The Fruit of Faithful Prayer of Two Mothers
By June Klins
In June of 2012, our pilgrimage group visited the “castle” in Medjugorje to hear the testimony of Patrick Latta. Patrick began his testimony by introducing himself as a businessman from Canada. He began, “I quit going to school when I was 16 to go wash cars in a car lot….10 years later I bought the company. I was a super salesman. I bought my own Honda dealership. I bought my own BMW dealership. We were the top gun in Western Canada. Nobody could outsell us.”
Patrick’s wife, Nancy, popped in as he was speaking. “This is my wife, Nancy – this is my treasure." Nancy says the story he is telling is not s not their story, but the fruit of 48 years of prayer by Patrick’s mother – an orphan raised by sisters of St. Joseph – and the faithful prayer and perseverance of her own mother, who was praying for her for 30 years. “The story you are about to hear is a story of God's mercy and grace. We have never seen Our Lady. We have had no mystical experiences. We have no special gifts. This story is a result of the faithful prayer of two mothers.”
Patrick continued his story. “I had nothing to do with God, church, marriage, sacraments, school. I had a horrible time in Catholic school." One day, when Patrick was on the football field, the head coach yelled in front of everyone, “Hey, Latta, you can't play because you don't pay to come here." Patrick did not know he did not pay. "That was the end of my school – that was the end in believing in God."
"I have four children [from two previous marriages]. My children never saw the inside of the church – ever." He used to say to his children, "This is god," and would hold up money. “When you have enough of this, you have all the god you want." Patrick lamented, “That's a father speaking to his children.” He said that one day his youngest son came home from school and announced he had been baptized Anglican. Patrick said to his son, “You're supposed to be Catholic." "Dad, you never took me inside a church." Patrick again lamented, “Wasn't I a great father? And that's how I lived – no God, no prayer, no church. But my business was fantastic, so I have a huge successful business and I don't need God. It was I, I, I …”
After his second divorce, Patrick met Nancy. Within two months they were living together. “No God, no prayer, no church, no marriage, no sacrament – nothing – living in mortal sin. We lived together six years.” One day, Nancy said that they should get married. Patrick agreed, and they got married the next day in a helicopter on top of a mountain. He hired a JP and asked the pilot to be the best man. He didn't even know his name. When he came home from work the next day, Nancy was crying. She said, "I don't feel married." She wanted to get married in a church. Patrick said, “Nancy, do you know how much that helicopter cost?" She said, “I don't care about your helicopter. We have to get married in a church." Patrick reminded her that he had two previous divorces.
Nancy went to see the bishop, who had documentation on Patrick's annulment from his first marriage. Patrick did not even know the marriage was annulled! The second document said that Patrick’s second marriage was never valid. The next day Nancy went to a church called “Immaculate Heart of Mary” to ask the priest to marry them. The priest agreed, but said to Nancy, “You’re out of your mind to marry this guy in church. He'll never change. He's the worst case I've ever seen. You are not going to make a success of this marriage – there's no chance." Patrick agreed to attend marriage preparation classes and he made many promises – go to Mass, Confession, etc. – but admits he is a “professional promiser” since he is a car dealer. They did get married in the church, but Patrick said it didn't mean anything, and he broke every promise he made. That's how they lived… until one day when Nancy's brother sent them a book of messages of Our Lady of Medjugorje.
When they received the book, Patrick was not interested, so he handed the book to Nancy, but she gave it back to him and said, "Here, my pagan husband, you throw them away and it's on your conscience." The word “conscience” wouldn't let Patrick throw the book away. He opened it and looked for the shortest message in the book. It said, “I call you to conversion for the last time." Then something happened. The tears just started and they wouldn't stop. He asked Nancy, "Why didn't you tell me about these messages? Why didn't you tell me they were true?" Patrick confessed, “I saw myself for the first time – I'm Catholic and lived in mortal sin for 30 years. And it came back to me in one second – boom! In one minute everything changed in my life.” He warned, “The day you see yourself as you live on this earth and you are Catholic and you are living in mortal sin – it's the worst day of your life, because reality hits you so hard and it's the truth."
Patrick began to read the messages – they became his whole life. He and Nancy even traveled to Oregon to attend a conference about the messages. Patrick was very touched when a priest at the conference suggested that everyone consecrate their children to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
At this point in the talk, Patrick decided to do some audience participation. There was a group of high school boys there from Boston, so he chose three of them to role-play as his sons. He said to the first boy that the school called and said he was expelled for using drugs and possibly dealing drugs. Patrick said – as he held up some money – that the principal had told him that this was the problem. “Your kids have too much." Patrick said that his son, who had dreadlocks at the time, replied, “This is my life. Leave me alone." Then Patrick called over the boy who was to play another of his sons, and said this kid was a super rugby player, but had a drinking problem. He mentioned the time that this son could not find his yellow Barracuda in a parking lot because he was so drunk.
Then Patrick called over a young woman from our group to play his 17 year-old daughter who wanted to get married. When she was divorced at age 19, Patrick gave her his car and his credit card and told her to go to California and find someone else. That's exactly what she did, and two years later she was divorced again.
“Drugs, alcohol, divorce – a fourth kid I can't even talk about. His immorality is so off-the-wall. Why that lifestyle?” His son told him, “Because I never had a father.” Patrick looked at the young people who were playing his kids. “These are my four children that I never baptized. I never said a prayer with you from the day you were born. I never took you inside a church… You had everything money could buy. Your cars were $70,000.”