From godless primate to priest

10 Sep 2009

By Robert Hiini

ocean_minded.jpg
Fr Don Calloway

A visiting priest tells The Record’s Mark Reidy how Christ pulled him back from the precipice of self-destruction.

 

By Mark Reidy

 

The “Evolution of a Monkey” would be an apt title for the remarkable conversion story of American priest, Fr Don Calloway.
Speaking at the Holy Spirit Church in City Beach on August 29, Fr Don described his journey from a life of heavy drug use, sexual promiscuity and crime to Catholic priest to an enthralled audience of over 250 people.
He shared that his self-destructive spiral had begun from the age of 12 – a few years after his atheist mother had married for the third time – and his desires to fulfil every sensual desire continued throughout his teenage years as he imbibed in every carnal pleasure that was placed in his path.
“I was told at school that I was nothing more than the descendant of a monkey,” he told the audience, “and I did everything in my power to fulfil those animal instincts”.
Fr Don has travelled to many countries delivering his testimony to tens of thousands and is often told by listeners that he should be dead. “Yes”, is always his response, “and in a very warm place”.
“I was a very sick and broken young man”, he declared as he described his demise into drugs, sex, pornography and satanic music.
He said that he even found himself involved, at the age of 15, with the “Yakuza”, the Japanese mafia, when he ran amok soon after his military father had been transferred to Japan.
He was so determined to become a “living hell” for his parents for taking him away from his hedonistic lifestyle in California that he indulged daily in “unbelievable amounts” of heroin, opium, alcohol and even petrol sniffing.
In fact, so entangled did he become in this lifestyle of crime and self-destruction that his family was forced to leave the country without him and, in an international episode that made media headlines, he was eventually tracked down by military police, handcuffed and deported to the US. After a cycle of rehabilitation programs, which served only to expose him to more sordid avenues of drug abuse, he spent his late teens living an increasingly debauched existence that included jail, homelessness, tattoos, hair down to his belt and activities that he refused to divulge within the presence of Jesus in the tabernacle. 
During his talk, which was his first of four in Perth before heading to Sydney and Melbourne, Fr Don explained that he did not share his story to glorify himself but on the contrary, to give hope to others. Only divine intervention could have lifted him from the terminal lifestyle that he was leading, he shared. This intervention came during a night in 1992 when he found himself, for the first time in years, home at his parents’ house and not under the influence of any drug.
He was lying on his bed in silence – a unique state that he found extremely intimidating.
He said that he became engulfed by an incredible sense of emptiness and sadness.
“I had done so much to satisfy my monkey self”, he said, yet he felt so lifeless. To avoid this weight of hopelessness he went to his parents’ bookshelf to find something to distract him. He was drawn to a book titled The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorje.
He soon realised that it had something to do with his parents’ recent conversion to Catholicism which had instilled in him an even deeper disdain for them than ever before. Up to that point, his attitude to anything Christian was revulsion. He knew Jesus only as, “The great dork-maker in the sky”, a mythical creation that was used to get money from stupid people.
However, he soon became fascinated at the pictures of young children staring ecstatically at nothing and he read throughout the night.
In what he describes as a moment of grace, the 20 year old Don Calloway was touched to the core of his being. Although he didn’t understand a great deal of the Catholic language, something deep within him recognised the divine reality of Jesus that this “Blessed Virgin” spoke about. He was as amazed as he was enthralled, as he had never had a conviction about anything before in his life. His motto to that point had been, “If I couldn’t see it, touch it, smoke it or drink it, I didn’t believe it”, he explained.
His hilarious description of the following days – informing his mother, contacting a local priest, his encounter with five Rosary-praying Filipino women (“God’s secret agents that He plants in churches all over the world”) and witnessing his first Mass, had the crowd in tears of laughter, just as his description of his joy, unworthiness, awe, audible locutions, healing tears and “infused knowledge” of Jesus in the Eucharist, had them enthralled.
From that time he began to imbibe anything Catholic, including daily Mass, with, he stated, “the passion of John the Baptist,” to the point that the local priest had to curtail his evangelisation attempts.
Fr Don was ordained in 2003 and has earned numerous degrees in theology, philosophy and Mariology as well as writing and editing books and fulfilling hundreds of invitations to share his story throughout the world.
As an escape from his demanding routine, in which he travels every six weeks, Fr Don shared that he has a love of surfing and that he was still riding high from catching the biggest wave in his life (“a 15-footer”) only days earlier in Margaret River.
In an exclusive interview with The Record, Fr Don said that it had been his own spiral into wickedness that had driven his mother to the Catholic Church and the consequent offering of her suffering and prayer had borne fruit in his own life. He is adamant that Catholics must never give up on those in their own families or even those they don’t know, no matter how hopeless they may think they are. “As long as you have a pulse, you have hope”, he says.
He is unwavering, however, in his belief that Catholics must become more passionate in living out the fullness of the “One True Church”.
Conversion is a daily decision, he says. “We must make the most of the Sacraments that have been entrusted to us and must live in obedience to the Pope”, he said, and is disappointed with Catholics who believe that they can tinker with the Truth.
Fr Don shared that he had no idea why God had chosen him to be rescued from the dark chasm to which he had descended but he said that he clearly understood the Scripture, “Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required” (Lk 12:48) and it is this understanding that realigns him during times of trial and temptation. “This is not a gift that has just been given to me”, he said. “It is to be used for the benefit of others”.
And use it he does – with a passion and a zeal that is bringing hope and inspiration to many. The “monkey” that once guided every choice he made is well and truly off his back. Eileen Radford, co-ordinator of the Medjugorje Evening of Prayer Group which sponsored Fr Don to Western Australia, said that the overwhelming and heart-rending response to the Perth talks, attended by over 1,600 people, had been inspiring.
Anyone interested in DVDs of Fr Don’s talks in Perth, as well as previous talks, or in the Medjugorje Evening Prayer Group, can contact Eileen Radford on 9402 2480.
For further information on Fr Don see www.Frcalloway.com or hear his complete conversion story on http://godsdelight.org/archive/media/dcallowaytestimony.wmv