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Why is that in these four? And why is it in this one?

00:10:54.900 Why do I feel like the Holy Spirit speaks to me? And it's not just a force. And so all these things

00:11:01.060 started going through my head. And so you might want to clarify there, because in the Jehovah's Witness

00:11:05.660 Bible, it talks about the Word was with God, and the Word was a God. It's a very small change,

00:11:11.400 but very significant one. Yeah, and they also say that the Holy Spirit isn't a person. They say that

00:11:16.600 the Holy Spirit is a force. So it's the force of God, and that the Holy Spirit, you don't interact

00:11:22.000 like, I know the Holy Spirit lives within me, and it utters things like in the scriptures, it says that

00:11:27.200 it utters things that my mind can't fathom. It speaks on my behalf, the Holy Spirit. And so I read

00:11:32.620 other scriptures where the Holy Spirit was being lied to in Acts, and, you know, because he said,

00:11:38.020 why did they lie to God, and they were killed because they weren't given all their money in?

00:11:41.320 Ananias and Sapphira.

00:11:42.880 Yeah, Sapphira and Ananias. And so I saw this, it was evident, Jesus said, I have to ascend so that the

00:11:50.160 Holy Spirit can descend. He's our comforter, the paracleto. He was going to be, he was going to come to

00:11:55.280 comfort us and give us guidance. And so I saw those things, and I was like, okay, you know what,

00:11:59.180 let me venture away a little bit. And I had a Calvinist friend at the time. And so I, and I,

00:12:05.100 everything he was speaking, I was like, hey, I dig it. He even went back 400 years in history.

00:12:09.500 I'm like, hey, this guy is kind of cool right here. Like, it's not a, it's not a 200 year history,

00:12:15.120 or because, you know, Charles Taze Russell is the one who founded the Jehovah Witnesses.

00:12:21.480 I actually saw a kind of history in that. I'm big on history. I love history. But it's funny,

00:12:25.980 because at that time, I still didn't go back to the original church at that time.

00:12:30.140 I started studying underneath him. I wasn't really big on the tulip system. So like the reprobate,

00:12:37.000 I, what's it called? Unlimited atonement, the reprobate, those being chosen, perseverance of

00:12:44.620 the saints. I grasped it a little bit, but I wasn't really big on their foundational teachings right

00:12:50.400 there. Especially we're saying like the one big one was the reprobate, because I read in the

00:12:54.920 scriptures that God has given everybody an opportunity for salvation, that we have to

00:12:59.000 choose. And I also saw free will in the Bible, and I see that we can choose if salvation or not choose

00:13:05.900 it. God's not forcing us to follow him. And so the reprobate is saying that God created individuals as

00:13:12.560 babies. There is nothing they can do to change their way of salvation. They have been created to

00:13:17.580 go to hell. Some have been created to go to heaven, and some have been created to go to hell. And it just 0.90

00:13:22.440 didn't sit right with me. And so like, I'm about to get out of incarceration at that time. And I

00:13:27.320 start, I go backwards, actually. I'm like, all right, you know what? Let's just go to a kingdom

00:13:30.740 hall. I feel familiar with them. I studied with them for a year. Let's just go to a kingdom hall.

00:13:35.740 But as I get out, as I get out, I moved to San Diego, and I'm invited to go to a non-denominational

00:13:41.260 church. Remember, I'm still anti-Catholic, because being a Calvinist, anti-Catholic, man,

00:13:46.700 the Roman Catholic church is the anti-Christ, the beast, you know, the whore of Babylon. 1.00

00:13:54.920 And so these were things that were infused in my mind. And I was actually, forgive me, Father, but 1.00

00:14:01.540 there was a lot of Catholics that capitulated actually left the faith because of things that

00:14:07.840 I would tell them, oh, look what the Bible says. Let me show you what the Bible says, because they're

00:14:11.740 not rooted and grounded in scripture. And the Bible is our book. It's a Catholic book. And so 0.77

00:14:17.360 as I got out, I went to a non-denominational evangelical church. I remember the first day

00:14:21.780 I went up to the altar. I gave my life to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I even fell, I even fell

00:14:27.060 backwards. You know, believing this, it was this emotional rush, you know, that I was going through,

00:14:33.680 especially when they dim the lights at the end. And then they actually, because I became a leader at

00:14:37.940 this church, I was there for a couple of years, they will actually turn down the air conditioning.

00:14:41.740 So as they're going into these prayer moments, the lights go dim, you're singing this, but

00:14:46.440 praise, hey, praise God for praise music. I love praise music. I'm totally not knocking that. My

00:14:50.780 are evangelical brothers and sisters, non-denominational. I love them. They're a big

00:14:54.660 part of who I became, but they'll turn down the air conditioning. So you start getting the goosebumps,

00:14:59.620 you know, and you start getting this feeling that something is spectacular happened, even though

00:15:03.680 something is happening for them, you know, God's working somehow inside of it. But I still struggled

00:15:10.000 with the, with Jehovah Witnesses, with the Calvinists, while I was incarcerated, I was still

00:15:14.660 using drugs in there. And even when I got out and I became a leader at this non-denominational church, 0.75

00:15:20.160 I struggled because first they weren't grounded in doctrine. It's all about feelings and motivational

00:15:25.500 speeches and nothing wrong with that because I'm a motivational speaker myself. But when we're going

00:15:30.660 to, when we have the word of God, we should be grounded in what the Trinity is, what the

00:15:35.100 enunciation is, what our salvation is, or how we can find salvation in scriptures, more than just a

00:15:41.320 public declaration of saying, oh, I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. And now all

00:15:47.400 of a sudden you're saved for the rest of your life. They don't teach you the grounding of it,

00:15:50.980 especially what we believe as Catholics. I was saved. Today I'm saved right now, but tomorrow's not

00:15:56.660 promised because I can choose a lifestyle that's not of God and fall into my sins. And I'm no longer a

00:16:02.080 part of the kingdom right there because we know nothing unholy can enter the kingdom.

00:16:05.660 But while I was a non-denominational, I continued to struggle in my drug addictions. I was like

00:16:10.980 using all week long. It was just crystal meth at this time. I was selling a lot of marijuana too at

00:16:15.980 the time. Always struggling, never, never able to get it right. Bible studies during the week,

00:16:21.880 go to church on Sunday. Everybody thinks I'm on fire. Yeah. Yeah. I was on fire because I was,

00:16:26.920 I was strung out on drugs. Like I could never get right. I was still being an abusive person.

00:16:31.500 Even though I was saying I was of God, I was still living in the world, could never get things

00:16:36.360 right. And so my marriage, I was actually married at the time. It fell apart. She dissolved the

00:16:41.920 marriage and I ended up moving out to San Bernardino, still an anti-Catholic because this

00:16:46.800 church was probably 70% ex-Catholics out in San Diego, you know, just predominantly Mexican

00:16:53.380 Americans or Mexicans that would, Latinos, Hispanics that were going to that church, 10,000 member

00:16:58.960 church, huge church. I saw it grow big time, but there was really no grounding. So there's a large

00:17:03.500 turnover, large turnover. It's constantly new people are coming, new people are going. You

00:17:10.020 really don't, can't really get a grasp of who people are there because it's just so big and

00:17:13.620 major. So I ended up moving to San Bernardino because I was trying to get something new. I was

00:17:17.800 still struggling with my additions. I was trying to get clean. Once again, I started living with

00:17:21.720 another woman going back to my same tactics using crystal meth, but everybody around me thinks

00:17:26.920 that, Oh, he's sober. He's, he's on fire for Jesus Christ. Start another. I've become a part of

00:17:31.980 another leadership out here at a non-denominational church. Actually a couple of them. I start

00:17:36.440 frequenting Bible studies in my house, living with a woman in sin, fornication. We're not married. 0.99

00:17:42.080 She was actually Catholic. And I took every single Catholic, um, once again, forgive me, 0.81

00:17:48.300 father, blessed virgin, forgive me, pray for me. Um, I actually took every single crucifix

00:17:53.780 she had. I took every picture of mama Mary off the walls, either shredded them up or threw 0.51

00:17:58.740 them away or broke them. I was very anti-Catholic or very anti-Catholic. I just thought, Hey,

00:18:04.200 you're worshiping all these idols. I feel like this was her home. This wasn't my home. I was

00:18:08.860 still living on the streets. I was actually homeless again at that time. And this woman took 1.00

00:18:12.400 me in and she thought I was a good person. I was kind of like portraying that I had my life

00:18:16.240 together. And I, and I really didn't, um, God, God be with her soul and any other person that I've

00:18:21.080 ever heard in my life. I pray for them all the time that God can create a healing in their life

00:18:26.500 the same way he has done in my life. And so, but it's cool because this woman, this would be the

00:18:31.340 stardom of the change in my life. This would be the start of something different. That's going to

00:18:35.760 happen in my life. She had two friends that were actually Catholics at the moment. I didn't know

00:18:41.040 they were converts from evangelicalism. And he was actually in the seminary at one time at Southeast

00:18:47.300 Seminary out in with Doug Beaumont. Doug Beaumont's a convert to the faith too, with Doug Beaumont

00:18:53.500 actually on the East coast in Carolina. And a bunch of seminarians were actually reading through the

00:18:58.940 church fathers. I think it was about like 10, 10 or 11 of them actually converted to the faith. It's

00:19:04.020 called crossing the Tiber. It's a bunch of different, the evangelical Exodus crossing the Tiber.

00:19:09.960 His name is Joshua Bencourt. Actually, I like to say John chaplain, Joshua Bencourt, because he's the

00:19:15.720 head late chaplain at St. Jude's hospital out here in Fullerton. Still my brother to this day. But at

00:19:21.880 that moment, I didn't know that he had written books against the Catholic church. And then now he

00:19:26.460 had written books for the Catholic church at the time. I didn't know that. So I even remember leaving

00:19:31.360 the Bible open in the restroom. And I highlighted, do not call nobody father, except for your father in

00:19:37.980 heaven. You know, those quirky things that we as, as Protestant, we would use and try to, you know,

00:19:43.660 thinking we can get over on our brothers. And now I know the truths of all those answers, but little

00:19:48.140 places around the whole house, I would leave different ones in my Bibles open, highlighted,

00:19:52.980 you know? And so nobody's perfect except for God, except for Jesus and stuff like that, just to try to

00:19:59.880 get him. But he was so loving. He was so compassionate. He was so reasoning with me. And he never raised his

00:20:05.980 voice. Even when I started getting huffy and puffy and the things that he was saying about

00:20:10.280 Protestantism weren't sitting right with me. I almost got to the point where I was going to hit 0.94

00:20:14.960 him, to be honest with you. Because he was answering every question. I was ready to just bink. You know,

00:20:19.820 I was. I'm there. Forgive me. But it's just the truth. I was going to, and he was so patient. I even

00:20:24.680 walked out. And then he walked out with me and he prayed for me. And he goes, hey, bro, do you want to

00:20:29.380 come back and we can continue talking? I'm just answering. And at this time, he's still not telling me that

00:20:35.080 he's a convert. He's still not telling me he's a convert. Him and his wife, you're not telling me

00:20:39.840 that. Actually, he was one of the, he lived right at Virgin Most Powerful Studios. That's where actually

00:20:45.620 I'm at right now, filming this right now. I'm in the backdrop of here. If you see, it's Terry Barber's

00:20:52.300 show. So they allowed me to come in here right now. I'm an intern with Virgin Most Powerful Radio.

00:20:57.540 But he was living here. So they invited me one time to, I thought it was mass, because they had

00:21:04.360 invited me to go. And I'm like, you know what, this couple's so nice and loving. Like, I'm going

00:21:08.240 to try it. And so like, I went to mass with them one time. And then they invited me to, I thought

00:21:13.500 was a mass here at Sacred Heart Chapel in Covina at, where Virgin Most Powerful Studios is actually

00:21:19.820 right behind Sacred Heart Chapel, Our Lady of Grace. They have Latin mass here too. They invited me

00:21:25.100 to, and I'm like, yeah, you know what? Cool. They're like, we'll take you out to lunch and everything.

00:21:28.020 But when I got here to the chapel, it was a conversion story. There was a man named Fred Krause,

00:21:34.180 who was a chaplain for the Los Angeles Police Department. And he was a bodybuilder. And

00:21:38.200 another man were giving their conversion stories. And man, I'm listening to it. And I'm like,

00:21:43.580 I started getting upset. Like, I started getting so mad. I actually walk out and I kick the pew.

00:21:49.980 And I storm on out. And I walk around this little city of Covina right here. It's a pretty big city

00:21:54.640 in LA. I start walking around it a little bit. And as I come back in the front of the, this is an

00:22:00.140 older church, the Sacred Heart Chapel, probably a hundred years old. Very beautiful, very beautiful

00:22:05.600 Latin mass they have there. It's just, yeah, I just really love it. In the front, the restroom's

00:22:10.600 outside. So the restroom's outside of it. It's not inside of the chapel. It's on the outside. It's like

00:22:15.420 old, old. And so as I'm standing out there, I'm kind of mad. And this old lady walks out and I, 0.83

00:22:20.240 you know, I love telling the story because I'm back right here again, talking to you right now from

00:22:24.500 the same area where like something really started changing in my heart and my soul, where God still

00:22:29.460 really started reaching out. But she came out and she's like, what are you doing out here?

00:22:33.020 And I'm like, I'm mad. Like I'm Protestant, you know, like I'm claiming like I'm Protestant all the

00:22:39.160 way. And what they're saying in there is against what my doctrinal teachings and what I believe

00:22:43.880 the Bible teaches us. And she didn't combat that. All she told me was that God has brought you here

00:22:50.840 for a reason. You're right here right now for a reason. Just open up your heart and allow God to

00:22:58.800 move. Just listen. And she gives me the biggest hug. She doesn't even know me, you know, and I'm

00:23:03.580 all tatted down, you know, and I had a short sleeve at the time and I got tattoos like this on me at the

00:23:08.180 time. Not as many as I have now, but I did have tattoos right there. And she gives me the biggest hug in

00:23:12.920 the world. Doesn't see me for this person that's upset. She just gives me this big hug and she squeezes

00:23:20.180 me and she walks on and she goes, come on when you want, come on in when you want. And at the time

00:23:24.480 around, around the church, there was grass. It's all concrete now, but there was a blessed Virgin Mary

00:23:30.020 statue that was out there. And I walked up to mama and I, I don't know, I call her mama, but I walk up

00:23:36.180 to this statue and I look her in the eyes and I'm crying now. Now I'm, I'm in a full trance. And I

00:23:41.480 literally say, why do they have you out here? If they are so into Jesus, if they're Christians, 0.89

00:23:48.580 like everybody's saying, why do they have you out here? And I was like, kind of upset.

00:23:53.100 And then just something flowed through my system where I felt it like this thing. And like this

00:23:58.540 premonition came over me. It was like my, your, your eternal salvation came from my womb.

00:24:06.520 That's why they respect and honor me. That's why I'm right here. And this is like something like

00:24:10.400 clicked in my head at that moment. Boom. And I was like, you know what? You know, you're right.

00:24:14.660 Jesus came from your womb. And Moses, Moses couldn't even see the backside of God 0.87

00:24:19.620 without turning all white and shining and hair turning white and everything. But she held God

00:24:25.200 in her womb.

00:24:26.800 Just a quick note before we return. If you would like to stay up to date on LifeSite's coverage of

00:24:33.640 the latest life, family, and culture news, subscribe to one of our many newsletters by

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00:24:43.800 coverage to millions around the world, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation

00:24:48.400 at give.lifesitenews.com. And now back to the video.

00:24:52.700 I was like, all right. So I went back in there, enjoyed the, enjoyed the rest of the conversion

00:24:59.420 stories. Went and had a meal. Actually joined RCIA after that too at Saints Peter and Paul

00:25:05.860 in Alta Loma. Started going to RCIA, still struggling with my addictions because I just, I just couldn't

00:25:13.720 get it right. And I was saying, everybody thought at RCIA, oh yeah, he's really going through.

00:25:17.580 And I did it for about three months. And then I went to a Cresillo. Have you ever heard of that

00:25:21.300 before? The Cresillo movement, Decalores. If you've ever done it before, Decalores, anybody

00:25:26.240 out there too? And so I went to a Cresillo movement. It was for four days. For those four

00:25:31.020 days, I was clean. I didn't bring no drugs with me. I was clean. I was sober. At the end

00:25:35.960 of that four days, I didn't want to go. I remember it like it was yesterday and I was begging, Lord,

00:25:40.380 please, I don't want to leave. Like, leave me here. I don't want to struggle with what I'm going

00:25:46.680 through. Like, I know once I go back into the world again, I'm going to, I'm going to

00:25:51.560 be lost. I'm not going to be able to find myself. Lord, please help me, you know? And

00:25:57.420 I had to go. I couldn't stay. It was at Divine Word Seminary with the SVD order. We have them 0.98

00:26:04.080 out here, Divine Word order. And so I left and it was like, when you clean up your house,

00:26:10.800 if you don't protect your house, when you clean it out and you leave your door wide open again,

00:26:14.900 it was like seven times the demons came inside of me and I went on the biggest drug crystal meth

00:26:22.000 binge that I had ever been in my life. I had never struggled so hard like this. I went,

00:26:27.360 I had never gone under 140 pounds. I was 120 pounds. I was living from house to house. I started

00:26:33.780 gangbanging again, started using drugs out of control. I always had a big sack on me of crystal meth,

00:26:39.560 selling it, using it, just being with a lot of different women, using them for their homes,

00:26:45.580 going from place to place on top of the woman that I was supposedly being with at that time,

00:26:51.240 just completely lost. And so what happened was I picked up a, they say it was a domestic violence.

00:26:56.820 Me and her were struggling in the house. I was losing my mind because I had gone back to her

00:27:00.620 apartment and I was losing my mind. I was really like, I wanted to kill myself. I just didn't know 0.85

00:27:04.980 what was going on. I just, you know, when you don't sleep for weeks on end, it truly has a mental

00:27:10.920 result on you. The consequences are bad when you're not eating, you're not sleeping. The consequences

00:27:16.220 are dread, especially when demons are attacking you, there's nothing that you can do. And so she

00:27:22.220 finally got out of the house and in this struggle, I know this is this, I like to add to this because I

00:27:27.540 want people to know how bad I was. I literally jumped out of a two-story window, but naked because I felt

00:27:33.500 like I couldn't go out the front door because the cops were going to come and get me and I didn't

00:27:36.980 want to get incarcerated. So I grabbed my keys to the van I had, jumped out the two-story window,

00:27:42.720 scratched my back up and everything, took off. And you think I was going to try to get right. I

00:27:48.400 didn't. I continued living that way for another couple of weeks. And one day I remember driving

00:27:53.600 down the street and I went by this little church and I was struggling. I had been up for like maybe

00:27:57.120 three weeks, you know, may at least three weeks, something like that. We were going by this church

00:28:03.120 and I parked and I go, it was a Catholic church, of course. Our Lady of the Rosary is actually the

00:28:08.800 name of it. And it's, it's actually, it's actually my home now. That's what's so, that's what's so

00:28:14.660 beautiful about it. That place where I cried out to God, you said, if I ask anything in your name,

00:28:20.380 that you would take away my addiction. Why isn't it going away? Why do I still have this addiction?

00:28:26.260 Please, I beg, I'm crying, begging him. The door was open because they always have 7 a.m. mass.

00:28:31.880 And I didn't go in there. I didn't go in there. I just don't care. Just go in there. Just ask for

00:28:37.680 help. You just need help. And I didn't. So I went to another woman's house. I fell asleep for like 0.99

00:28:42.300 maybe two hours and I woke up to her going through my pockets. But that day I begged God, I begged God

00:28:48.500 to please take this away from me. I begged him. I did. I, please, you said, if I ask anything,

00:28:55.380 you would take it away. I go to her house. I wake up. She's going through my pockets looking for drugs.

00:29:00.200 I actually, this is how bad I was. I grabbed her by her neck. I threw up against the wall.

00:29:04.440 And I was like, what are you doing? Why are you going through my pockets? She's like, oh, I'm just

00:29:07.460 looking for some money or some drug. I know that's what she was looking for. She said she was just

00:29:11.280 trying to fold up my clothes. And so, you know what? In my head, I flashed and I go, what are you

00:29:15.180 doing, Eric? You got to get clean. And so I gave her a little bit of money that I had. I gave her the 0.92

00:29:19.280 drugs that I had. I knew I had to get clean. I was out of control. My mind, this binge that I had

00:29:24.160 been on, like I was still fighting. It was like that man that was going to Jesus's feet

00:29:28.020 and he wanted it. He was struggling because he had a thousand demons in him, but it didn't stop him

00:29:33.200 from approaching Jesus and falling to his knees right there. And so I was like, man, Eric, you got

00:29:37.840 to get clean. I got to go to my grandma's house. When I went to my grandma's house, this was August 19,

00:29:42.880 2015. I go to my grandmother's house now. And I don't know at the moment, but the Rancho Cucamonga

00:29:51.160 Sheriff's Department is staking out my grandmother's house. This is weeks after that incident that I had

00:29:57.680 and I jumped out the window. This is about two and a half weeks later. And so I go there, I go into my

00:30:02.740 grandma's house. I start crying to her. I was like, she goes, oh, you look good, mijo. I know I didn't.

00:30:06.160 I weighed 120 pounds. I look sick. I was a sick man. I'm 185 pounds right now. I was a sick man. I was

00:30:13.920 lost. I was confused. I was living for the devil. Everything that I was doing wasn't healthy at all,

00:30:20.640 but she was still trying to motivate me. And she told me, hey, son, can you, uh, will you please

00:30:25.520 go and get your car and park it on the street so I can go and get us some food? And I'm like, yeah,

00:30:29.800 for sure. I'm like, yeah, I'll, I'll do it. So I went to go parallel, park my car. And as I went to

00:30:34.840 go parallel, parallel, parallel, park my car, an unmarked SUV comes from behind me and actually

00:30:40.720 hits me from behind light. Boom. And I got the music on loud, but when I look in my rear view mirror,

00:30:46.280 I noticed that two men are jumping out one with a shotgun and one with a pistol, but they're dressed

00:30:51.480 in regular clothes at the time. I didn't know they were police officers at the time. I didn't know

00:30:56.780 that because they were in, they were not clothed in police gear. And so, as I see that, I put my car

00:31:02.240 in drive because like I told you, I was gangbanging. I was collecting drug debts. I probably had owed

00:31:06.960 like $2,000 in drug debts. I would say, oh yeah, I got to give me the, give me the drugs and I'll go sell

00:31:12.140 it. And I was just using it. I was parting and using it. I kept on collecting more and more and

00:31:16.940 more. And finally got to a point where I owed about a couple thousand dollars. And I thought

00:31:21.280 that those were these men trying to get me. Cause just a week before that I had gotten chased down

00:31:25.880 and actually lacerated my shin running away from them on a nail that was on a fence. I was bleeding

00:31:31.660 so bad. I was hiding in a shed. I threw all these clothes on me. So I thought it was those same

00:31:35.960 individuals trying to get me. And so immediately I take off. I start going down a couple of blocks.

00:31:41.340 This is in Loma Linda, California. My life will never be the same again after this incident that

00:31:46.580 I'm about to tell you right now. And as I'm on, as I'm on this chase, I think it's just a chase.

00:31:51.640 I look in my rear view mirror cause I'm driving in my rear view mirror. And I noticed that it's

00:31:55.680 actually cops. Cause now I see a light, a light is going on in that SUV. There is a light on the

00:32:02.140 inside of the window and it actually, and I'm like, ah man, they're cops, you know? And, but as soon

00:32:09.000 as I see that, I look forward and I'm crossing a street and it's red and I'm about to hit the back

00:32:14.720 of a red vehicle. And I jump into the bike lane. And as soon as I jump into the bike lane, a very

00:32:21.040 beautiful man, Randolph Stevenson, pray for me. Randolph Stevenson, pray for me. A very beautiful

00:32:27.960 man was going to lose his life because as soon as I went into the bike lane, I hit him and I hit him

00:32:34.480 and he died pretty much instantly. Um, but my life will never be the same again. Change in my life

00:32:41.860 is going to happen from this moment forward. So I get arrested and I'm fighting, um, 15 years to life

00:32:47.320 now. I'm fighting 15 years to life in prison. And I never think I'm going to see the light of the day

00:32:52.920 again. So now I'm actually going through a, like, oh, I'm pitting myself. Cause I want to be transparent

00:32:58.700 of like what was going on at that moment. I'm pitting myself. I'm thinking, oh, poor me. You know,

00:33:04.200 I'm trying to make up all kinds of lies that I wasn't actually the person that did this,

00:33:08.920 that I was set up and blah, blah, blah. That's what we all do when we're living that criminal

00:33:13.680 lifestyle, trying to be, we're trying to be like the slanderer, like the accursor, like the devil. 0.92

00:33:18.240 We're trying to weasel our way out of things. And it got to the point where I saw, man, you're not

00:33:23.780 going to be able to weasel your way out of this. And I was going to hang myself. I just said, you know

00:33:28.520 what? You know what? I'm going to hang myself. I'm just, I'm just going to give up on life.

00:33:32.980 And because I know that I'm, I don't want to spend life in prison. That's, that was my mentality.

00:33:38.540 Not thinking about that man's family, not thinking about Randy's family, Randolph Stevenson,

00:33:42.820 not thinking about the hurt that I had caused in the community that I had caused in my family.

00:33:47.040 I was once again, being the selfish person, just like the enemy. He's selfish. He doesn't think

00:33:52.440 about nobody else that they had that Satan con that's so dumb because Satan doesn't even care 0.99

00:33:57.420 about us. He wants us to see our demise. He doesn't want to see joy in our hearts. And so while I'm in 0.99

00:34:02.000 there, I create a noose. My son doesn't want to talk to me. I got a 17 year old son at that time.

00:34:06.840 He doesn't want to talk to me. He's rejecting me. A lot of my family were like, Oh, I thought you were

00:34:10.420 a Christian. What's going on? How did, how could you do this? They all start rejecting me and there

00:34:15.020 was no more chances. Now, now I had gone to the lowest of lows to everybody in my life. And I was

00:34:21.460 ready to take my life. And I called my son up and I'm not sure if it was something that, um,

00:34:25.820 that I said, or if God was putting something in his heart, because I know that God had a

00:34:30.360 different plan for me now. I know that things were going to change in my life, but I told him,

00:34:34.100 I love you. I'm so proud of you while I'm on the phone. I'm talking to him because he actually

00:34:38.000 answered it to me. He had just called me a fake Christian a couple of weeks before that and said

00:34:41.980 he didn't want to talk to me because I had to tell him what I did. I couldn't lie because I was

00:34:46.060 about to do life in prison. So I wanted to be as transparent as I could with him and let him know

00:34:52.020 what happened. And, but that day he said, you know, I forgive you, dad, before I hung up. Cause

00:34:56.480 I was like, all right, son, well, I love you. He's like, you know, that I love you and I forgive

00:35:02.140 you, you know? And so that's what was awesome about that is that in that moment, I love you, dad. I

00:35:09.260 forgive you. Something changed. It was like that paradigm shift. It was like, God was speaking to me

00:35:13.880 and I went back. Cause for the first month and a half, I was in jail. I wouldn't pick up the Bible.

00:35:17.760 I wouldn't pray, get away from me. Anybody who was coming to my cell was like, get away from me.

00:35:22.660 I'm just a fake. I don't even want nothing to do with God. I don't want nothing to do with him.

00:35:27.360 It was like, almost like I was mad at him for something that I did for my actions. And so I

00:35:32.800 dropped on my knees that day and I begged for forgiveness. I dropped on my knees and I cry like,

00:35:37.200 like I've never cried. And since that day, I've become a big crybaby now. And I begged him for

00:35:42.820 forgiveness with a contrite heart. And I said, Lord, if I have to do life in prison, cause it wasn't the

00:35:47.320 first time I'd been in prison. This was like the third time I'd been in prison and incarcerated.

00:35:51.440 I've probably been incarcerated a hundred times in my life, but God, but I got on my knees and I

00:35:57.380 said, please, if I have to do life in prison, just use me. Just let me be your hands. Just let me be

00:36:02.400 your feet. Let me share your word with others. Cause when you're in jail, men are always kind of like

00:36:08.280 a revolving door. They're always coming in and out, in and out, in and out, catching little petty

00:36:12.220 crimes. So I saw it was my chance to share with people. And so I did that day. I started picking up the

00:36:17.080 Bible and actually told my mom, Hey mom, will you send me in a Catholic Bible? You know, even though 0.89

00:36:22.280 a lot of people weren't talking to me, I said, will you please send me in a Catholic Bible? So she sent 0.88

00:36:25.880 me in a, I think it was an NR, NRSBRE or something like that. It's not my standard Bible that I like to

00:36:32.960 use. Cause I use the Dewey Rhames now, but it was still, it was still a Catholic Bible with a,

00:36:38.200 with a study part on the bottom. And so I started reading it. I started reading it every day. And on top

00:36:43.060 of that, actually we made a rosary out of a trash bag. So I, that was always my hardest part of the

00:36:49.580 conversion was the blessed Virgin understanding who my queen was, understanding her commitment to

00:36:56.480 interceding for us. Like she did at the wedding in Cana, you know, when she asked Jesus to turn the

00:37:01.220 water into wine, I could never grasp that idea, but I knew that somehow I needed to be new. And in order for

00:37:08.780 me to be new, I had to ask my mother, cause I never had a good relationship with my mom, never had a 0.65

00:37:13.540 good relationship with any woman that I've had in my life. Like, like I was telling you during this

00:37:17.300 story right now, just never respected women. I needed something more. So I started praying the

00:37:21.700 rosary every day and not just praying it, like not just saying, Oh, okay, I have a rosary. I'm going to

00:37:25.780 pray with it. No, but actually learning what all the mysteries are each, each of the days of the

00:37:30.160 mysteries and the effects that those mysteries and contemplating on Jesus's life and her

00:37:36.340 intercession would have on my life. And then I started going cell to cell and I would share

00:37:41.200 scriptures every day, every day, kind of like I do on my YouTube channel right now. I'm not getting

00:37:45.200 too big in the apologetics on my YouTube channel. I just share a scripture, a short every single day,

00:37:50.600 because there is power and evangelization through the word of God. I can get all into the apologetics.

00:37:56.460 I love apologetics, but I wasn't doing that at this moment. I knew a lot of people were non-Catholics

00:38:01.020 there. And so I just wanted to share Jesus. I just wanted to share him and him, him and him

00:38:07.260 crucified. That was everything to me. And so praise God, he gave me this form to do that.

00:38:12.600 And so while I'm doing that, I'm still struggling with forgiving myself. And so praise God. I asked

00:38:19.240 for a priest to come and see me because we don't have a priest there. They actually send to me Father

00:38:23.340 Stephen Porter. He's out in Banning at St. Kateri. But when they sent him to come talk to me,

00:38:28.820 he was actually at the place I was baptized because I was baptized as a baby. Even though I never knew

00:38:34.280 the faith, I was baptized as a baby. So the place where I was actually baptized at, he came from that

00:38:43.820 place, St. Catherine of Siena and Rialto. And I'm thinking in my head, this is pretty amazing. I can't

00:38:51.680 believe this is actually happening right now. I'm really blown away by it. So he talks to me and I

00:38:57.840 tell him I understand God's forgiveness, but I don't forgive myself. And this man's like six foot

00:39:02.620 four. He's tall, maybe tall. He's from South Africa. He stands up and he says, how dare you? 0.91

00:39:08.700 How dare you disrespect God? And I'm like, I'm thinking in my head, I'm thinking in my head,

00:39:13.140 what's going on? You know, like how, what's this, that's, what's this, that's happening. And he tells

00:39:18.360 me, how can you say that you forgive God or that God forgives you? I mean, sorry, how can you say

00:39:24.840 that God forgives you, but you don't forgive yourself? God, Jesus died on the cross for you

00:39:30.540 so you could forgive yourself. How dare you? And so at that moment, I started grasping that idea

00:39:35.400 right there. How can I say God forgives me, but I don't forgive myself when Jesus died on the cross

00:39:40.380 for me. If I proclaim that, then I should be forgiving myself and loving myself. I've made mistakes,

00:39:45.740 mistakes, but those mistakes don't define who I am. Jesus, wait, where's that? Let me go this way.

00:39:51.640 Jesus died on the cross for us. That's what defines who I am. And at that moment, I understand that.

00:39:57.420 And you know what? He gave me the Eucharist that day. I didn't have my first communion and I'm not

00:40:01.640 saying people to go out there and take it without having your first communion or being confirmed.

00:40:05.920 I'm not saying that, but he knew the efficacious powers and the graces that are within the Eucharist,

00:40:13.360 the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ that is present right there. He knew

00:40:19.020 what it was going to do for me. He knew I needed those graces. And so through the bars,

00:40:23.000 he actually gives me the Eucharist. He does. And I tell him, Hey, father, I don't have my first

00:40:28.420 communion. No, you're Catholic. You were baptized Catholic. You're a Catholic. And he gave it to me.

00:40:34.160 Didn't have to explain nothing else after that. Of course, later on in life, I understand

00:40:37.680 what it's doing to me because I already believed it was the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord Jesus

00:40:41.740 Christ. Cause I had a catechism that I was reading. I was already going through doctrine. I'd already

00:40:46.620 gone through the bread of life discourse at this time. I'm just really grasping the sacraments

00:40:52.420 and stuff. It's something that's important for everybody to really know those things.

00:40:57.140 And so as I, as I continue going to court, after I saw him, I went to court. This is about a year and

00:41:02.880 a half later. The judge tells me they're only going to give me 10 years, but I told God, if I have to do

00:41:08.340 life in prison, just let me use you, please. I mean, just let, just use me, Lord, please just use

00:41:16.020 me as much as you can help me to, to transform these men that are inside of here. Cause it's,

00:41:21.520 it's a prison full of demons. We're all lost in there. We're all struggling through all of our own

00:41:26.260 addictions, hurts, habits, and hangups. Use me to spread your light in this darkness. And so the judge

00:41:32.940 tells me that he's going to drop my case from a second degree murder to in the case of evading

00:41:38.900 arrest. Um, it's like a vehicle code 2800.3 that I would only get 10 years with 80%. So I'd like do

00:41:46.040 six and a half years. And I couldn't believe it. I started crying and weeping and just giving him

00:41:50.520 thanks because I really believe that I deserve to do more because a beautiful man lost his life

00:41:55.840 and his family still hurts because of me, you know, and, um, I forgive myself, but I use it as

00:42:01.880 a fuel for myself every day to preach the gospel every single day to not be lax, to go 150% all the

00:42:07.640 time. So they send me upstate to a prison. And so now I'm like, okay, I'm going upstate to prison.

00:42:12.900 Now I can have mass. Now I can be connected with a priest up there, but it was hard to find that at

00:42:18.120 first. So I started finding myself doing Bible studies on my own, teaching the faith, but just teaching

00:42:23.820 the Bible. We're really still reading all my Catholic books. I can books with sending me stuff.

00:42:28.580 Catholic answers, send me hundreds of books. Thank you. Catholic answers. Um, Ignatius press.

00:42:34.640 Thank you. Ignatius press sent me all kinds of stuff. Actually, this was the Bible that the new

00:42:39.960 Testament that they sent me right here, the Ignatius press study Bible with the four words

00:42:43.740 by Scott Hahn. They sent me a lot of stuff. Um, St. Paul's school of theology, um, which is with Scott Hahn,

00:42:51.860 um, out there from Steubenville, they actually started sending me a lot of different, um,

00:42:56.620 doctrines and teachings about covenants, about the sacraments. And I just started reading them

00:43:02.080 every day, reading them every day. And then finally I get to a prison setting where it's like, all right,

00:43:06.520 I'm going to have a mass. Nope. There's no priest on the yard. We have no mass. And I'm like, ah,

00:43:12.060 I'm not gonna be able to get confirmed. I want to get my communion. I want to get confirmed. I was so

00:43:16.600 eager to get it done. I just wanted to be in full communion with the church. I was so on fire.

00:43:21.640 So I actually started being a part of a Protestant, um, ministry. And so everybody knew I was Catholic,

00:43:27.260 but I kind of thought, I kind of think they thought I was going to capitulate like most Catholics do in 1.00

00:43:32.220 prison because we heard on ministries in prison. We heard in there, the Protestants will have in one 1.00

00:43:37.360 month, every Sunday, they'll have a different Protestant ministry come in Catholics, maybe once a

00:43:43.160 month, maybe once a month. So that is such a large portion of our faith, especially when 25%

00:43:49.600 of Latinos in our faith have actually left the church. And I, and I believe it's a big part of

00:43:56.020 that reason is the evangelization within prisons and the evangelization on the streets in America.

00:44:02.040 So 25% in the last 12 years, 25% of Latinos have left the church. And I'm a, I'm a testament to that. 1.00

00:44:08.460 I saw it in prison. All of them were leaving the faith because they just don't have the

00:44:12.700 evangelization in there. And we don't know the doc. They don't know the doctrine growing up.

00:44:16.400 I believe confirmation and communion should be done at a later age so that they're more

00:44:20.540 conscious of what they're doing, what they're believing, you know, more later in their teens,

00:44:25.420 not so young communion, not so young confirmation, drag it out into the late teens. Um, it just,

00:44:31.920 cause they, then they're, they're more smarter than they can actually embrace their faith a lot

00:44:35.780 stronger than, so while being in there, I'm preaching. So, you know, I'm, I'm an ex Protestant,

00:44:40.500 so I'm preaching in their circles. They're giving me 30 minutes. I have hundreds of different

00:44:45.340 sermons that I've taught. Sometimes I would bump heads with them because they would be sort of

00:44:49.480 Catholic leaning sermons, you know, and I would break it down through the faith,

00:44:54.020 like faith and works where salvation is baptism, Eucharist. I would, I would teach them this.

00:45:00.980 And so afterwards their leaders would get at me. And so I was a part of the praise and worship

00:45:05.240 teams. I love praise music. I love praise music is worshiping God twice. Contemporary Christian

00:45:10.500 music or Gregorian, everything hymns, but it's praying twice, you know, when you're singing praise

00:45:15.520 because you're praying to God and you're praising God at the same time. And so I'm in those ministries

00:45:20.180 with them. All of a sudden I'm looking, I'm on the yard working out one day and I see a guy with like a,

00:45:25.480 one of those beach hats come in. He's a tall black guy. He's dressed like, I could see he's like,

00:45:30.500 there's like a priest over there. And he got this blue, aqua blue sun hat on. He's from Nigeria,

00:45:37.100 you know? And I, and all of a sudden I run over there to see who it is. And yeah, it is.

00:45:41.040 It's a Nigerian priest named father Titus EB. This man, father Titus, if you ever hear, see this,

00:45:49.180 I have yet to talk to him again. He became my spiritual director for two years. He became my,

00:45:54.480 my father, my big brother. He became my guide. He chastised me when I needed chastising.

00:46:00.160 He put me in check when I needed to be checked, but he also listened to me when I would have to

00:46:05.460 tell him, Hey father, that's a, don't, don't judge us like that, please. I know this is your first

00:46:10.420 prison setting. And he was so open and loving to having me be the facilitator. They're setting up

00:46:16.360 the altars, doing Bible studies, catechism teacher. But as I started doing all this, the Protestants 1.00

00:46:22.980 noticed it. And so now I started being attacked by all their leaders. And what they were faint to

00:46:28.660 realize is that I was just like them at one time. And every question they came at me with

00:46:33.400 the Catholics, not only did I know it because I was reading the catechism and all these books,

00:46:37.680 but I had a Catholic survival guide too, that I had gone through the entire thing.

00:46:41.780 Catholic answers has a Catholic survival guide. I don't know if you've ever heard of it.

00:46:45.540 No, it has a little life wrapped on it, but it gives you all of our doctrines in it. It gives you

00:46:50.500 all the teachings, Tim Staples, Trent Horn, Joey Heschmeyer, Scott Hahn, Peter Kraft. They're all in

00:46:59.440 there and they're giving you the teachings of our faith. And then there's even sections on how to

00:47:04.740 refute seven day Adventist, how to refute Jehovah witnesses, how to refute Mormons, how to refute

00:47:10.620 Calvinist, Lutheran, history of the church. It breaks it all down. I had that and has a little

00:47:16.980 life raft on the front of it. So it's called the Catholic survival guide by Catholic answers and

00:47:21.340 it's orange. And so I, I was already reading through all that and I was learning the faith

00:47:25.720 us converts. We have to learn the faith because a lot of us converts are so anti Catholics at one

00:47:31.160 time that we have to get into those scriptures and understand, okay, I was already a Bible reading

00:47:35.940 Christian. Now I'm a Bible reading Catholic Christian, the original Christians. And so I started 1.00

00:47:40.340 reading it and I started grasping it. And so when they would come to me, I would refute them. They

00:47:43.500 didn't know what to do. I would show them in scriptures. I would be clear.

00:47:46.980 Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I started showing them and they're like, sorry, bro, you can't speak

00:47:50.380 in our groups no more. You can't be a part of the praise and worship team. I even went to their

00:47:54.560 chaplain. I said, man, when is there going to be a time when all Christians can come together

00:48:00.460 and we just fellowship on the yard instead of you guys being such anti Catholics, you know,

00:48:05.460 so anti us, when is there going to come a time? And he goes, I don't know. He told me he was a

00:48:10.040 Methodist. He goes, I don't know. You know, cause I was, I've become pretty close with them too.

00:48:14.820 Cause I was started becoming a part of their leadership. And so they took me out of their

00:48:18.460 groups, but in the, for the, for the next two and a half years after that, I taught catechism.

00:48:22.960 I got my first communion in there. I set up the altars. I had Bible studies because the priest is

00:48:29.660 only on the yard four hours a week because he has seven other yards to be on. So he has all these

00:48:35.420 other yards that he has to be on. So I was given that authority as the Catholic facilitator,

00:48:40.180 like the head layman in there to, to do all these things. And I wanted to Bible studies every day,

00:48:46.760 catechism with like six different guys. I didn't just come into the faith when I got confirmed.

00:48:51.080 I brought in six brothers with me. So a messianic Jew, two Protestants, a Jehovah witness,

00:48:57.680 and a couple of atheists. They were all neighbors with me where I was living. I was, God would have

00:49:02.800 me so on fire. I just wanted to share the faith every day. This joy, this, this endurance,

00:49:08.020 the perseverance, the strength that only comes from the Holy spirit and the guidance that we

00:49:12.720 have right here in the Catholic church. I, it was infectious. God was reaching out to them.

00:49:19.300 And so when I got confirmed, praise God, I got a six brothers actually came in with me.

00:49:23.640 So it was seven of us that actually got confirmed while I was in there. God put more of them. My

00:49:29.440 spiritual awakening was happening. I was on fire, but he's like, okay, now I want you to get educated.

00:49:34.120 I'm a junior high dropout. And so high school diploma, I got a degree in theology through a

00:49:41.040 Protestant college actually, because there, we didn't have, we didn't have Catholic ministries

00:49:45.540 like that in there. So through, um, it's actually an Anglican school. I got it through. I would

00:49:50.200 debate them the entire time, but I wasn't going to quit. I was going to actually, I was the first Roman

00:49:56.740 Catholic to walk with this college in Los Angeles in 2000 and 2021. I actually walked and got my

00:50:04.180 degree. They handed it to me and I had my rosary on the whole time. And I think I had a St. Benedict

00:50:08.580 medal too on me and the entire time. And I talked to them at this graduation, this was on the streets,

00:50:15.520 but while I was incarcerated, I didn't, I wasn't going to give up. I got a degree in social and

00:50:19.620 behavioral science. I became a Christian peer counselor while I was in there. I was a MAC rep. So I was a

00:50:25.600 representative for all the Christians that were on our yard too. And so anything that I could do,

00:50:30.100 self-help groups, because I wanted this complete transformation to happen. And I knew I needed all,

00:50:35.860 God had put all these different, all these different, um, uh, what would I call them? Groups

00:50:41.540 to help me transform the education, to transform this renewing of my mind. Don't be conformed to the

00:50:47.440 ways of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It was going to happen because

00:50:51.680 he put all these things before me. Not only was I getting spiritually yoked,

00:50:55.600 now I was going to become a man who could talk properly, even though sometimes I still have my

00:51:00.260 sling, but the way I talked, the way I acted, the way I smile, the way I love the way my intelligence

00:51:06.440 started transforming the way I would see the world now would start evolving because of this moment

00:51:12.220 that happened on August 15th, August 19th, 2015, when Randolph Stevenson lost his life.

00:51:18.060 Hi everyone. This is John Henry Weston. We hope you enjoyed this program. To see more like it,

00:51:30.260 be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSite News. Check

00:51:35.160 the links in the description to read more and connect with us on social media so that you can

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00:51:42.940 Thanks for watching and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - June 06, 2023

Redemption ｜ Eric Tafoya From Murderer To Catholic Convert PART 1

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