Media man speaks about his winding journey to Catholicism

Mr Wilson, who now works as executive director at The Maxim Institute, spoke with James Bergin on the latest episode of the Catholic Kiwi podcast.

Raised as a son of a Presbyterian minister, Mr Wilson talks of becoming an atheist during his university years in Auckland. But he found atheism “exhausting”, because “you are constantly looking for reasons to back up the absence of faith that you have proclaimed”.

In his 30s, he drifted into agnosticism. Most people opt for agnosticism, he said, “because who has the time to fight God? So let’s just pretend he is not there, or we don’t know he is not there”.

After working as a taxi driver, journalist and teacher (in Japan), he moved to New York to further a career as a writer, eventually becoming a correspondent for TVNZ.

This meant he was able to enjoy a wide variety of experiences, including an afternoon with Donald Trump, meeting Taylor Swift and going to Hurricane Katrina.

“I was having these incredible experiences, I was earning more money than I ever had in my life, meeting incredible people and . . . my first novel was being published.” A gossip columnist rated him “New Zealand’s most fascinating man – I wasn’t”, said Mr Wilson.

“Here I am, . . . TV guy, New York guy, fascinating guy, literary guy – and I was just so incredibly miserable. I had everything I thought I wanted, I was saying all these cool lines from the script I had been writing for the last couple of decades, and I knew that they were shallow, broken – and that is what I was too.”

“In all the bright lights, in all the achievement and all the material stuff, there was just this emptiness.”

But one day, he went to a vigil Mass at St Cecilia’s Basilica in Spanish Harlem. He had seen it on his commute home most days, and homeless people would be gathered outside. It seemed like a place of sanctuary to him.

At the liturgy, Mr Wilson struggled to understand the priest, who had a strong accent. But throughout the Mass, Mr Wilson found himself weeping, because the liturgy moved him so much.

“I just found something that I needed.” He described it as “being touched by the Holy Spirit”.

He said his journey thereafter was “the road to Emmaus, not the road to Damacus” and he went through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

On the podcast, he also discussed spiritual experiences, the beauty of Catholic churches, being a “public Catholic”, the Maxim Institute, family life, poetry and more.

FULL STORY

Catholic Kiwi Podcast: Season 1, Episode 4 – Tim Wilson (Catholic Kiwi Podcast/YouTube)