But eventually, the cancellations became suspicious, and a friend convinced Padusniak to ask El for a photo of herself with a piece of paper with Chase's name on it - a standard safeguard against catfishing.
From there, things unraveled, and it became clear that she was not the young, single college-aged Catholic she had been purporting to be, but a 30-year-old married woman, with social media accounts for her real person as well Elspeth Howard. She had been hiding behind photos swiped from the internet, a program that could upload photos to Snapchat, and photoshopped pictures, to name a few things.
The reaction on Catholic Twitter was a mixture of shock, anger and disappointment - amidst a strong call to prayer and forgiveness for the real person behind the account, and advice to take the incident as a warning.
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In e-mail comments to CNA, Padusniak said he wrote the piece not to shame the woman behind This Catholic Girl, but he said he felt it was the right thing to do to let her followers know about her true identity.
"I felt I had a responsibility to let people know so they could heal, forgive, and pray for this person, who is clearly deeply in need of our love."
Padusniak said he has appreciated that the reaction to his piece has been mostly heartfelt, with people offering him kind words and prayers.
Some reactions, though, have been more angry, negative or sarcastic. It's understandable, Padusniak said, because many people were hurt by this woman's deception, but ultimately he said that the woman behind This Catholic Girl is the one who is most in need of prayers, love and forgiveness at this time.
"She hurt a lot of people and that's horrible, but she's not an evil person; she's hurt, broken, stuck in darkness," he said.
Padusniak said that while he does feel hurt about being lied to, he doesn't otherwise feel particularly violated by the situation, because the deception of This Catholic Girl was so widespread and affected not just him but many others.