Dear Adam:

I praise God that you are considering joining the Catholic Church. I will pray for your discernment in this.

The first thing you need to do is contact the pastor of a local Catholic parish and tell him your interest in the Catholic Church.

Then you may either receive private instruction, or attend RCIA (formal classes usually held in the Fall).

The instruction period is to give you information on Catholic teaching and life and gives you time to discern whether or not you wish to be confirmed in the Catholic Church.

If everything is a green light on your side and the Church's side, then you would be confirmed usually at the Easter Vigil after you finish your instructions.

As for Baptism, if you were validly baptized in the Wesleyan Fellowship you do not have to be baptized again. There can only be one valid baptism. A valid baptism in one in which a person has water poured over his skin, or is immersed in water, with the invocation of the Trinitarian formula (In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit), and the intention is to do what the Church intends (which is to initiate a person into Christ).

As far as I know the Wesleyans have valid baptism. You will need to provide proof of this baptism, which you can usually get from the parish that baptized you.

If for any reason that proof cannot be found, or there is any question as to validity, the Catholic Church will give you a "Provisional" baptism. I had one of those because I could not find my baptismal certificate from the Baptist Church.

The Provisional Baptism is assuring that you really are baptized as all else depends upon that. Thus, in essence, the Provisional Baptism is saying that if you were not validly baptized, you are now. If you were validly baptized before then we are just making you wet.

Of course you need to believe all things that are required for a Catholic to believe. If you have been married and divorced and re-married, then you will have to apply for an annulment. If that is the case you should do that right away after making arrangements with a local Catholic parish, since that can take up to a year to complete.

If you were married and divorced, but not married now, there is no problem in getting confirmed in the Catholic Church, but you would not be able to marry once Catholic until an annulment is secured, or otherwise the impediment of the previous marriage is resolved.

Some of the key elements of belief are required of Catholics that tend to come up include:

1) abortion is sin
2) artificial contraception is sin
3) in vitro fertilization is sin
4) the primacy of the Pope
5) Communion of the Saints (praying to Mary and the Saints)
6) Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition as interpreted by the Magisterium is our authority in Faith and Morals
7) Homosexual marriages are invalid and sinful
8) All sex outside of the marriage of a man and woman to each other is sin
9) women cannot be ordained to the priesthood
10) Purgatory is a place of God's love and is Scriptural (1 Cor 3:15)

You can always ask specific questions in these forums about anything on your mind. We are happy to help you understand the faith.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary