At 72 years old, Paul Sadek is a 20-year employee of Relevant Radio and a Catholic convert. Sadek, who is a widower, said he converted to Catholicism after marrying his Catholic wife.
Sadek told “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley on the program that will air at 9 p.m. Oct. 25 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, “It was not that I became Catholic because my wife was Catholic. It was that that provided me a little bit of an excuse to look more deeply into something that I already felt drawn to, and what drew me to it goes back to my Protestant upbringing.”
Sadek said his experience with Protestantism included a look at comparative religions. When that study reached Catholicism, he was intrigued, Sadek said.
“I thought, ‘Wow, this is good,’” Sadek said. “I later found out that I probably knew more about the Real Presence than a lot of people my age at that time did because some of the catechesis was so, what shall we say … poor back in those days.”
Sadek said he and his late wife, Mary, got married in February 1978. Shortly after that, he looked into the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) (now known as the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults). He attended a series of weekly lectures by priests at a local parish and later joined with seven other RCIA students.
“Then I said one day, ‘There’s got to be a way that I can combine this with radio. … When the Relevant Radio announced that they were looking for some people in the Twin Cities, I jumped on it, and I’ve been here since 2003.”
To hear more from Sadek about his conversion to Catholicism and how it impacted his radio career, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Oct. 25 and 2 p.m. Oct. 26.
The program also includes a talk with Archbishop Bernard Hebda about hearing God’s call to specific vocations. Also, videographer Zach Jansen of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis talks about how Christian faith can be interpreted in some Halloween movies.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can also be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
