The youngest priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge has a few confessions about his faith and his music: He didn’t like the Catholic Church as a youth, tried for years to run from his calling as a priest, and doesn’t want to be known only as the “Rapping Priest.”
The Rev. Joshua Johnson, serving at Christ the King Catholic Church at Louisiana State University, is 27, and in his first year as a priest.
“I was raised Catholic, but I just never liked the Catholic Church growing up. I thought it was boring, and I didn’t understand it,” said Johnson, a native of Baton Rouge whose rapping has brought him a measure of renown on YouTube and social media. He hosts the hip-hop show “Tell the World” on Catholic radio.
Johnson’s biggest difficulty with the church was with the Eucharist: “I never believed that it was the body and blood of Jesus Christ that the Catholic Church teaches.”
That changed one summer night before his senior year at Lee High School, during a retreat in Alexandria. He attended “Eucharistic Adoration,” when a piece of consecrated altar bread — the Holy Eucharist or host — is the focus of devotion and meditation.
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Johnson said he relates well with the students and is honest with them.
“I can’t stand when people make it seem like all you have to do is accept Jesus Christ in your life and everything is going to be easier and holiness is going to a piece of cake,” Johnson said.
Everything important involves struggle, he said.
“Heaven meant a lot so Jesus Christ had to struggle; he had to suffer,” Johnson said. “So if it means a lot to us, we’re going to have to struggle, too. We’re going to fall down at times. God’s grace is going to be there to welcome us.”
