An LDS Chaplain on a Catholic Tour

As someone who helped with church tours on the first Tuesday of each month, I thought it would be good to share a few stories. One that stands out is when an LDS youth group came through a few years back. They were all young male teens who came with their Boy Scouts leader. I can’t remember his name, but I recall the story he told at the foot of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We’d just finished speaking about Juan Diego and the Communion of Saints when he asked if he could tell his kids a story. We didn't know what was coming, but we said, "Yes, of course."

He reminded them that he had served as an LDS Chaplain in Iraq. While there, a Catholic friend he had made asked him if he would like to attend the Christmas Midnight Mass on base. He took his friend up on the offer and attended his first Catholic Mass. He told the children about how beautiful it was and that he felt the Spirit of God.

Then he began to tell them this:

“After the Mass had ended, I decided to stay awhile longer and pray. You see, I was scared, not for myself but for my wife and children back home in Logan. I felt as if something was going to happen to me, that I might not make it back home. I was worried about what would become of them if I died here in Iraq. While I was praying, the priest came in from the back and asked if everything was okay. I told him what I was thinking, that I was worried. We spoke for a few minutes, and then he asked me to hold out my hand. I did. He took my hand, opened it, and placed something inside, then closed it and said, ‘You hold on to that; everything will be okay.’ As I opened my hand to look, I gazed upon a small cross. It was the best gift I could have received at that time.”

Needless to say, not knowing what he was going to speak to them about, we sighed with relief and were in a bit of spiritual shock! But it was good to be there on that night. Knowing that the LDS distances themselves from the symbol of the cross and the suffering Christ, it was curious, to say the least.

Another moment that stands out is when the tour was over. An LDS man that I knew came up to me and said this:

“Please don’t take offense to what I am about to ask you, as I am sincere.”

I told him, “No, I won’t; ask anything you want.”

He said, “It seems that Catholics focus more on the crucifixion, the death of our Savior, rather than on the resurrection; is this true?”

As someone who had been a Catholic for 12 years and helped with the RCIA for the same span since my own Baptism, I was prepared for a question like that. A certain sadness came over me because I knew I couldn't answer such a question in a few short sentences. But nonetheless, I had to make an attempt...

“I spent the first 39 years of my life attending Easter with my LDS family. We had some great dinners and some really good Easter egg hunts. Lots of very fond memories and pictures. But when I was baptized Catholic, after the incense and the Easter Vigil candles were put out, I realized for the first time in my life that I was actually at Easter for the very first time.

Twelve Easter seasons later, how do you express the joy that the risen Jesus has brought into your life? How do you answer that question in a few short sentences? Well, you just do the best that you can.