At the Easter Vigil on March 30, 2024 in churches across The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, about 1,350 people will enter into full Communion with the Catholic Church, including the elect, those who have not been baptized and are preparing to receive at Easter all three of the Catholic Church’s sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. Also becoming full members of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil will be candidates, those who have already been baptized in the Catholic faith or who have been baptized in another Christian faith and who are preparing to receive the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. Some people preparing to become full members of the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil in the archdiocese share the stories of their journeys of faith in this Lenten series of articles.
Love, and a search for truth, have helped inspire Thomas Bradbury to become Catholic, and at the Easter Vigil at St. Peter’s Church on Capitol Hill, he will receive the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion.
Reflecting on his journey of faith, Bradbury said in an email interview that “I was inspired by love. As I’ve grown deeper into my relationship with my fiancée Clara Diaz, I am consistently drawn in by the beauty in her, not just in her looks, but in her faith and her values.”
Bradbury, who works as the director of policy at the American Conservative Union (CPAC), is originally from Broomfield, Colorado. “I was raised in a fairly nonreligious family,” he said, noting that during his childhood, he and his brother sometimes attended Presbyterian services with their father and grandparents on holidays.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in my life searching for truth, whether that be in public policy, or in how to live a fulfilling moral life,” said Bradbury, who studied political theory at the University of Missouri. “In college I was deeply fascinated with studying philosophy and especially felt drawn to the work of Aristotle and other natural law theorists. As I’ve gotten further into my faith journey, I find so many of the things I love about Aristotle’s worldview in the work of Thomas Aquinas. Through reading Aquinas, I’ve found that I deepen not only my understanding of the world but also find faith.”
After college, he worked in the Missouri state legislature, and moved to Washington, D.C., four and one-half years ago to work for the American Conservative Union. He noted that after initially going to the University of Missouri to study journalism, he made “the jump to politics” following a U.S. Senate internship in Washington in 2015.
Asked about what’s next for him in his journey of faith, Bradbury said, “In the future, I hope to continue building my relationship with my fiancée and start a family together built on the values of the cardinal virtues. I also hope to live a life that inspires others to live a moral life, like so many of the people close to me have done for me.”
