Cover story

Man on a mission

It took almost 20 years of attending Mass every Sunday for Richard Lane to formally convert to Catholicism. And while it was a bumpy road at times, Lane said he wouldn’t trade a minute of the journey because of the lessons he learned along the way.

BY ELISHA VALLADARES-CORMIER

If it weren’t for his Catholic faith, Richard Lane doesn’t think he’d be here today. “I’d be in a ditch somewhere,” said Lane, director of evangelization at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns Catholic Church in Toledo. “I was going straight to hell with the way I was living my life. I really got saved once I became Catholic.”

“I fell in love with the Mass and Catholic Church,” Lane said. “I wasn’t church shopping. I would go to another church if someone invited me, but I felt at home in the Catholic Church, and I considered myself Catholic.”

PHOTO BY SCOTT W. GRAU/SPECIAL TO THE DIOCESE OF TOLEDO

Richard, 57, grew up in Detroit. His father, Dick “Night Train” Lane, was an NFL cornerback who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1974. His mother, Mary, was an educator who, in her younger days, was the first African-American model hired by Coca-Cola, opening the door for thousands of female models of color who came after her. Raised a Lutheran, it was his mother’s influence that drilled into Richard Lane the importance of a relationship with God and observing the Lord’s Day every week. “My mother always said, ‘Boy, you better be involved in somebody’s church,’ ” Richard said.

He attended Morehouse College in Atlanta and began a six-year stint in the United States Army Military Police Corps in 1984. Soon after, Richard remembered his mother’s words and sought out a faith community. At that time, there was a Protestant service as well as a Catholic Mass on base every Sunday.

Richard tried out the Protestant services but didn’t particularly care for it. When he visited the Catholic Mass, however, “I thought, ‘Wow, this seems very Lutheran,’” Richard said. “In and out in an hour, a boring sermon. Religious calisthenics, up, down, sit, kneel, pray. I can do this.”

Richard began what he calls “a 19-year journey of being a non-sacramental Catholic.” While he didn’t formally enter the Catholic Church, attending Mass was his way of fulfilling his Sunday obligation. “When I didn’t go to Mass, I felt like I was missing something. I just didn’t realize what it was at the time.”

In 1988, he was relocated to an army base in Oakland, Calif., and began attending a parish composed of Black, white, Filipino, Vietnamese and Latino Catholics — a “Catholic pot of gumbo,” Richard called it. Parishioners, assuming Richard was Catholic after seeing him attend Mass every Sunday, invited him to be involved. He lectored, served as an usher and sang in the choir. “It was wonderful,” said Richard. “They welcomed me with open arms.”

When he left the Army in 1990, Richard dabbled in a few trades. He worked in executive protection and bodyguard work, as a corporate headhunter, was a salesman for Coca-Cola and a beer distributorship. He moved to St. Louis in 1998 and began attending Mass at St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church, a heavily AfricanAmerican parish run by the Redemptorists.

It was there that he was first asked for his “Catholic card,” or any sacramental records to indicate his ability to serve in liturgical ministries. When Richard responded he had none, he was told he’d have to become Catholic and enter the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. His response? “I don’t want to go to class for six months,” he remembers saying.

As Richard describes it, even though he had attended Sunday Mass for almost 20 years, the practice of his faith remained limited to fulfilling his Sunday obligation, not something that permeated his character. At the time, he was divorced with a young daughter, struggling with his mental health and career, and falling into sin. “A typical man living a worldly life” is how Richard sums up his life then.

“We have to become what we receive,” Lane said. “If we receive unconditional love in the Eucharist, then we must become love. We must become unconditional truth in a world of lies. Our faith has to be greater than our fear. We have to take the Mass into the streets (and) live it every day of our lives. And that’s the encouragement that I try to bring to everyone that God brings across my path.”

PHOTO COURTESY RICHARD LANE

But after a year and a half, Richard finally committed and entered the Church in 2003, with his daughter joining him the following year. “That process changed my whole life,” he said. “I realized what had been calling me to the Catholic Church all my life, and that was the Eucharist. At that point, I said, ‘I’m all in, no problems.’”

Ignited with the fire of his newfound devotion, Richard became involved in the parish’s street ministry. The neighborhood around St. Alphonsus was a rough one, full of gang activity, hustlers and prostitutes. But, “the Bible said go and make disciples. (And) it was on those street corners that I met Jesus in the poor, the needy and the suffering.”

He began giving his testimony at other churches, both Catholic and Protestant, using the opportunity to evangelize to all he met. Still, he felt called to do more. With the blessing of his bishop, now-Cardinal Raymond Burke, Richard began doing full-time ministry as a Catholic evangelist.

For almost 20 years, Richard has traveled to 22 countries to give talks, lead Bible studies and hold parish missions. The encounters he’s had with Catholics around the world have had a tremendous impact on him. “Just knowing that God continues to use this broken, battered and bruised vessel that I am to touch other people’s lives continues to give me strength,” Richard said.

It was during one of Richard’s parish missions at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns that he was approached by Fr. Mark Davis, pastor, about bringing his ministry to the parish level. After taking some time for discernment, Richard felt it was God placing an opportunity in front of him.

Since starting his new role at St. Patrick of Heatherdowns, Richard has helped start a drivethru prayer program, where drivers pull into the parish parking lot and tell parishioners the prayer intentions on their hearts in addition to weekly Bible studies and other initiatives. He has been committed to fostering “a warm, welcome, Eucharistic experience” so parishioners and visitors alike feel they have a home at the parish.