Charles Drake

(618) 531-0667
chdrake@siue.edu
Target Audience: Catholics
Target Publication: Catholic New Agency

Finding Meaning Through Christ

EDWARDSVILLE Ill. (Apr. 4, 2024)— It seems that college is not just a time of
learning for your future job and socializing, but a time of finding religion as well, for one college
student. On March 30th, 2024, a college student was at The Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic
Church, in Maryville, and was baptized in the Catholic faith by the church’s clergymen, with the
student’s friends and family members as the supportive audience.

The student, Johnson Walsh, goes to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, locally
called SIUE. Walsh was already a Protestant Christian but felt unsatisfied with his denomination.
“Growing up, I was raised by two Christian parents, but they were just “lukewarm” Christians,”
said Walsh when we interviewed him after he attended Sunday mass. “My family only went to
church a handful of times, so I was not able to grow an attachment towards any church. In my
sophomore year in college though I started to have a Catholic theology, and after two years of
learning about The Catholic teaching of Christianity, the culture of Catholics, and rereading the
Holy Bible, I decided to sign up for my local church’s RCIA course and now I’m a baptized
Catholic”. RCIA stands for Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and is a nine-month-long
course that non-Catholic adults take to become Catholic. A year before Walsh decided to sign up
for RCIA, he told us that he was not happy with how his life was looking. “Before I became
religious, I was very depressed. I was directionless and lost any motivation in college. I stopped
going to my classes and doing most of my schoolwork, and because of that, I almost had to drop
out of college. I realized that I needed help and some of my friends told me that I should start
getting back into my faith. I didn’t know where to start, but then a week later a FOCUS Catholic
missionary was on campus, and I started to talk to him. He invited me to a Catholic mass on
campus and after that mass, I fell in love with Catholicism”. After Walsh’s first mass, he became
very involved in the faith, with him going to mass twice a week, RCIA classes, and joining the
Catholic club at SIUE, called Cougar Catholic. He finally found direction in his life and went

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back to having perfect attendance in his classes and good grades. Joseph Deckert, the FOCUS
missionary who invited Johnson to mass, was also his sponsor for RCIA, a Catholic that helps
you during RCIA. “I am so proud of Johnson,” said Deckert when we went with them during an
RCIA class. “He has become one of the best men I know, and it brings me joy to see Johnson’s
process of learning Catholicism, loving our traditions and our lord, Jesus Christ.” During
Walsh’s baptism and first holy communion, his friends and family watched as he became a man
of faith. A loud applause came from the audience after the baptism, which brought Walsh to
tears. Deckert hosted a party for Walsh to celebrate his baptism with everyone at the baptism
there, including us and the priests from Our Lady of Perpetual Help church and other priests
from different churches that helped him to become a Catholic. Everyone showed their love and
support that day, including his Atheist friend, Richard Kroner. “Even though I’m an Atheist, I
can see all the positive changes that Walsh had from finding his religion that makes me support
him.” When the party was coming to an end Walsh said this to us: “I have become a better man
ever since I followed the Catholic faith and let Jesus Christ into my heart. I hope my journey
inspires anyone who is struggling in life to seek the love that Catholicism and Jesus Christ
brings”.

Johnson Walsh is now a proud Catholic with a successful college career and an upcoming
summer public relations internship with Joseph Deckert’s missionary group, FOCUS. Last time
we talked to Walsh he was learning Latin to be able to say traditional Catholic prayers. If you
would like to learn more about Walsh’s religious journey visit FOCUS’s website, at focus.org,
and Cougar Catholic’s Instagram profile, called “siuecougarcatholic”.

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