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For Sarah Zoch, the wait is finally over

By Tony Staley
Compass Correspondent

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GREEN BAY -- While Sarah Zoch was growing up, her parents encouraged her to find the church that was right for her.

"I could be anything I wanted," Zoch recalled, "as long as it wasn't Catholic."

E a s t e r

On March 22, Zoch, now 34, will be received into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil at St. Bernard Parish. That evening, her older daughter, Britanni, will receive her first Communion and her younger daughter, Hannah, will be baptized and will receive her first Communion.

The night will cap a years-long search for Zoch. It included soul-searching, reading many books and inquiring into various mainline Protestant denominations, nondenominational community churches and the Greek Orthodox - the church of her father's family.

"I went to some of the big nondenominational churches in Green Bay," Zoch said. "There was a lot of music and a lot of hoopla and a lot of show, but it never had a lot of meaning for me. Was it fun to dance around and sing? Sure. But it lacked the meaning for me."

Though she had been to Catholic weddings, she had never really considered the Catholic Church until one particular day.

Moved by experience

"I had tears in my eyes in my car," she said. "I can't tell you why. It wasn't that the Gospel that day had that much meaning to me. ... I felt such peace and finally, 'This is it, this is what I've been looking for.'"

Feeling at home in a church was something that Zoch not only hadn't experienced in 15 years, it was the reason she started her search at age 19, after making "some not-so-good choices."

As a youth, Zoch said she was at her church about four days a week, participated in a Bible study group at Ashwaubenon High School and really enjoyed it all. Then she had a child out of wedlock. Everything changed.

"The door was slammed in my face. I mean literally," Zoch said. "I walked to church one day and they shut the door to church as I was walking in. A man I had known for years, and babysat his children, shut the doors and said 'Church has started.'

"That was a really hard thing for me to grasp because I've always believed that church was kind of a safe haven for me and it was a place for me to go to be accepted," Zoch said.

"That day really affected me deeply. I turned away from God for a while. I thought, 'How could you do this to me? I'm at a time where I need him more than I ever needed him in the world and he just shut the door in my face.'"

Still, Zoch did not give up. In the years that followed, she said she often felt that God was all she had. "He was always there. Even when I was mad at him. Even when I was searching, he was always there and he always made sure that I knew he was there."

Finding the right fit

Ten years ago, she married Timothy, who was raised Catholic in St. Bernard Parish. Every time she attended family weddings, baptisms and other events at St. Bernard, Zoch said she felt "a weird peace, like this is right. This is a fit for me."

Despite that, she didn't act on it. Then, one day she and Tim were seated next to Fr. Dave Pleier, St. Bernard's pastor, at her sister-in-law's wedding rehearsal dinner.

"Oh no, the evening is ruined," Zoch remembered thinking. Instead she had a great time and couldn't get Fr. Pleier out of her mind. She decided to go to Mass at St. Bernard and found that she liked both Fr. Pleier and Fr. Walter Stumpf, the associate pastor.

"The more I went the more it sank in that there was something to this," Zoch said. "God was really pulling me there."

A curious Zoch called about RCIA classes and read Scott Hahn's "Rome Sweet Home," a book detailing Catholic beliefs, which she recommended to everyone. In it, Hahn says there are two types of people: Those who don't like Catholics and those who don't like Catholics because they don't know what Catholics believe.

Zoch said she fell into the second group. For example, she was raised thinking that you never talk about Mary. "The more I've prayed and learned, the more I relate to her," Zoch said, "and the more she's had a part in my life."

Through RCIA, Zoch said she also learned that reconciliation is not about going into a box "where they're just going to ream me."

Digging deeper

RCIA led her to dig deeper into herself, Zoch said, and she will miss the weekly sessions led by Joanne Griesbach, director of adult education/RCIA, and team members Greg McLean and Randy Barrett.

"The stuff we learn that week always ends up applying during the next week," Zoch said. "Everyone may not do it the same way I do. I come home and reflect and study. I don't just go to class on Sunday and say, 'OK, I've gone to my Sunday class.'"

She urges anyone considering RCIA to dive in, try it and realize it carries no obligation to join the church.

"I also don't look at this as once I'm done that's the end of it, I know everything. I'll be learning for years and studying and reading. I'm so glad I made the call to do it," Zoch said.