@Marymog
I saw you have came back, welcome back to the site, correct me if I am wrong, but I think you may have became a Catholic as an adult, because I recall you saying in another thread you went to a protestant church at first but did not agree with the way they did communion at that particular Church.
Sharing my experiences learning about Catholicism, as a friendly never-Catholic whom just wants to better understand and love Catholic folks.
My learning about Catholicism can be broken down into two phases. The first was middle-school through young adulthood, wherein my best friend was (at the start) a devout Catholic. My friend & her family were a place of refuge for me through those growing years, and while we didn't share a denomination, we shared common values. I very much enjoyed hearing about her growth in her faith classes/growth, I supported her and cheered her on through word & deed. I attended her Confirmation, Easter/Holy Week festivities, random carnivals, of course hearing the day-to-day stuff, etc. And of course, I asked a million questions along the way trying to understand more and more
. Eventually my friend effectively left her faith for a more worldly lifestyle, a change which also ended our friendship.
The second phase of me learning about Catholicism came years later, in which as an adult I decided I wanted to learn more academically about the faith. Over nearly a year, I read Catholic texts, asked knowledgeable Catholics about different subjects, and generally any high-quality thing I could get my hands on.
Some subtopics to talk about here: admittedly, I did have some frustration working with my local Catholic congregation-- they seemed to only have one track for checking things out which was "come back for our classes for potential/new converts that start in 8 months from now at 7 pm on Mondays". Umm... I have to work Monday evenings do I really have to wait 8 months to ask questions? I'm not interested in conversion. "Oh, it'll be worth it, and surely you can re-arrange your work schedule to accommodate it". That was frustrating, and I probably could have pushed the matter to get something else scheduled, but I felt doing so would be rude. After that most of my investigation was with Catholic folks I reached out online rather than with that congregation.
In the hypothetical universe where I were to have desired to convert, it would have involved taking that class (it's like ~7 months long), accepting the Catholic faith myself, promising to live my life according to Catholic teaching, and going through various religious rituals of Catholic baptism, first communion, & confirmation (they would not have accepted my previous ones).
