Mary and the conversion story of Roy Schoeman

Jewish convert to Catholicism Roy Schoeman was born in a suburb of New York City of “Conservative” Jewish parents who had fled Nazi Germany. His Jewish education and formation was received under some of the most prominent Rabbis in contemporary American Jewry (...)

His secular education included a B.Sc. from M.I.T. and an M.B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard Business School. Midway through a career of teaching and consulting (he had been appointed to the faculty of the Harvard Business School) he experienced an unexpected and instantaneous conversion to Christianity which led to a dramatic refocus of his activities. Since then he has pursued theological studies at several seminaries, helped produce and host a Catholic Television talk show, and edited and written for several Catholic books and reviews.

In 1987, his life changed forever. While on vacation in Cape Cod, God intervened, dramatically and distinctly, into his life to pull him back and put him onto the right path.

“As I was walking, lost in my thoughts, I found myself in the immediate presence of God,” he recalled. “It is as though I ‘fell into Heaven.’ Everything changed from one moment to the next, but in such a smooth and subtle way that I was not aware of any discontinuity. I felt myself in the immediate presence of God.(...)

A year to the day after the initial experience, I went to sleep after saying a short prayer, and felt as though I was woken by a gentle hand on my shoulder, and escorted to a room where I was left alone with the most beautiful young woman I could imagine,” he said. “I knew without being told that she was the Blessed Virgin Mary. I felt entirely awake (and my memory is as though I had been awake), although I was dreaming. I remember my first reaction, standing there awed by her presence and grandeur, was wishing I knew at least the Hail Mary so that I could honor her! She offered to answer any questions I had. I remember thinking about what to ask, asking the questions, and her answers. After speaking to me a while longer, the audience was ended. When I woke the next morning I was hopelessly in love with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I knew that the God I had met on the beach was Christ, and that all I wanted was to be as much of, and as good a Christian as possible. I still did not know anything about Christianity, nor the difference between the Catholic Church and any of the hundreds of Protestant denominations. It took me another two years or so to find my way to the Catholic Church, guided by my love and reverence for the Blessed Virgin Mary.”

He was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church in 1992. After first discerning a vocation to the religious life, Schoeman realized that he had another vocation, although still a vocation to holiness and to service to Christ.

Roy Schoeman recounted his conversion story at Christendom College on September 19, 2005, as part of the College’s Major Speakers Program.

www.christendom.edu