Lori Konecni is the major gifts program specialist for the Arlington Diocese. (HENRIETTA GOMES | CATHOLIC HERALD)
Growing up as an evangelical Protestant in Phoenix, Lori Konecni faithfully attended worship services with her family on Sunday mornings.
Her own faith was marked with a sense of anti-Catholic sentiment, and at Arizona State University Konecni joined evangelical discipleship groups and sought to bring Mormons and Catholics “into the fold.”
She moved to Washington, D.C., as an intern after college and began “church shopping.” Housed by her internship in the dorms of George Washington University, she began meeting people. One Sunday morning, Josh Konecni announced he was going to church and invited anyone to come. “What church are you going to?” she asked with excitement.
Her heart sank when his response was St. Stephen Catholic Church, a few blocks away. She graciously declined to go with him and sought another place of worship. A place that was not Catholic.
“He saw the disappointment in my face,” said Konecni, smiling about the man who became her husband.
Konecni, the major gifts program specialist for the Arlington Diocese, recounted the story of how the two began having conversations about the Faith and soon after started dating.
“Faith was the beginning of our relationship,” she said.
However, after about two weeks of dating, she thought she could not continue the relationship. “I thought I can’t marry (him), so I can’t date (him).” She felt strongly that she would never marry a Catholic.
Another plan
Time in prayer led her to believe that it would be okay for her to date Josh as long as they continued having talks about their faith each week. It was part of her plan to bring him to the “light.” “My goal was to convert him,” she said.
Josh had his own requests. “He had to get married in the Catholic Church, had to raise his kids Catholic and would not practice contraception,” she said, referring to them as his “three commandments.” While she had no problem with the first two because of her plan to convert him, she found the latter problematic. From her family experience, Konecni, who has one brother, thought two kids were enough.
She bought books about how to talk to Roman Catholics and other Protestant apologetics materials.
“I thought, ‘I’ll show him. He’ll eventually come to my side.’ … I was strong and very confident in what I believed,” she said.
Her resources, however, were letting her down. As someone who had studied the Faith and was well-versed in Scripture and the Catechism, Josh “had an answer for everything.” His answers were not the ones anticipated by the books, so she eventually put them aside and immersed herself in Scripture study with him.
“I didn’t know who I was up against,” said Konecni.
She began going to Mass with him. “It was so different,” she said. “I sat through everything. I didn’t want to stand. It was very weird, but there was something beautiful about it that I recognized.” Despite her hesitation, “I kept going back.”
Hungry for more
Her curiosity was heightened, and her desire for truth compelled her to continue her search. It was a gradual process, but Konecni slowly began to draw closer to the Catholic Church. Reading a book on the history of the Catholic Church, given to her by Josh, was “enlightening.”
Despite persecution, the Church has been around standing for 2,000 years, she said face aglow as if learning it again for the first time. Growing up, she had not considered church history between the time of Christ and the time of Martin Luther 1,500 years later. She learned about the formation of Christian tradition and grew hungry for more.
Studying the bread of life discourse in chapter six of the Gospel of St. John, she began to understand the Eucharist. “I couldn’t find any reason not to believe in the Eucharist,” said Konecni, who at the time was involved at the Newman Center at George Washington, where she was a graduate student in political management.
As her involvement with campus ministry and her search for truth continued, she helped lead a freshman retreat and was amazed to find she knew more about the Faith than many of the cradle Catholics.
“I was edified at watching Lori,” said Thérèse Bermpohl, then-director of campus ministry at the Newman Center. She was amazed at Konecni’s articulation of the Faith to Catholic college students who struggled with Church teachings. Konecni was defending the Catholic position and “she wasn’t even Catholic yet,” said Bermpohl, now director of the diocesan Office of Family Life.
“It was inspiring to see how she was responding to these things,” said Bermpohl.
Stumbling blocks broken
Then, another moment of grace and clarity. One evening Konecni was listening to a nun on EWTN speak about “Humanae Vitae,” an encyclical on human life written by Pope Paul VI in 1968. She learned the reason behind the Church’s teaching on birth control and it made sense.
“(The Church) went against the cultural norm and got it right,” she said.
Now she can joke that at her wedding, when the priest asked the question about being open to life, “we both said ‘yes’ before the question was over.”
While the role of the Blessed Mother was a stumbling block for her, one night she felt compelled to pray her first rosary. “Mary was always an undercurrent. She slowly started to move in my heart,” said Konecni, who later learned that Josh prayed to the Blessed Mother for her conversion.
At the time of her gradual journey, she also grappled with the idea of the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church, but with continued study began to receive the answers she sought.
Intellectually she found the Truth, but “pride wouldn’t let me move forward.” Konecni recounted Bermpohl saying to her, “I don’t understand how if you believe in the Eucharist, you don’t run to it.”
Attending an Easter Vigil Mass at St. Stephen, she looked at those coming into the fullness of the Church and knew, “this will be me next year. The walls of pride fell down.”
The next Easter Vigil in 2005, Konecni came into full communion with the Church.
“My parents looked at it as if I were joining another denomination,” said Konecni. She and Joshua were married two years later and are parishioners of St. Timothy Church in Chantilly.
Now she is blessed to work for the Church where breaks away from her desk at noon for daily Mass. “She’s in love with the Faith and she’s in love with the Lord in the Eucharist,” said Bermpohl.
Looking at friends who are still looking for the truth, Konecni said, “I just want them to get to that point.”
“I’m incredibly grateful because God’s just so good where He leads us,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes. “It really is the fullness of truth. It’s kind of unbelievable and shocking.”
Henrietta Gomes can be reached at hgomes@catholicherald.com.