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Christian Peschken refers to himself not as a Catholic filmmaker, but as “a filmmaker who is Catholic.” But he wasn’t always Catholic.

In his native Germany, he was a professional cameraman and producer in film, television (including his own weekly TV talk show) and radio. Moving to Hollywood in the early 1990s, he became an executive producer, working with actors like Rod Steiger, Martin Sheen and Scott Glenn.

In 1994, something changed. Unable to sleep one night, Peschken turned on the TV and saw a lady with pink hair waving a Bible and talking about Jesus.

“That was my first real, conscious contact with Christianity,” he remembered. “Before I became Christian, I only prayed to God when I needed money to buy my new Corvette or pay the rent for the expensive place in Burbank.”

For the next six years, he watched evangelical preachers on Trinity Broadcasting Network. In 1999, as chairman of the Social Awareness Committee of the Producers Guild of America, he focused on the impact films were having in society — an impact that Hollywood often denies.

Challenged by a televangelist one day, Peschken put faith in action.

“I got on my knees in front of my TV set and prayed that prayer to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior,” he recalled.

Later, he started a ministry in Los Angeles, “Mercenaries of the Lord,” to help homeless people on Skid Row overcome their homelessness. He also filmed television programs about his work in the streets.

“During that time, I tried to join nondenominational churches, but never felt comfortable with anything there — the loud music, the emotional stuff,” he said. “I didn’t feel at home there.”

Then two events changed Peschken’s life. In 2005, when Blessed John Paul II was dying, Peschken learned that the Pope had asked for certain Scripture verses about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to be read.

“That was the first time I made a link between the Catholic Church and Jesus,” he noted.

The second event happened in 2007. Flipping though television channels while working on a German Christian television channel (Peschken is the first TV producer who was granted a license by the state to broadcast Christian television programs in Germany), he stopped at a program that drew him in.

“It looked so very different than the evangelical programs,” Peschken explained. “People were talking about their conversion to Catholicism. It was Marcus Grodi in (EWTN’s) The Journey Home. That was the first time I was challenged about my Christian faith.”

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