This is a "literary journalism" piece I composed in 2005 for a graduate level creative nonfiction class that may eventually be revised for "Confessions of a Grad School Dropout."



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According to the cover story of the October 17, 2005 issue of Newsweek, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as LDS or Mormon) is the fastest growing religion in the world, boasting 12 million members worldwide. The LDS Church is also the fastest-growing church in the United States, with membership increasing 1.71% between 2003 and 2004 alone. The Roman Catholic Church follows slightly behind, with a 1.28% increase in membership during the same time period, according to the National Council of Churches.



No one has to tell this to the residents of the predominantly-LDS eastern Idaho city of Pocatello and its surrounding communities. The area is heavily Mormon (according to the LDS Church, Bonneville County is 56.93% Mormon, Bannock County 48.21%, and Bingham County 61.42%) to the point that many are surprised to find a strong Catholic organization at Idaho State University.



The secret, according to Sister Helene Higgins OSJ, director of St. John’s Catholic Student Center, is consistency. The majority of student at St. John’s were raised in Catholic homes and have attended a Catholic church their entire lives.



The word catholic is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “in non-ecclesiastical use, universal.” St. John’s Student Co-President Taryn Nichols puts it in simpler terms: “This is what we know. The Church is the same, all over the world. That’s what it means to be Catholic.” Even non-Catholic students have at least some idea what happens at a Catholic church. In contrast, most of the students who have come to ISU from areas other than southeastern Idaho or Utah have no idea what to expect when they come into contact with Mormons, other than the stereotypes of polygamists and missionaries knocking on doors.



This does not surprise Higgins, who believes the two churches have nothing in common. “[Mormons] would not be considered Christian, even though they say they are.” Higgins summarized the differences to mainly lie with the different perspectives of God and the role of humans in His creation, adding, “We have a deeper appreciation of ritual and liturgy.” She sees the Mormon church to be misguided in their baptism, which does not include the triune God known in Catholicism and most mainstream Protestant churches. She does concede, however, that “the Catholic Church is only one generation removed from the Mormon church. Until the late 1950s, Catholics were just as insular as the LDS.”



The Catholic students at St. John’s also include more recent converts to the faith. They come from a variety of backgrounds, including the Mormon faith, although this is not as common as people converting from other Protestant churches. According to Higgins, this is because “they (the LDS church) have a cult-like hold on people,” labeling it as “a control thing.” As with most Catholic organizations, the center provides Rite of Christian Intiation for Adults (RCIA) classes to those wishing to learn more about the faith or join the church. Each year, a handful of students choose to become baptized, confirmed members of the Church.



Student Co-President Cassie Martin is one such student. Martin, a Montana native, was raised in a non-denominational protestant church and began attending St. Johns’ with a friend her freshman year for the social atmosphere. She converted that same year and now as a junior is one of the leaders of the organization.



The atmosphere at St. John’s, Martin explained, was far more welcoming than the Mormon church, which she saw as secretive and codified. When she asked for explanations of rituals she saw, she was told to keep attending and she would understand in time. “No one would answer my questions,” she recalled, “and that bothered me.” While the Catholic Church has its own specific way of doing things, she felt freer to be her own person while still being a member of the church. “St. John’s encourages me to be Catholic—but to still be Cassie.”



The student fellowship at St. John’s also holds appeal for most of the students. According to Higgins, who has been involved in campus ministry across the country for twenty years, the music ministry, which includes both Catholic and non-Catholic students, appeals to the college age group more than traditional church music. Higgins also attempts to gear the messages at St. John’s towards the lives of students: “I ask God, ‘what do they need to hear?’” Nichols, who has been involved with St. John’s since she was a freshman, agrees. “Sister always has something to say that is relevant to our lives, not only as Catholics, but as college students who have papers due tomorrow and finals to worry about next week.” According to Martin, the young adult’s ward she attended at a Mormon church “seemed to be more about finding a Mormon husband than how to live our faith on campus and how to grow closer to God.”



St. John’s welcomes students and community members of all faiths. According to Higgins, Hindu students have come in to use the chapel and light candles for their own prayers, and Eastern Rite Catholics have used the building for services a number of times. No one is excluded from the Mass, although non-Catholics are respectfully requested to refrain from receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion due to different beliefs about the nature of the bread and wine used for the sacrament. Baptisms and weddings are often part of the Catholic liturgy in general, although not often seen at St. John’s due to the number of students, as opposed to growing families, who attend.



The LDS churches likewise welcome non-Mormons to their weekly services. However, most of their important rituals, such as baptism and weddings, take place outside these services, in their temples, where only devout Mormons are permitted entrance upon receiving a recommendation from their bishop. While Mormons often attempt to convert their acquaintances, there is not a program comparable to the RCIA program. According to Newsweek, many people their reporters spoke to feel it is hard to get a straight answer of any kind from Mormon missionaries as to what their church believes. In fact, “They’re the only religion I know who don’t teach you until you’re a member,” Higgins related.



This lack of education required before membership may explain the rapid growth of the LDS church in developing countries. According to LDS church data, Nigeria alone has seen a 354% increase in membership in the Mormon church between 1990 and 2004. Nearby Ghana has seen an increase of 192%, and Brazil’s membership has risen by 144% during the same time period. According to a Mormon ISU student, who wished to remain anonymous, many of these “members” have no idea what the church believes or that they are even considered to have joined the church. The student, who was a missionary in an underprivileged area before leaving the LDS church, said, “We’re told just to get them agree to be baptized, and we can count them as a convert.”



Their recruiting tactics are not limited to asking people to come to church with them or knocking on doors, however. At one point, as a group of Mormon students attempted to recruit a Catholic priest (an attempt which was ultimately successful), they disrupted Mass on three consecutive weeks. According to other campus ministers Higgins has spoken to, the tactic they employed is a common one—people would come and go at random points throughout the Mass. They would seat themselves near the front of the sanctuary, then get up in the middle of a scripture reading and leave, to be replaced a few minutes later by several individuals in different spots in the sanctuary. This was particularly obvious when seven LDS student entered the sanctuary during Holy Communion and took the seats of students who had gone forward to receive the body and blood of Christ. The resulting confusion disrupted the time of silent prayer and reflection that generally follows receiving the Eucharist. St. John’s has been subject to this as recently as two years ago, according to Nichols, who was one of the students whose seat was taken.



There have also been problems when Mormon students have tried to recruit Catholic students and continued to press long after the Catholic students had made it clear they had no interest in attending LDS services. Higgins reports that St. John’s students are “constantly barraged, harassed—LDS try to evangelize them, convert them.” Higgins attributes this to “a lack of respect for students wishes unless they get angry. They do not respect our faith.” This is unique to Mormons, Higgins said. Even when she worked at a largely anti-Catholic university in Alabama, “Baptists thought Catholics were going to hell, but eventually they leave you alone—here they (the LDS) don’t.” She believes that students of other faiths face the same challenges—however, many of them do not have the support system the students at St. John’s have, which may make them more susceptible to the pressure of their Mormon friends.



There was also a recent incident of vandalism at St. John’s. The building is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for students of all faiths to come in and pray, study, or just watch television. One evening, however, an individual who has been identified by ISU security and the Pocatello Police as a non-student member of the LDS church entered the building and committed random acts of destruction. According to the police reports, most of the acts were minor, such as scattering papers in the lobby and tearing down a bulletin board in the lounge. One act in particular, however, worried many members of the St. John’s community—the person placed a lit candle in a wooden cabinet. The only damage to the cabinet was some scorching of the shelf above the candle, but the real possibility of serious damage has led Higgins to remove the candles that were previously available for student to light in the chapel during times of prayer.



Despite this incident, Higgins is committed to keeping St. John’s open to both the students and the public. St. John’s is seen as “a peaceful place” in the chaos of the ISU campus—the flowing waters of the Holy Water font in the foyer draws people on their lunch break, and the pool table and low-cost Pepsi machine in the lounge have the same effect on many students, Catholic or not.