Search for fulfillment leads to seminary

Intermountain Catholic

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Steven Tilley explored other religions and considered marriage before choosing to become a seminarian for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. Courtesy photos/Steven Tilley

OGDEN- Born in Louisiana and living in Germany for the first years of his life, Steven Tilley knows about change. He also explored three other religions before becoming a seminarian for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City.

As a kid the idea of becoming a priest never crossed his mind. He was more focused on basketball. He was raised by his mother in the Baptist church but didn’t often attend services and, when he turned 18, he stopped going entirely.

Then his sister invited him to join her at Ogden Christian Fellowship. He declined. She told him a girl she wanted him to meet attended the church, so he went. Although the girl wasn’t at the meeting, he found the music fascinating.

"In this church they have like a whole band, so I fell in love with the music. For about two years I was really plugged in with the Foursquare Church and I worked as an associate youth pastor," said Tilley.

At the age of 21 he got engaged to a woman in California, but things didn’t work out.

"I moved back to Utah and I had kind of a rebound relationship with a Mormon girl," said Tilley, who at that time thought he could convert that girl. But destiny had other plans. He converted to her faith.

"I was baptized in the Mormon church and then the relationship ended. However, at that time I was kind of an evangelical minister, living like a Mormon. I wasn’t living my faith at all. It was a very humbling experience," said Tilley.

He felt ashamed and disappointed with his life. When one of his Mormon friends asked him what he really believed, his answer was simple. "I don’t know."

That was the trigger that made Tilley start reading a lot of books.

"I thought that living in Utah the Mormon church was going to be a good fit, but it wasn’t," he said. "There’s some things in their faith that I had a hard time accepting at the faith level and I started kind of going backwards. I found this Episcopalian book with the Christian fathers, a lot of the early-day fathers and it had this thing about something called the Eucharist. This was something that just blew my mind. It got me really thinking. I really came to realize that the Eucharist was something that Jesus Christ meant for us to have."

Those teachings led him to the Catholic Church.

"It took a while to get back to church, but as soon as I did I started feeling the call to serve people," said Tilley. "I was working with the sick and I wanted to give myself to the people in any way I could. I really felt the call."

One Catholic he greatly admires is Pope John Paul II.

"There are three words that he used to say and that got stuck in my head: ‘Don’t be afraid.’ So it challenged me to live out my faith," said Tilley.

He spent some time at Our Lady of the Holy Trinity monastery in Huntsville to pray about the call that he felt was growing in him.

After his time at the monastery, he visited Saint Joseph Parish in Ogden and spoke with the pastor, Father Ken Vialpando.

"I think I had like a three-hour confession with him and I said, ‘Father, I feel that I am called to be a priest.’… ‘Well, calm down,’ he said, ‘and let’s get you Catholic first.’"

Tilley followed Fr. Vialpando’s advice and went through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. He waited two years before he could get accepted as a seminarian. After in the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, approved him as a candidate for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, now he is at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon.

"A vocation, no matter if it is to marriage or to the priesthood, is a way to holiness and every time you get closer and closer to Jesus Christ," said Tilley.