Nicholas Walz loves talking about his faith. He says he’s most comfortable and happy when he’s around others that share his faith.
So, it’s not surprising that the recent Cathedral High School graduate will travel the country sharing his faith this fall as a member of a NET Ministries evangelization team.
Throughout his life, Nicholas has heard stories of his family’s work in mission. He has been inspired by the stories of his grandfather, Father Richard Walz, a priest of the diocese of St. Cloud who served for 26 years in Maracay, Venezuela.
“The reason I chose to go on NET was, well, my grandpa was a missionary, that was one of the main things,” he said. “And since I was young, I have heard stories from my dad about his work as a missionary.”
Nicholas’ father, Jonathan, was adopted by Father Walz with permission from then-Bishop Jerome Hanus, when he was 14. They traveled the world doing mission work. His mom, Carolina also did mission work and currently works in the St. Cloud Mission office.
“When I heard about their mission work, I wanted to do it too,” Nicholas said. “But it always seemed like something so scary and unknown. Because you’re going to be with people you don’t know and talking with people who might reject you.”
But two years ago, also inspired by her family’s history of mission, Nicholas’ sister Nathaly joined NET Ministries and her experience made it less scary for Nicholas.
“After hearing everything she talked about, how she was able to express her faith, the number of people she was able to touch, it just sounded like such a wonderful thing,” he said. “And I thought I want to do that too.”
Last fall, he attended a discernment weekend at NET headquarters in St. Paul.
“I went and I did the discernment weekend, and it was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had in my faith,” he said. “It was like a mini-retreat, but at the same time the purpose was to get an idea of what NET was, and it was amazing.”
NET’s mission is to challenge young Catholics, through relational ministry, to follow Christ and embrace a life of community in the Church. They have been around since 1981, and have shared the Gospel with over 2.2 million young people across the United States.
Although he was nervous about being accepted for a NET team, Nicholas is just the kind of person they look for to share their evangelization message.
“Nicholas carries out the qualities we look for,” said Meredith Miller, public relations coordinator for NET Ministries. “To be considered for a NET team, a person has to have a personal relationship with Christ and a desire to share it and be able to initiate conversations and show interest in those around them.”
“One of the things that I really liked about the discernment weekend was that I was able to speak so freely about my faith,” Nicholas said. “Being able to talk to other teens or young men and young women around my age or even older, that wanted to talk about their faith just as much as I wanted to.”
Talking about their Catholic faith has been a big part of life in the Walz family.
“Our faith has always been a crucial part of our family dynamic,” Carolina said. “My husband and I have always been active in our faith and our parish life. We make an effort to talk and share our growth in our faith as a family on a daily basis.”
“Father Richard has been, is and will continue to be a major inspiration for our family and our growth as children of God,” she said.
Nicholas will spend a few weeks training at NET in the Twin Cities, and then will be assigned to an evangelization team. Retreat teams will travel from parish to parish in different dioceses across the United States, while discipleship teams will serve in one community.
He won’t know until after training which kind of team he will be on, but has thought about where he might like to go, he said.
“I’d like to go to Ohio to see the area that my sister talked about, because when she talked about Ohio, it sounded like such a beautiful place,” he said. “California sounds like fun, too, being able to be by the coastline.”
Nicholas plans to attend college in two years to study film production and directing. He wants to be able to share his faith with a much wider audience.
“In a movie, if there’s Catholic imagery or Catholic ideas in it, deep down they’d be touched in one way or another, I hope,” he said. “That always seemed like such an amazing thing to be able to do, to not only entertain, but more importantly, preach through movies. Wow, if I could entertain people like that, that would be amazing.”
His mom says Nicholas has always displayed a very unique concern for others, not just his family members but friends, relatives and classmates. He wants to help others find their own relationship with God.
“He is always deeply moved by the fact that there are other people that have not experienced the love of God,” Carolina said.
Nicholas is excited to start this new adventure, but he knows it will be hard at first.
“I’m not going to be with anyone I really know. I’m going to meet with new people, make new friends, and I’ll have to rely on these new people,” he said. “As much as I rely on my parents and my family right now, it’s kind of hard to think that I won’t have my parents around or my siblings or friends that I have right now.”
Despite being a little nervous, Nicholas looks forward to sharing his faith and story with others. And his parents are proud he made the choice to go into mission before college.
“We feel very honored, happy, excited and called to pray even more fervently for Nicholas and all the young people that God will put in his path,” Carolina said. “We pray that Nicholas will truly be a sign of God’s love, mercy, compassion and tenderness our young people are searching for.”