As a young Islander growing up in Sydney’s outer western suburbs, seeking to escape the relentless cycle of poverty, gangs, and alcohol abuse, Josh Mokoroa called out for Jesus.
The Australian-born Cook Islander initially found the Lord’s voice amid the blazing lights, concert stage and stirring voices of fellow Islanders of a Pentecostal church.
But it wasn’t until he stepped inside St Mary’s Cathedral that Josh would hear the full truth of Jesus’ voice and the warmth of his true sacred home.
“I was in the Pentecostal movement on fire for God,” he said. “But eventually, I’m here today, and this is where the Lord has led me.”
Josh’s story starts among the mean streets of Airds, in the housing commission enclave just outside Campbelltown where, as a teen, his “holy trinity” were alcohol, his “crew” of mates and basketball.
“I grew up with all the rough kids. We would drink, skip school. It was a tough upbringing and the last thing I was into was church,” he recalls. “I had no idea who Jesus was, to be honest. I thought it was just some man on a cross.”
That changed in his early 20s when Covid struck and Josh, confined to his bedroom, discovered Jesus through an online preacher.
“That was the first time I heard the gospel be preached about Jesus. I started knowing a little bit more about the faith. It was over three months,” remembers Josh.
Eventually, as Covid ended and with a renewed openness to the grace of faith, Josh sought out opportunities for formation and to become part of a supportive community.
He found it in a Pentecostal church in Blacktown.
This converted warehouse would, for the next three years, become Josh’s spiritual home.
Packed with fellow Pacific Islanders; ex-pats from Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands, the appeal was instantaneous for Josh.
“It was seductive. The emotional music, the lights and the cameras; you’re feeling the Holy Spirit – the presence of God,” Josh said.
His church community became a second family, a new “crew.”
Ironically, it was back on the courts of his childhood “religion”—basketball—where the first seeds of Catholicism were planted in Josh.
“I had a friend I used to work with who was a Catholic. After every game, we’d sit down and we’ll just talk. And he would just end up questioning me about my own belief system and it rocked me,” Jake recalls.
Up until that point, Josh thought Catholics were “lukewarm Christians” and knew very little about the Catholic faith.
“He’ll bring up some Catholic points about it being the first church and it started making sense,” Josh revealed.
The friend introduced Josh to an RCIA co-ordinator at a Bible studies group, who had a profound effect on him.
“He told me: the difference between your church and my church is that in a Catholic Mass, it’s not about being loud or clapping your hands. We don’t come for your feelings, we come for the one thing you guys are missing: the Eucharist. We come for Jesus,” he said.
“I began to realise that what I was feeling in my church might have just been the music. Eventually through this group, I came to believe the truth could be found in the original Catholic church of Jesus.”
It left him with wrestling with a difficult truth. “I had to leave my church community.”
It was a painful separation. “They were upset. I think they felt betrayed,” he says.
But within the year, Josh began his journey to the font. At the Rite of Election as a catechumen, walking into St Mary’s Cathedral was a transformative experience.
“You could just feel it is something different. It’s just so beautiful and reverent. I felt repentant, for the sins that I haven’t even done yet. I felt like I was finally home.”
Today Josh is still with the same Bible studies group, still playing basketball but, as a Catholic, no longer searching for God.
“God guided me to the truth. I never imagined I would become a Catholic. It felt like I was down a rabbit hole, but now I see that God desires us to seek him. My whole journey has been a revelation of that truth.”
