Annabeth Rumble, who is taking RCIA classes at Columbus St. Christopher Church, said her choice of college ultimately led her to join the Catholic Church.
Rumble, 25, who will be receiving her doctorate in veterinary medicine in April from Ohio State University (OSU), grew up on a horse-breeding farm in Fairfield, Kentucky.
Fairfield is a few miles from Bardstown, Kentucky, one of the nation’s first centers of Catholicism (the Diocese of Columbus originally was part of the former Diocese of Bardstown, which was created in 1808). But she knew little of Catholicism or any religion during her childhood because her family was what she described as “pretty staunchly atheist.”
When it came time to go to college, she wanted to attend a small school and chose Walsh University in North Canton, a Catholic institution formerly operated by the Brothers of Christian Instruction.
“I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian because I grew up with animals as part of my daily life,” she said. “Walsh has a pre-veterinary program, and it appealed to me because it would give me the knowledge base I wanted at a school with about 3,000 students that was the size I wanted.
“When I visited the school, I felt a very calming presence, like walking into someone’s home, and the combination of programs and atmosphere convinced me to go there.
“I took a couple of theology courses there, and they opened my mind to the idea that God does exist. Those courses made me hungry to go deeper into theology. The brothers talked about the rational foundations for belief in God and in the Catholic Church and just kept opening my mind.”
After graduating from Walsh, Rumble went to OSU to complete her veterinary studies. She said she was close to becoming Catholic when she came to central Ohio but hadn’t quite reached that point.
“When I got to Columbus, because of my background with horses, I joined the Rocky Fork Headley Hunt Club, which does fox hunting on its land in Gahanna on weekends throughout the year. It’s actually fox chasing, because we never kill the foxes but just enjoy the opportunity to ride horses in open country,” she said.
Among the club’s traditions is an annual blessing of its foxhounds that invokes the intercession of St. Hubert, the patron of hunters. St. Hubert lived in Belgium in the seventh and eighth centuries and was an avid hunter who became even more of an outdoorsman after the death of his wife.
He had little use for religion until, as legend holds, he had a vision of a crucifix glowing between the antlers of a stag he was about to shoot. From that point, he turned his life toward God, eventually becoming the first bishop of Liege, Belgium.
“During one of the hunts, I began thinking how much my story was like that of St. Hubert,” Rumble said. “I also was a person who didn’t think much about faith until God began leading me.
“What happened to me wasn’t as dramatic as St. Hubert’s vision, but just as he found Christ in the middle of the forest, I decided while riding through a pond in the middle of nowhere that God was calling me to become a Catholic.
“I’m taking RCIA classes at St. Christopher’s because it’s close to the OSU campus. I’m grateful to my sponsor, Mary Rose Finneran, for the way she is guiding me through learning about the Church and calming my anxieties.
“I was scared because I thought people would see me at Mass and know I’m not Catholic, but it hasn’t been like that at all. In church I feel very peaceful, like I’m where I should be.
“Because of my background, it bothered me that the Church teaches that animals don’t have souls and won’t be with you in heaven. But one of the instructors said that just because they’re not in heaven, that doesn’t mean they won’t be a part of me in some way in the afterlife, since God will provide whatever it is that brings you happiness. That satisfied me.
“The Church’s teaching about purgatory also was a big stretch, but as I read more about it, it made sense. It also was important to learn that an inverted, or upside-down, cross, is significant to the Church because it’s how St. Peter died. I used to think of it as an occult symbol, and some people use it that way, but it was a relief to see it has a real meaning to Catholics,” Rumble said.
After graduation, Rumble will be moving to suburban New Orleans and working for MedVet, a nationwide emergency and specialty veterinary care organization that has an office in Worthington, where she has been an intern. She said she’s looking forward to becoming active at a parish in her new home area, which has a rich Catholic history.
David Schneider, who also is taking RCIA classes at St. Christopher Church, said his path to the Catholic Church began with a chance encounter with his next-door neighbor.
“I’m from Columbus and had a chance to come back home to work after spending seven years in (the) Kansas City (area) doing work that was satisfying professionally and in a financial sense but left me without a sense of community,” he said.
“One day, my neighbor invited me to join him at an event sponsored by (St. Christopher) parish’s young Professionals group,” which has met regularly for the past nine years for social activities and service programs.
“I liked the people I met there and began hanging out with them more and more. Being with them made me feel like I was part of a community and made me begin thinking more about matters of faith,” Schneider said.
“I grew up in New Albany with a family which was active in the Lutheran Church, but in Kansas City I had focused fully on my career and wasn’t a regular churchgoer.
“The group talked often about the influence of the Holy Spirit, and after a while I began to feel as though it was no accident that I was being drawn to this specific place and these people – that it was the Holy Spirit at work through them.
“One day I asked, ‘What if I were to tell you I wanted to be a Catholic?’ As it turned out, an RCIA class was starting the next day, and I joined it.”
Schneider, who is in his mid-30s, said he was familiar with much of Catholic teaching and the basics of Catholic liturgy because Lutheran services are structured much the same way.
“One of the things I was mistaken about was the Catholic practice of praying to the saints,” he said. “I thought, ‘Why don’t you just pray directly to God?’ not realizing that praying to the saints is actually praying for them to intercede with God because they are in heaven.
“I thought sainthood was some sort of honorary title and didn’t know it was a declaration that someone is in heaven and can intercede with God on our behalf.
“Confession also is a difficult concept because I always felt you should confess straight to God. I’m still getting my head wrapped around the concept of talking to a man about my sins and how he has been given the authority to forgive me, but I know the priest is acting in the person of Christ and that Jesus gave the Apostles and their successors the power to forgive sins when he first appeared in the Upper Room after His resurrection.
“I haven’t received the sacrament of reconciliation yet, so I still have some questions that won’t be answered until my first confession.”
Schneider is vice president of account management analytics for Rellevate, affiliated with Sutton Bank of Attica, Ohio. Rellevate is an employer-based, direct-to-consumer digital financial services company that allows workers to perform many traditional banking activities through their employer for the first time.
Schneider works from his home but frequently travels to consult with companies such as Subway, Dunkin’ Donuts and Crocs shoes, which are part of the Rellevate system, and businesses that are installing it.
He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics, statistical analysis and marketing from Heidelberg University in Tiffin. He spent four years in Kansas City with the VMLY&R marketing and communications firm, working with companies such as Wendy’s, PepsiCo and Kellogg’s, then was with Kansas City-based Hallmark for three years as a product manager.
“I was involved with all the Hallmark cards you see for events such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, overseeing the entire process from creation to distribution,” he said.
“It was a great job but left me unfulfilled. It took coming home to Columbus and finding a spiritual home in the Catholic Church to fill the hole I felt inside.”
