Thomas & Pia Savoldi — Catholic Couple Discovers the True Church Through a Diocese Committee Study (c. 1960s–1970s)

Thomas and Pia Savoldi's conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a remarkable journey from devout Italian Catholicism to the restored gospel — a journey that began with a committee assignment in their Catholic diocese.

Both Thomas and Pia were raised in central Indiana in very Catholic, very Italian families. Thomas was a farm boy, born at the start of World War II. He attended Catholic schools from kindergarten through college — nuns, priests, and all. Pia grew up near Chicago in a family with deep Italian and Irish Catholic roots. They were "very much so, practicing Catholics" who went to church every Sunday.

Thomas never doubted that the Catholic Church was the one and only true church. If anyone tried to talk to them about religion, they would dismiss them quickly: "We're not interested. We're Catholic."

In 1962, Pope John XXIII convened an ecumenical council (Vatican II) in Rome to review canon law. As a result, the Savoldis' diocese in Lafayette, Indiana decided to review Catholic teachings and develop a plan to implement the council's reforms. Thomas was appointed to a 12-member parish committee charged with reviewing these teachings.

The committee met twice a week for about three hours at a time, reading and discussing the documents. Through the course of this intensive study, several things became clear to Thomas and Pia:

— They realized "how very little training the Catholics gave their pastors. The priests had almost no training in family life whatsoever because they were not married." This was a significant revelation about the limitations of an all-male, celibate clergy.

— It became "more and more obvious that there was no, they had no real claim to being the one true church." What they had believed was the one true church turned out to be "a power structure" — a hierarchy of deacon, priest, reverend, bishop, and pope — rather than a divinely authorized priesthood.

— They discovered they had been raised in a church that actively discouraged them from reading the Bible. Thomas recalled: "We were not allowed to read the Bible. I mean that was just something we were told, 'Don't do that because you may misinterpret it.'" They had a Bible at home but were told not to read it for fear of misinterpretation. Only what was contained in the mass was allowed.

— Pia observed: "The more we studied, it became obvious to us it was more an organizational structure, and the doctrine became less important, and there was less to substantiate that we could see."

This intensive study of their own Catholic faith — undertaken in service to their church — planted the seeds of realization that the Catholic Church, while good, did not have the fullness of truth or the divine authority it claimed. They began to search for the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Eventually, they encountered the missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and recognized in the restored gospel what they had been searching for: a church with living prophets, with priesthood authority restored from God, with scriptures that the Lord invited all to read, and with a structure that was divine rather than merely organizational.

The Savoldis' conversion is a powerful witness that the Lord can use even our service in other faiths to lead us to the truth. Thomas's faithful service on a Catholic diocese committee — undertaken in devotion to the church he loved — became the very instrument the Lord used to open his eyes to the need for restored priesthood authority. Their journey from devout Catholicism to the restored gospel is a testament that sincere seekers, when they study with real intent, will be led by the Spirit to the fullness of the truth.