Not long after he arrived in Utah, Catholic Bishop John Wester formed a close and lasting friendship with Latter-day Saint apostle M. Russell Ballard.
The two got to know each other on a somber occasion: Both were invited to pray at an interfaith memorial service for those who died in the 2007 Crandall Canyon Mine disaster.
They wept together, Wester said, for those who were lost and with the loved ones left behind.
Ballard was “so genuine, such a sincere person,” said Wester, who led Utah’s 300,0000 Catholics for eight years before becoming the 12th archbishop of Santa Fe in 2015, upon hearing of the apostle’s death this week. “He didn’t just spout words. If he said, ‘you’re a good friend,’ he meant it.”
Ballard, representing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had attended Wester’s 2007 installation at Salt Lake City’s majestic Cathedral of the Madeleine.
“We hit it off right away,” Wester recalled Tuesday. “He was very friendly and welcoming.”
After that, they called each other about various needs and activities. Ballard was “very supportive of our work with the poor,” the archbishop said.
They served together on the Alliance for Unity, which brought together members of various faiths and political groups to explore tough topics, including the state’s religious divides.
On a lighter note, Wester said, they also were golf buddies, enjoying each other on the green with some regularity and dining at each other’s homes.
In 2015, when Wester was reassigned to New Mexico, Ballard flew down to that installation in Santa Fe to help celebrate the Catholic friend he had known so well.
He was “a great witness for the LDS faith,” the archbishop said, and they had “a wonderful friendship.”
The Utah-based faith will miss Ballard, Wester said. “He provided great balance and was an anchor for the church.”
Utah’s current Catholic bishop, Oscar Solis, issued a statement on Ballard’s death, saying the Latter-day Saint apostle “was a man of integrity and a true friend of our Catholic bishops, many of our clergy and other leaders.”
And Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald, a retired but still involved priest in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, added his own voice to his church’s accolades.
“I found him to be a person of integrity and faithful to his work who kept his promises,” Fitzgerald said in an interview. “After he had his visit with Pope Francis, he stopped by [our diocesan offices] to tell me about it.”
To Utah Catholics, Ballard was “the face” of the predominant church, the priest said. “What a pleasure it was to know him.”