A Latter-day apostolic blessing for a Catholic man

By Michael Patrick O’Brien–

As a Catholic living in Utah, I know many people who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church does not have a professional clergy, and instead depends on the work of lay (and often volunteer) leaders who serve as bishops, stake (area) presidents, quorum leaders, and even as part of the top governing body, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Some of these volunteer Church leaders are my friends.

Typically, my Latter-day Saint friends have served as bishops. They minster to the daily needs of their community- including baptism, marriage, social services, burial. They feed the hungry, visit the sick and comfort the afflicted. It is hard and time-consuming work, but quite important and probably often as fulfilling as it is draining.

Despite living in Utah most of my life, however, I had never met one of the Church’s twelve apostles. I used to urge my Latter-day Saint friends to do their volunteer church jobs very well, so they could eventually advance into that role. The line became a running joke over several years, with my friends expressing humble doubt they’d ever get there, but promising to remember me if they did. One even said he’d use his church connections to try to get me an apostolic visit if I wanted one. We laughed together about that option, certain it would ever happen. After all, how many rank and file Catholics like me hang out with cardinals?

Then, one evening, I was sitting at the table that our law firm had sponsored at the annual Catholic Community Services (CCS) fundraising awards dinner. (CCS does a lot of good in Utah, often with the help of persons from other faith communities.) Suddenly, I felt two strong and warm hands resting on my shoulders. I looked up, and standing there was James E. Faust…one of the Latter-day Saint twelve apostles. It was a surreal moment.

President Faust was a Utah native, born almost one hundred years ago in small town Delta, and eventually graduating as an accomplished student athlete from the University of Utah. He was a U.S. Army officer during World War II, a practicing lawyer, a legislator, helped elect the last Utah Democratic United States senator, and was appointed to a national civil rights committee by President John F. Kennedy. He was called to serve as an apostle in 1978.

And now he was smiling at me. Of course, he had not come over to our table to see me, he had come calling after his friends, and my law partners, former Utah governor Cal Rampton and prominent business lawyer Don Holbrook. Until Cal and Don arrived at the table, however, my wife Vicki and I chatted with the kind apostle. We also shook hands when he left.

I called my Latter-day Saint friends the next day and told them the news…I finally had met an apostle, and at a Catholic dinner of all places! One friend noted the laying of hands upon my shoulders, and called it a form of blessing, an apostolic blessing.

I like that notion. Blessings sometimes seem few and far between these days. We need to accept, appreciate, and even cherish them, especially when they arrive from a completely unexpected source.

*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His book Monastery Mornings, about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, will be published by Paraclete Press in the Spring of 2021.