Long, long time ago I lived in a small and very friendly parish where everyone knew everyone else. A young married couple moved into the area. They joined the parish and immediately became involved in some ministries only to leave the Catholic Church officially and noisily after a couple of months or so. They got "re-baptized" in some local Evangelical community.
It was a shock to all in the parish, and most of all to our elderly pastor - one of the finest priests I've ever known. No one in the church knew the reasons behind their decision. Some speculated that they came to the parish and got involved in it with the predetermined decision to leave the Catholic Church with a lot of noise, but no one knew for sure.
It took place over 25 years ago, and I still remember the first intercession said by the pastor on Sunday in the prayer of the faithful: Let us pray for those who left the Church because of our lack of charity.
I thought then that by saying the prayer our pastor told us what could be the actual reason for the young couple to leave our parish and the Church. And, even if they had other reasons, our true Christian charity might have prompted them to stay.
When I converted from Methodism to the Catholic Church my heart and convictions were solidly there for 2 years before I joined RCIA. I went to Mass, I prayed the prayers, I tried to live the life but something was holding me back. My friends would tell me I was ready, one even arranged for a priest to work with me privately. I just kept telling them I didn't know why but I felt sure I'd know when the time was right.
Finally, one evening I was talking to a friend and when I hung up the phone, I had made my decision. I turned to my husband and said, "I'm going to join the Catholic Church and I won't ask you to join with me but I'll need your cooperation. You'll have to get baptized and we'll have to have our marriage blessed."
He said okay way too easy. So something (the Holy Spirit?) urged me to push just a little harder and within 5 minutes I had him agreeing to attend the inquiry part of RCIA with no strings attached. If he dropped out I wouldn't say a word. After the inquiry he kept going but he never committed himself out loud to me.
I get cold chills when I think about how many things happened.
About the middle of October the priest asked the RCIA leaders if they would start another period of inquiry because he had some others who were interested. So the next time I saw my son I asked him to go. He gave me the "Mother, you have to be out of your mind look!" I just said "Please, just do it for me." Then I got a hold of my poor daughter-in-law and convinced her to join him, promising to babysit the kids while they were at class.
There was no turning back for any of us. We all came into Communion with the Church Easter 2000. My husband was baptized, my son and I had first Communion and Confirmation and my daughter-in-law who was baptized a Catholic was Confirmed.
There is more but this is long enough already.