Missionary Richard Borgman and his son, Father Scott Borgman, live nearly 2,000 miles apart, in Gainesville, Georgia, and in Mission Viejo, California, respectively.
Yet in some ways, this father and son have never been closer. Both are Catholic converts, though each followed a different path to the Church.
Richard, 78, was born with Acrodynia, or pink disease, a rare condition primarily affecting infants and young children, marked by erythema (redness of the skin) and swelling of the hands and feet, skin rashes, excessive sweating, irritability, photophobia (light sensitivity) and low muscle tone. Abandoned by his biological parents, he was adopted at only 10 days old by a Methodist family.
“I grew up a Methodist and had Catholic friends,” recalled Richard. “But I was told to beware of Catholics.”
Richard and his wife, Danelle, became evangelical charismatic Christian missionaries at Mercy Farm of Colorado, a Protestant evangelical community. (Now called Harvest Farm and run by the Fort Collins Rescue Mission, the facility raises and sells produce and other items to fund missionaries and their training.) The Borgmans moved with their children — Scott, his twin sister and older brother — to Africa’s Ivory Coast. The family lived in poverty, and while the children were home-schooled, their father preached, counseled and visited prisons.
Every four years, the family would return to the United States, mostly to Orange County in California. It was there while attending college that Scott decided he would not follow in his father’s footsteps.
“Never once did I feel like I wanted to do what my father had done as an evangelical,” Scott said. Instead, he went into the film industry. But a severely broken foot made him unable to work. He began to explore the Catholic faith. His travels took him to Mississippi, where he attended daily Masses at a Catholic convent. He started RCIA classes and visited his parents in France.
“When I began looking at Catholicism, it was like going to Disneyland for the first time,” Scott said. “I experienced the fullness of the Church. When I realized you could give yourself completely to God, I began falling in love with the Eucharist and confession. I appreciated everything from relics to the Rosary, Our Lady — every aspect of the Church. It intrigued me as a young man. I wanted a radical commitment, and I found it in the priesthood.”
Scott traveled to Rome to attend the University of the Holy Cross. He was confirmed in 2003 and ordained in 2010.
Unbeknownst to Scott at first, while he pursued his new life as a Catholic, his father was on a similar path.
“I met a priest while doing prison ministry,” Richard said. “He was doing what I was preaching. We were evangelicals, but the Catholic Church taught us how to serve the poor.”
After 17 years in Africa (where they learned French) and facing declining health caused by the tropical climate, Richard and Danelle decided to move to another country. Since many American missionaries choose English-speaking countries, the Borgmans preferred one where French was the major language.
Perhaps coincidentally, some people from France representing the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International who had witnessed the Borgmans’ work with prisoners in Africa invited them to come and speak to their organization.
“We let a natural door open for us to go and work in France,” Danelle said. Once relocated there, she and Richard eventually moved to a compound in Toulon next door to the home of Bishop Maurice de Germiny, who would eventually help both with their conversion.
While relocated to France, Richard would still return to Africa to visit occasionally. It was during one of those trips that his life changed dramatically.
Danelle said that when Richard, then 51 years old, returned from Africa that time, he didn’t immediately share his experience with her. It was only after they spent a weekend with Catholic friends, who also invited a charismatic Catholic priest.
As the group prayed together, Richard and Danelle felt the presence of the Blessed Mother “wrap them in a cloak of love,” as Danelle described it.
It was shortly after that experience when Richard shared his story with his wife of how, sitting alone in an upstairs room of the missionary training school in Africa, he encountered the real presence of Jesus Christ on the cross.
“He said it was like a daydream or something but also very real,” Danelle said. “All of a sudden, he was there at Calvary, with Christ crucified beside him. It was as if Richard was a thief on the cross. He could see Jesus and could talk to him.”
Richard said Jesus offered him the motherly love of Mary to fill a void in his life caused by his being put up for adoption as an infant.
Richard recalled: “Jesus said to me, ‘You hate your mother and are afraid of rejection. And you hate my mother.’ From that moment, I fell in love with Mary and the Catholic Church.”
This was no small decision for a man who had spent a lifetime telling everyone Catholics had strayed and they were to convert as many as possible. He even compiled a lengthy list of 26 reasons why Catholics were the most pernicious “cult” in the world.
Yet Bishop de Germiny could see the sincerity in Richard and Danelle’s desire to become Catholic — a desire fulfilled less than a year after their first encounter with the Blessed Virgin. But the decision came with a price.
Once he became a Catholic, Richard said he lost 160 pastor friends and 10,000 other friends around the world (most of them over social media).
“I didn’t think rejection would be so radical,” he said. “I lost everything when I became Catholic, but it was worth it. We have Mary, the Church and the Eucharist.”
Scott joined the Catholic Church fully two years after his parents did.
“Dad always taught that God lives in us and has a plan for our lives. Regarding Catholicism, he was consciously optimistic and excited about my conversion but didn’t want to scare me away.”
Richard admitted that he thought Scott’s decision was “the greatest thing in the world” but tempered his excitement with reality.
“I told Scott that it was all up to him,” Richard said. “I said that, if after a time in the seminary, he decided not to become a priest, that would be okay. I know he loves kids and at one point wanted to get married and have 10 children. But by the second year in the seminary, Scott was convinced the priesthood was his calling.”
While the decision may have been Scott’s, Richard admitted to trying to help the process along.
“I believe you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” Richard said. “But you can put a little salt in his water. We prayed for him — 1,000 full Rosaries that took my wife and I three years to finish. When Scott shared his decision, a priest friend said, ‘It was all those Rosaries!’”
Scott, now 53, was ordained June 27, 2010.
“I love being a priest,” he said. “I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Father Borgman is quick to acknowledge his dad’s influence on his decision.
“I owe more than I knew to Dad and his commitment to the Lord,” he said. “Mostly, it was his example of giving himself to the Lord, as a missionary and through his commitment to Scripture and to my mom.
“He always tells me how proud he was of me and what a gift my priesthood is to our family. I owe so much to my parents, and I pray for them every time I say Mass.”
Richard said he believes that a universal need exists for positive examples, especially for fathers.
“People all over the world are looking for fathers,” he said.
“Scott watched us speak around the world. He knew that if I didn’t believe in something, I didn’t talk about it. Kids know if their parents are authentic or not. And the best way to love your kids is to love their mother. From there, you can transition from love of mom to love for Our Lady.”
For Father Borgman, being a priest has both its rewards and challenges: “The rewards include just being close to the Lord. “Being able to say Mass is an extraordinary gift.”
Ron Cichowicz writes from Pittsburgh.