‘Bold Witness in a Faithless Age’

Sohrab Ahmari

MADISON  In some ways, it might seem like dark days for today’s Church with the rise of secularism and the abuse crisis scandals. However, it also might be opening the door to the “right moment,” when Catholics can create conditions to help people to see the light by inviting them to foster and nurture faith in Christ and restoring moral order and hope in a secular society devoid of meaning.

That is what Iranian-American journalist Sohrab Ahmari told an audience of faithful during his talk, ‘Bold Witness in a Faithless Age’ on Sept. 28 at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here — filled with insights mined from his own experiences. Born in Tehran under an oppressive Islamic regime, he was raised in a nominally Islamic household but declared that he was atheist at 13. Over time, Ahmari grew to love Catholicism through the Passion story; the Mass, and especially the Eucharist; the writings of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI; and the religious formation of a priest in England. In 2016, he converted to Roman Catholicism. In his hour-long talk that morning, Ahmari also used the example of his bold witness to inspire Catholics to proclaim the truth of Jesus in a relativistic society.

“We [Catholics] need to create conditions for ordinary people to find and sustain faith like for that single mother in the Bronx, who works three jobs and can’t monitor her son’s screen time on his cell phone. We also need to create a Catholic politic that works for the common good to address many of the problems that we have, such as a throw-away culture, difficulties in caring for the elderly and pornography,” said Ahmari, op-ed editor of the New York Post and a contributing editor of the Catholic Herald. “This might be the right moment,” he said.

He wrote about his conversion in a book “From Fire, by Water,” published by Ignatius Press last January.

In his talk, Ahmari emphasized that his experiences can speak to people in this relativistic age, because he converted to Catholicism not from Islam, which he did not practice much in Iran, but from secularism. As a young man, he turned away from his Muslim religion because he associated it with the oppressive morality of Sharia law. After arriving in the U.S. at 14, Ahmari started to explore various religions, philosophies, economic systems and politics, including those of atheists, such as Karl Marx and Fredrick Neichze, who famously declared, “God is dead,” he said.

Yet Ahmari, now a married father of two, said he always was “naturally pious” even at a young age. In college, he read the Gospel of Matthew, becoming “moved” by the Passion story. While working for Teach for America in New York City after college, he stumbled upon a Catholic church near Penn Station. He walked into a Mass there and immediately felt an “outpouring of grace at the altar.” In addition, he had realized that morality must originate from some universal standard — from a conscience, which he called “the voice of God,” he said.

Ahmari was impressed with the holiness of Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the U.S. in 2008 and with his book, “Jesus of Nazareth,” especially with his exploration of Jesus’ Incarnation. As a professional journalist, he moved to London to write for the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal and also commissioned and edited op-eds for the paper’s European edition. There a friend invited Ahmari to a prominent evangelical church, which did not fulfill his spiritual needs, so he visited a Catholic church across the street.

“The Catholic liturgy gives order and meaning to the world that seems meaningless and ephemeral,” said Ahmari, who started receiving religious formation from a priest in the parish. He was baptized a Catholic in 2016 — a milestone that he announced publicly on Twitter and later detailed in a story in the Catholic Herald.

In a question-and-answer session with the audience after his Sept. 28 talk, Ahmari described a feeling of “peace” and that “everything was right with the world on the altar,” when receiving his first Holy Communion.

Inspired in part by protests after the disputed June 2009 Iranian presidential election, Ahmari started working as a freelance journalist, while pursing a law degree from Northeastern University in Boston. He has written and/or edited for such publications as The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic and Commentary magazine. He co-edited the book, “Arab Spring Dreams: The Next Generation Speaks Out for Freedom and Justice from North Africa to Iran,” a collection of essays by young Mideast dissidents. He also wrote “The New Philistines,” a book about how identity politics is corrupting the arts.

St. Paul’s invited Ahmari to speak, after Father Paul Manning, the evangelization center’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization, read a magazine piece by him and was impressed by the quality of the writing. Father Manning asked the equally impressed Brian Honsberger, St. Paul’s director of operations and programs, to contact Ahmari.

In his introduction to Ahmari’s talk, Father Manning said that Ahmari’s telling of his conversion “captures the amazing story of grace in us in beautiful and thoughtful words that do the story justice in his unique and personal discovery of the truth.”

“Sohrab tells a particular story that is universally capable of awakening us in our desire to love, know and serve Jesus. I thank him for moving us closer to heaven,” Father Manning said.

In closing remarks, Honsberger told the audience, “My prayer is that Sohrab and people like him help people experience conversion [to Catholicism] from secularism and nothingness.”

Ahmari’s talk attracted Catholics from the Diocese and beyond, including students of the Diocesan Certificate in Catholic Evangelization (CCE) program at St. Paul’s. One student was Mary Jo Murphy of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in New Providence, who had read “From Fire, by Water.”

“His message is for the generation of people in these secular times, letting them know that there’s something out there and that Catholicism is the real deal,” Murphy told the Beacon.