(CP) A outstanding conservative political commentator has announced that she has joined the Catholic Church, vowing to offer more details about what led to her conversion in the long run.
Candace Owens, a conservative political commentator who formerly worked for The Daily Wire, took to XÂ on Monday to announce that “Recently, I made the choice to go home.” While she didn’t explicitly elaborate on what she meant in her post, images accompanying her announcement show Owens standing next to a Catholic priest at a Catholic Church.
“There is after all so way more that went into this decision and that I plan to share in the long run,” Owens added. “But for now, praise be to God for His gentle, but relentless guiding of my heart toward Truth.”
Owens shared the Bible passage Isaiah 41:10: “So don’t fear, for I’m with you; don’t be dismayed, for I’m your God. I’ll strengthen you and show you how to; I’ll uphold you with my righteous right hand.” She concluded her post by proclaiming, “I don’t fear,” adding, “Christ is king,” accompanied by an emblem of the cross.
Many practicing Catholics left comments on Owens’ post welcoming her into the Catholic Church. Pro-life activist Abby Johnson posted a response stating, “Welcome home, Candace.”
Owens didn’t specify when the images were taken, even though it’s possible they were captured through the Easter Vigil Mass the evening before Easter Sunday, which is one of the vital common occasions where recent Catholics are baptized into the Church. The picture was definitely taken after March 9, when Owens responded to a matter asking if she was Catholic by replying, “Almost there,” accompanied by an emblem of the cross.
Catholic News World reported that the images featured in her post documented the web personality standing next to Fr. Julian Large on the Brompton Oratory, described by the outlet as a “Latin mass community” in London, United Kingdom. The publication also noted that Owens is married to “a Catholic British activist and entrepreneur named George Farmer” who previously identified as a Reformed Evangelical Protestant.
Owens’ social media post revealing her conversion to Catholicism comes a month after her employment with The Daily Wire ended amid a months-long clash with Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro attributable to a disagreement between the 2 over Israel’s actions following the Oct. 7 terror attacks carried out by the fear organization Hamas. As many as 1,163 people, including 31 Americans, were slaughtered that day, and around 240 people were taken hostage into Gaza.
Some of Owens’ critics derided as antisemitic her claim that Israel has committed “genocide” against Palestinians following the attacks.
While her conversion to Catholicism marks a recent development in her spiritual journey, Owens has often discussed her Christian faith since entering the general public arena in 2017. During a 2018 speech at Liberty University, she detailed how she strayed from her Christian roots, embraced alcoholism and suffered from anorexia after experiencing a childhood defined by poverty, abuse and racial threats from classmates that prompted the FBI to open an investigation.
Owens also suggested that the audience had an obligation to take part in the “culture war” engulfing the United States: “I think in you. You can do it without government handouts. You can do it based off of excellent ideas. You can do it based off of exertions. You can do it with Jesus Christ.”
“At the moment that you just consider in yourself, in the meanwhile that you just get back to your center, that you just align yourself … with God, the universe will open itself as much as you. It definitely did for me,” she said.
More recently, Owens has warned that the term “Christian nationalism” has been utilized in a “sinister” way as a part of an effort to place Christianity within the “same vein as white supremacy.” She characterised the increased use of the term in popular culture as a recent “try to divide and brainwash Christians, which is something that has gone on for many years.”
