Story of the Heart, Part 1

Rebecca W. Martin details the conversion journey of Roseanna M. White, a wife, mom, publisher, and bestselling Christian author.

Years ago, I read an excellent piece of historical fiction titled The Number of Love. Not only was it a darn good story, but also the main character was Catholic—not a frequent find in the Christian romance section of the library. Fast forward five or so years, and I’ve had the blessing of getting to know the author of that book, Roseanna M. White, and her husband David. In 2022, after decades of service in their Seventh-Day Baptist church, the Whites and their two children were received into the Catholic Church.

Roseanna’s conversion journey is a story of passionate pursuit of truth, fueled by a profound love of the Lord. And the key word there is story, given that we’re talking about the bestselling author of 34 novels.

Roseanna grew up in rural West Virginia within a close-knit Methodist family. She’s been telling stories since she was old enough to play make-believe, and writing since she could hold a pencil. At 14, she’d drafted a novel, and by the end of the year had collected a Jo March-worthy stack of rejection letters.

About the same time, she met her future husband, David. Theirs is a rare teenage romance: bolstered by a shared sense of vocation, they knew they wanted to grow together into the people they are meant to be. As Roseanna says, “We had as much of an idea of what marriage means as any couple, and while we knew there was a lot to learn, we wanted to learn together. God has a path for all of us, and the most important thing is that you’re following that path.”

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Together, they attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, a liberal-arts school that she jokes “has a tendency to make Catholics out of people.” Reading the great books of Western Civilization, including the Church Fathers, St. Augustine, and others, led Roseanna deeper into her faith. For the first time, she didn’t just receive the facts of what she believed, but started getting answers that helped her understand why.

During this time, Roseanna’s father, a Methodist lay minister, discovered the Seventh-Day Baptists and “planted” a new church. Roseanna and David quickly made friends with another young Seventh-Day Baptist pastor and his wife, and this couple, along with the many Catholics Roseanna and David knew at St. John’s, became the sort of iron-sharpening-iron friends that continue to challenge each other in their pursuit of truth.

As Roseanna developed her writing and began to publish, her stories always centered around faith. “The power of story is that it allows us to see through others’ eyes, to develop an empathy and awareness of ideas and people who are ‘other,’” she describes. Roseanna’s own empathy shines out in her work, whether she’s writing about an Anglican nobleman or an autistic Catholic mathematician-turned-spy. Her characters are vividly real in their gifts and struggles.

This same empathy led to Roseanna and David taking over religious formation at her father’s church. As they educated others, they continued educating themselves—and became more and more aware of how modern Protestantism had deviated in profound ways from the early church.

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The Whites kept studying, and soon “How do the Catholics do it?” became their go-to question about church matters. But what finally tipped them over the edge from thinking about becoming Catholic, to stepping away from their tiny family church?

“We would have conversations with Protestants where they would be hateful about the Catholic Church,” Roseanna explains. “And that was hurtful because we had so many Catholic friends. So we would challenge them, ‘Have you ever had a conversation with a Catholic? Have you asked them what this or that means?’”

“We were questioning a lot, and some people would come up to us and say they appreciated the questions. But other people just resented us. They felt like we were being rude. So we were unhappy for a couple of years,” she continues. “We saw a concerning trend towards politics and Americanism rather than true Christianity, and a complete avoidance of admitting that sin exists in our own lives, not just the lives of other people.” At the same time, their original Seventh-Day Baptist friends—the young pastor and his wife—were themselves planning to become Catholic. The husbands and a few other men began studying a variety of Catholic books via Zoom.

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Finally, the Whites told God, “We’ll do this if it’s what you want,” and immediately were answered by overwhelming joy. “We were bubbling,” Roseanna shares with a smile. “And my husband doesn’t bubble! So we told my parents, we’re not going to be there tomorrow. We’re sorry this is going to cause you problems, but we need to stop before we all hurt each other more, and we are going to become Catholic.”

Roseanna and David’s two teenage children had been hearing their parents’ conversations about faith for years. “They know we value their opinions,” Roseanna stated firmly. “They were already a little dissatisfied with our old church. We told them we’re all going to take the classes together, and assume you are going to come with us unless you decide otherwise.” The whole family studied together, having open conversations about Catholicism, and Roseanna and David made sure the kids knew they could ask difficult questions. Both took to the Catholic faith quickly. And not only the kids—David’s mother was raised Catholic, but had fallen away from the faith for forty years. Now, she regularly attends Sunday Mass with the Whites.