From Islam to the Catholic Church: One Turkish woman shares her story of faith

ACI MENA, Aug 21, 2024 / 06:00 am

Born 61 years ago into a Muslim family in Turkey, Belkız was the first daughter after two sons. As a child, she went to the mosque and read the Koran in Arabic but says she didn’t understand it. After reading books on materialist philosophy in her youth, she became an atheist at the age of 15.

Belkız (whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons) told ACI Mena, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that after graduating from university, she became a literature teacher and was constantly reading books. When she was 28 years old, she read Turan Dursun’s book “This Is Religion.” (Dursun, a former Shia Muslim and scholar who became an atheist, was murdered because of what he wrote about Islam and religion. His book criticizes religious books — mainly the Koran.)

Belkız couldn’t believe what she read so she bought a Turkish Koran and read it. The Bible was next — she bought one at the Izmir Book Fair and was invited to watch a movie at a Protestant church about the life of Jesus based on the Gospel of Luke.

Watching the movie completely changed the way she thought about God. The biblical story that touched her the most was the prayer of the tax collector and the Pharisee in the Temple. Here she saw her own sin. Because, like the Pharisee, she was so confident in her own righteousness, she experienced her first shame before God. “Love your enemies” became her guide. At the end of the movie, Belkız prayed with all her heart: “Lord please come into my life, I leave my life in your hands, do with me as you will!”

Afterward, she went to the Protestant church every Sunday, read the Bible regularly, and always attended prayer meetings. She was baptized and lived happily in a living relationship with God. 

Then one Sunday at a church service in 2005, a young person taking bread and wine at the Lord’s table took the bread, put the crust in his mouth and squeezed the inside of the bread in the palm of his hand. When Belkız saw this she felt uncomfortable because she felt as if the body of the Lord had been hurt. She talked to a Protestant friend about it. She said he told her it was okay because “it’s not really the Lord’s body, we do it in remembrance; Catholics really believe that it is the body of Christ.”

After that she sought out the Catholic Church and has been a Catholic ever since.

After taking catechism classes, she was confirmed as a Catholic on April 25, 2011, and changed the religion on her birth certificate from Muslim to Christian.

When asked if she was afraid of persecution as a Christian, Belkiz smiled and said: “When Jesus was betrayed, his disciple Peter denied Jesus three times. Because he was afraid. But the same Peter, after receiving the Holy Spirit, spread the Gospel from Jerusalem to Italy and when he was going to be crucified, he said, ‘I am not worthy to die, Lord,’ and was crucified [upside down].”

Belkız also said what she has gained in her faith journey is right in the Bible: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).

“God offers us all a treasure. All we have to do is accept it,” Belkız said. “I did not choose God, he chose me. What impresses me most about Christianity is the Lord Jesus’ infinite love for us. I have found my best friend and my most beautiful lover.”

This story was first published by ACI Mena, CNA's Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.