A “badly recited Rosary” gets requested grace

In April 2013, the conversion to Catholicism of Fernando Casanova, a Puerto Rican Pentecostal pastor, made headlines in the Latino American news. Since then, he has been a zealous defender of the Church with his astounding knowledge of the Bible and his impassioned oratory style.

He himself recounts his slow and painful process of conversion to Catholicism: it took him no less than five years, after many years of service in his Protestant church.

This process began with his biblical search for a single, united Church founded by Jesus Christ. He was confused by the continuing proliferation of Protestant churches and groups. 

His zealous quest had one clear goal: "Not to be Catholic." Except that the coup de grace of his conversion was precisely his discovery of the Catholic Eucharist.

When he decided to convert, he informed his wife, a staunch Protestant, who then opted to separate. Fernando spent several months away from his wife and three children, crucified by this mystery: why did God allow such suffering when he was now following the right path?

He describes with great emotion how one day he entered a chapel to seek God's strength in the midst of his difficulties. He saw a rosary on a bench in the church and understood that God was asking him to recite it. For the newly converted young man, praying the rosary was still hard to do. But as he looked at Mary, he told her that he was ready to do so and asked her for two things: that he could be reconciled with his wife and that she and their children could enter into full communion with the Church of her Son.

The former pastor said, "I prayed the Rosary awkwardly and without faith, asking God for forgiveness every ten Hail Marys in case he didn't like my way of praying." The same day, Fernando Casanova was able to see his family and reconcile with his wife! 

One year to the day after this "badly recited Rosary", in the cathedral of Puerto Rico the capital, Fernando Casanova, his wife and children were officially received into the Catholic Church.

Adapted and translated from: Aleteia