Laurence was born in 1983 in the Philippines, and came to the US in 1987. He was taught the traditional Catholic faith, and practiced it for many years. However, he never really understood the reasons why Catholics did what they did. He didn’t know much about Protestantism, or what they believed. Laurence would often watch TV evangelists preach in the early 90’s but never understood what the difference was, if there was any, between their version of Christianity, and the one he was raised in.

Laurence attended Catholic schools in the Los Angeles area for a few years but spent most of his K-12 education in public schools. In the latter half of his high school years, Laurence became very good friends with some young ladies who began to challenge him on his Catholic beliefs and practices. They would ask him things like: “Why do you have statues; why do you pray to saints?; why is Mary so important?; Why do you follow the pope?; Why do you confess to men and not God?” and many more questions. Given the fact that he was no longer living with his grandparents, and now living with his parents who stopped going to church, it was only a matter of time before he lost all interest all together. From about 18 through 21, Laurence was an atheist. He would spend much of his time listening to punk rock and other forms of rock music. He would proudly advertise his anti-organized religion beliefs as he wore his shirts that endorsed a band called “Bad Religion”, whose emblem consisted of a “No-crosses” symbol, similar to the “No-smoking” signs. He even went so far as to wear such a blasphemous shirt while visiting a Bible study on campus, certainly, to get a rise out of the attendees.

In one of Laurence’s college courses, he was assigned to lead a team in debate against capital punishment. He remembers vividly, as he sat proudly in the front of the room, pulling out 5 different translations of the Bible and saying, “Which translation?”. Laurence attacked the veracity of the Bible simply because the opposing side used the Bible to justify their support of capital punishment, while not using the same Bible to dictate the consequences of other crimes. In hindsight, Laurence never stopped to think how his teammates felt in his merciless attack on the Holy Book, or even knew if he had Christians on his team. It didn’t matter, for his concluding statement was, “I think by now it's perfectly clear, the bible and any other holy book has just as much place in the legal system of the United Slates today, as the Little Engine That Could.”

This whole attitude changed when he took a course in Introductory Philosophy. He was introduced to the various proofs for the existence of God. Even if these were not necessarily from Christian sources, it made sense. How could it not make sense? After all, “The fool says in his heart ‘there is no God’” (Ps 53:1). The next logical question was, which god; and perhaps first of all, how many gods? Is God all, or is God separate from his creation? Once Laurence came to the monotheistic step, and concluded Christianity must be it, the question comes about, which of the thousands of denominations will it be? He tried coming back to the Catholic faith, even picking up the new Catechism. In the infant stages of re-discovering his Catholic roots, he came across a book called Understanding Catholicism by Rick Jones; a seemingly innocuous or harmless book. Within its 37 chapters, it completely destroyed the Catholic religious system, or so it seemed. The veracity of its claims were never verified, but was simply accepted. After a few months of being operationally a fundamentalist, of the Calvary Chapel brand, he didn’t realize what was in store for him when visiting Northern California for a wedding and presenting a challenge to his uncle who was a deacon for the Catholic Church. Laurence’s uncle simply pointed to a stack on the shelf titled “Beginning Apologetics” by Frank Chacon and Jim Burnham. It was by no means an intense theological treatment of all the objections in the Rick Jones book, but it gave just enough answers to get the ball rolling. The ball hasn’t stopped rolling since.

Laurence is now a catechist for a few of his local Catholic parishes in the San Bernardino diocese in California. He has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, and is currently enrolled in a Master’s program in Child Development Psychology. He attends the Novus Ordo as well as the local Tridentine Mass Indult. After helping to organize and promote a seminar by Dr. Sungenis in his area, Laurence has volunteered to be CAI’s media technician, providing a faster way to receive Dr. Sungenis’ audio presentations.