Dcn. Chris Walsh

Chris Walsh was in the middle of nowhere, Idaho, in 2008 when an amazing thing happened. He and a group of men on a Wilderness Outreach adventure had backpacked into a remote area and, as part of setting up camp, they were building an altar. On the bottom of a large flat rock was the handwritten inscription, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not die but may have eternal life.  – John 3:16.”

The group was stunned to find this in such an inaccessible location. They learned after returning to civilization that the quote probably had been written by an Englishman who came to the United States and turned his life to Jesus in the 1800s. The story goes that the man had been very wealthy in England, lost everything, then fell into a life of debauchery fueled by alcohol. When the man came to the United States, he chose to own very little and traveled through Montana and Idaho, leaving crosses in stream beds and writing Bible passages on rocks.

Walsh’s experience in Idaho about 100 years after the passage was written on the stone was one of 13 Wilderness Outreach trips in which he has participated. On the trips, a small group of men travel to a western location where they backpack and work on trail service. A priest usually joins the group and says Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours each day, with a book discussion scheduled after dinner each evening.

“Doing the Wilderness Outreach, you get away from everything … no cell phones, no television, just God and your brothers,” said Walsh, who has two daughters with his wife, Deborah. “I just fell deeper and deeper in love with Jesus and God. It just drew me deeper into the church.”

Walsh is also an avid skier, having started skiing at Snow Trails in Mansfield when he was in college. He has participated in a Catholic men’s ski trip that is similar to the hiking trips, with a small group and a priest traveling out west, usually to Colorado. Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours are said daily and the men often discuss a book.

“Every trip was just better and better,” Walsh said. “It was amazing getting away from the world and immersing yourself in nature and seeing God’s beauty everywhere.”

The trips and the connection with nature allow him to step away from his daily work as a lawyer. Walsh is a partner and trial attorney for a law firm where he specializes in defense litigation.

He tried several majors in college before settling on history, with the intent of applying to law school – something that one of his high school teachers could have predicted.

“When I was in high school, I had a government teacher who would give us tests with multiple choice and essay questions and I did pretty well,” he said. “There were some answers that he’d mark wrong, but I thought I was right, so I had to go argue my point. If I could persuade him, which happened more often than not, he would give me credit for my answer, as well as crediting any other student who chose the same answer. Because of that, my teacher called me his Philadelphia lawyer.”

Walsh’s reasoning skills will come in handy when he is a deacon.

“As an attorney, I’ve always been able to make an argument,” he said. “As a deacon, I can help people deepen their relationship with God. I have found that if you talk about your own experience and what you have learned about your experience on this planet, people are more open. My own beliefs have changed as I’ve gotten closer to the truth.”