Fr. Richtsteig's Conversion

Conversion Story....

Fr. Richtsteig

Fr. Richtsteig also told his conversion story. He was born into a Mormon family both maternally and paternally, but by the age of 12, he had pretty much decided he wanted to become a Catholic priest. Shortly after his parents were married, his father joined the U.S. Marines. He thought his first post would be in Hawaii, but the Gulf of Tonkin Incident occurred. It was an attack by North Vietnamese gunboats on two American destroyers in 1964. His father was sent to Vietnam and served as an artillery officer.

When Fr. Richtsteig was only six months old, his father was listed as missing in action in Vietnam. While growing up in Cedar City, he did not know if his father was dead or in a prison camp. They did not find his body until 1974.

“I grew up without a father, but I always knew I had God the Father,” said Fr. Richtsteig. “God gives us what is necessary and he also does not make things perfect so we will know to depend upon him rather than upon ourselves.

Fr. Richtsteig said the Mormon religion did not make that much of an impression on him. He had Catholic cousins because his mother’s oldest sister married a Catholic, and he liked the sacramentals displayed in their home. He read a lot as a child about the Catholic Church.

Fr. Richtsteig and his mother had moved to Salt Lake City by the time he was a sophomore at Highland High School in 1980. That is when he decided to visit the Cathedral of the Madeleine. He met Father Donald Hope, then in residence at the Cathedral, and told him he wanted to become a Catholic. He began the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) classes and became a Catholic during the Easter Vigil in 1981.

After high school, he went on to receive a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Master’s Degree in philosophy from the University of Utah, and his Doctorate Degree from Marquette University, in Milwakee, Wisc.

He then entered Mount Angel Seminary, and was ordained into the diaconate in 1992. He served one year at St. Marguerite Parish, Tooele, before being ordained a priest in 1994.