August 28, 2026 • 38 mins
Father Kamil Kiszka likened serving in Alaska to a priceless two-year retreat, during which he came away more peaceful and balanced. Father Kiszka returns to the podcast to talk about this unique full-time missionary experience in the Land of the Midnight Sun and what might be next for him. The conversation is moved along by Father Kiszka's collection of photographs from Alaska. (Watch the video version of the podcast to see the photographs.)
Host Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney reflects on our call to be missionary disciples wherever we are.
Bishop Sweeney also reflects on the life of Father Rafael Ciro, who took his life one year ago, and a Memorial Mass scheduled the day this episode was recorded. He also mentions the feast days of St. Monica (Aug. 27) and her son St. Augustine (Aug. 28).
Bishop Sweeney shares a few book recommendations as well!
Co-hosted by Communications Director Jai Agnish.
Show notes:
Mission priest inspired, in love with service in Alaska
Diocese sends love in packages to Alaska missionary priest
Podcast: Mission priest shares his love for serving in Alaska
Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney: Remembering with gratitude the life and ministry of Father Rafael A. Ciro
Email questions and podcast topic ideas to Bishop Kevin at beyond@patersondiocese.org.
Produced by Jai Agnish, Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney, and Father Kamil Kiszka for the Diocese of Paterson. Alaska photographs provided by Father Kamil Kiszka. Engineered, edited, and theme song by Jai Agnish. Illustrations by Dennis Dalelio.
Beyond The Beacon on Instagram and Facebook. Bishop Kevin on Instagram. The Diocese of Paterson on Instagram, Facebook (English) / Facebook (Spanish).
Every three years, each Diocese in the USA has the graced opportunity to make a scheduled pilgrimage as one Diocesan family with their Bishop to the National Shrine in the nation's capital. 2026 is once again "our year!" Please note the two-day and one-day options: Oct. 16, Friday, and Oct. 17, Saturday. Visit the Diocese of Paterson website here to learn more!
On Coffee with Kupke, we have a cup of coffee and sit down with diocesan archivist, Monsignor Raymond Kupke Ph.D., to delve into the history of Catholicism in the Diocese of Paterson, N.J. Hosted by Father Paul Manning and Msgr. Kupke. Listen to Coffee with Kupke wherever you get your podcasts, or watch it on the St. Paul Inside the Walls YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@stpaulinsidethewalls.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:08):
Welcome to Beyond the Weekend with Bishop Kevin
Sweeney, a podcast of theDiocese of Patterson, New
Jersey.
Join us for conversations aboutour Catholic faith.
And together let's strive tolive a life of faith, hope, and
love.
We're so glad you can join us.
I'm Jay Agnish, CommunicationsDirector for the Diocese of
Patterson.
With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney.
Bishop, how are you?
SPEAKER_02 (00:28):
I'm doing well, Jay.
How are you doing?
Doing well.
Yeah, a little break in therain, which is which is nice for
now.
Happy feast of Saint Mon SaintMonica, Saint Monica, Santa
Monica.
SPEAKER_05 (00:39):
And to you.
Patron saint of mothers who prayand worry for their wayward
sons.
With the son of the case.
Well, her son Augustine.
A little unique in the churchcalendar.
I think it's the only time whenon two consecutive days a mother
and son have their feast days.
(01:00):
Um today, St.
Monica, August 27th, andtomorrow St.
Augustine.
Pope Leo's favorite saint, theson of Augustine, as he calls
himself.
And uh so um and uh we'rerecording uh this on August
27th, and um it's also a sadanniversary, the first
anniversary of the passing ofFather Rafael Ciro.
(01:22):
Um I know died by suicide lastyear, and um I'll be celebrating
a mass for him tonight um withmany priests who can celebrate
at the parish where he waspastor St.
Stevenson Patterson.
Um Father Diego Monsalvo isdoing a good job.
Um and the people are walkingthe journey of faith, the
(01:44):
Paschal mystery, and um so we wetrust in the Lord's mercy, and
we'll have a special mass forFather Raphael tonight.
That's great, that's great,yeah.
I guess Father Camille is withus.
Um uh he would have beenordained a few years before you,
right?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:58):
He also bit older in ordination.
SPEAKER_03 (02:01):
So with us is Father Camille Kiska, who is back from
Alaska, so we want to hear.
You got it warmed up now, right?
Oh yes.
But uh before we start ourconversation, do you would you
like to open up in prayer?
SPEAKER_05 (02:16):
Sure.
We'll um ask the help andintercession of Mary, our
blessed mother, our lady ofChestahova, and um also um pray
through the intercession of St.
Monica and St.
Augustine.
Pray for moms and dads, sons anddaughters, families, um,
especially might when theremight be some struggles or some
who might be away from thechurch.
Um Monica's that great exampleof uh uh never losing hope and
(02:40):
continuing to pray.
Um, and we never know when Godcan touch someone's heart and
they can come back to the Lord.
So um uh as we ask the help andintercession of Mary and Blessed
Mother, we'll also pray throughthe intercession of Saint Monica
and Saint Augustine.
We'll place ourselves in God'spresence in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit.
Amen.
(03:00):
We ask the help and intercessionof Mary, our blessed mother, as
we pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace, theLord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, prayfor us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death.
Amen.
Our Lady, seat of wisdom, Motherof the Church, pray for us.
Our Lady of Chestehovah, prayfor us, Saint Joseph, pray for
(03:24):
us, Saint Monica and SaintAugustine, pray for us, all holy
men and women, pray for us.
In the name of the Father andthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We have to mention our Lady ofChestahova, right?
We can't forget her.
Yeah.
There is an Ar and Our Lady ofAlaska, is there?
SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
There is Our Lady of the Arctic snows.
Oh, beautiful.
Oh, cool.
So it's very native to thatland, yeah, over there in
Alaska.
SPEAKER_03 (03:47):
Yeah, so uh so welcome back.
You've been how long were you inAlaska and and how long have you
been back now?
SPEAKER_01 (03:53):
So I started to go to Alaska actually in 2020.
Uh for my summer break, uh, myvacation time.
That's right, yeah.
So I offered my myself to gothere and to work uh as a
missionary priest in replacementof those priests who actually
went for vacation from thatdiocese.
SPEAKER_05 (04:06):
Your first summer was 2020.
2020, exactly.
In the midst of the pandemic.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Yes, yeah, that was 2020.
And then regularly every year.
And in 2024, I was privilegedwith the huge blessing of our
bishop, um, to go therefull-time uh for two years.
Uh so these two years justpassed, uh, and I got back um in
the end of May uh to our dioceseuh to serve back in uh in our
(04:32):
parishes.
Are there two dioceses inAlaska?
Yes, right now there is two.
There is the Diocese ofFairbanks that covers north
parts, uh western parts, and abit of central parts, right?
And then it's Arch Diocese ofAnchorage Juno that covers
southern parts of Alaska uh withJuneau area.
SPEAKER_05 (04:49):
Right there.
There used to be three dioceseswhere Juneau was its own
diocese, but it um they put itback together.
SPEAKER_01 (04:54):
I believe uh they were joined together in 2020, uh
Anchorage and Juno.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (04:59):
But you served in Fairbanks, right?
SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
Bishop Stephen Makawa, yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (05:04):
Right, right.
I met him at uh I think themeeting in June and uh thanked
him for uh receiving you, and hewas very grateful uh for your
being there.
Um tell me again, uh um FatherCamille, uh your your interest
in Alaska originally um that ledyou, I think then, to write to
(05:28):
the bishop and offer yourservices for a month in the
summer, right?
Uh uh what was what what kind ofled up to that?
SPEAKER_01 (05:37):
So uh there is a much longer story, Your
Excellency.
Uh we have to go back to my uhformation in the seminary, and
after five years, I Where wasthat seminary?
SPEAKER_06 (05:46):
In Warsaw, in Warsaw.
In Warsaw, in Poland.
SPEAKER_01 (05:48):
Uh I took a break because I didn't know if I want
to be a priest or not.
Uh so I really hesitated and Ihad really huge doubts uh in my
not only my vocation but also myfaith uh in God.
So to make the long story short,uh I left the seminary, uh then
I returned uh and I knew that Iwant to be a priest but a
missionary priest.
I wanted to go somewhere.
(06:08):
And at that moment, that was2014, uh I was more thinking of
going to one of the Africancountries, right?
Somehow I I don't know what Iwas thinking of Africa.
Uh but two of my friends gotback from Chicago and they told
me that this is missionarychurch here in the States and
that people need to missions ofPatterson.
Yeah.
So I got here to the States, butthis desire of uh being uh in
(06:29):
need to people in differentsacramental way and priestly way
was still in me, and that is whyuh in 2019 I got in touch with
uh Bishop Chad Jelinski then uhof Fairbanks, and he invited me
to come and to spend like Do youremember what first brought
Alaska into your mind?
SPEAKER_05 (06:44):
Did you know someone there or did you hear about it?
SPEAKER_01 (06:46):
Or for the very first time, I heard about Alaska
when I was in the seminar on thethird year.
Uh I heard about priests who flywith planes.
SPEAKER_05 (06:54):
Oh, yes, right, yes, yes.
One of the bishops uh I thinkhad a pilot's license.
SPEAKER_01 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They did that, yes, definitely.
There are some priests now inAnchor uh Archdiocese of
Anchorage, Juno, uh, who havethe license so they fly.
Exactly with those kind ofplanes, uh sometimes smaller
ones.
SPEAKER_05 (07:10):
You flew in the planes, but you didn't fly the
plane, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Not by myself.
Although Bishop Stephen now uhwants to encourage some of the
priests to do uh the license,and he wants to buy one or two
planes over there.
SPEAKER_03 (07:21):
Awesome.
Yeah, I have my pilot's license.
I haven't flown in a few years,but uh Alaska, you read about
it, that's that's the place tofly.
Seaplanes.
Uh have you flown on a seaplane?
Is this a seaplane?
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
Yeah, this is uh ten people um plane.
Uh there.
So uh in the last year I wasmostly responsible for two
places, two villages, uh Kotlik,uh which is in another part of
uh Yukon Kuskop Fim Delta, andMrtarvik, which is in the
southern part uh over there.
So between the two villages, Ihad to take three planes one way
(07:53):
and three planes uh back.
Uh and it was challenging.
Uh but yeah, those planes thatyou saw actually, so that was my
daily uh routine.
SPEAKER_05 (08:00):
Like um tell us what we're seeing here.
Is that a parish activity?
SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
This is actually village cultural activity.
Uh this is uh from uh April, Ibelieve.
That was our mini potlatch.
Uh potlatch is a social event uhwhere people gather from all the
village, and actually othervillages are also invited uh to
participate.
And it's uh much of culturalactivities with dances, singing,
drums, uh cultural dresses, um,native habits and different
(08:28):
things, and also sharing some ofthe foods uh with the the people
who really need uh thoseproducts, uh different also
products.
So it's like um state fair, uhsomething like that.
Um but it's in cultural way.
SPEAKER_03 (08:41):
So let me just say for those of you who might be
listening, I would encourage youto watch this episode because we
are scrolling through somephotos that we're discussing
now.
SPEAKER_05 (08:49):
Right.
And uh you mentioned April, uhyou said you had an and here's
the look is that a priestgathering?
Yes.
Uh maybe the Christmas or aretreat?
SPEAKER_01 (08:57):
That was convocation uh in Anchorage, uh in
Anchorage.
Okay.
So uh traditionally they have uhconvocation every year.
Uh we I believe we have everythird year, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Uh but they have every year andthey gather all the priests from
Alaska.
From all the three dioceses thenand now two dioceses.
SPEAKER_03 (09:15):
Are there in Alaska?
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
Yeah, or in total, I would say it's over 60, close to
70 priests uh ministering overthere.
SPEAKER_05 (09:23):
In the diocese of Fairbanks.
SPEAKER_01 (09:24):
No, in Fairbanks it's only 27 or 28 at this
moment.
SPEAKER_05 (09:27):
Okay.
So the two dioceses have theirconvocation together, is that
right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um so um another time whenpriests gather is uh the Chris
Mass, and uh that would often beduring Holy Week, but in uh some
dioceses uh where it's not soeasy to travel, they have it at
a more convenient time, is thatright?
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
Yeah, this is what we actually did.
Uh so we had our convocationover there in Anchorage, and the
priests from Anchor AnchorageJuno diocese stayed there for
Christmas with the bishop, andwe went on the planes and flew
to Fairbanks for our Christmasas we were together uh at that
moment, so we were able to dothis.
Um that's Bishop Stephen, yes.
(10:08):
Oh, yes, right there.
That was his pastoral visit toCatholic in February.
What is very interesting is thatuh Bishop Stephen um always
flies to our region over there,Hawaii region, and then he takes
snowmobile, okay, he takesanother person with him just for
safety, okay, and he commutesbetween the villages with
snowmobile.
(10:29):
So it's very unique that theCatholic bishop actually does
this, right?
Um he doesn't fly directly tothe villages, but he flies to
one and then takes thesnowmobile and um.
SPEAKER_05 (10:38):
You did some snowmobiling yourself, I think,
huh?
SPEAKER_01 (10:40):
I did, uh, but not so much.
I didn't have to um too much.
Uh but yeah, some some of thepriests actually rely mostly on
snowmobiling.
SPEAKER_05 (10:47):
Four-wheel drive, right?
The little buggy.
Right, right, right.
Um so um uh this is in ordinarytimers, you're dressed in green,
but you had said uh you had aninteresting experience at
Easter.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
Oh, Your Excellency.
That was that was so unique.
Uh um so it happened that I wassent to Mertarvik over there.
Uh and uh, as you know,Mertarvik uh there was no place
for me to stay at.
Uh, Mertarvik is a new village,relocated from Newtok.
So there is no Catholic churchyet, um, there is nothing.
So when I went there for mymonthly visit, uh I stayed at
(11:22):
the school.
This is the social hall at thatuh at that school, and I slept
in one of the classrooms.
Wow.
And so I went there knowing thatuh it's going to be very
difficult for me to celebrateEaster having uh basically
nothing.
Okay.
Last year I went only for EasterSunday, uh, so I took my ALP
from Kotlik and my stall.
Okay, I didn't even take thechasable, full chasable not to
(11:42):
you know, um pack everythinginto bags.
But this time on Holy Thursday,as I was going there, I realized
I don't have my stall.
I had only ALP.
I forgot to take the stall, andI was like, what am I going to
do?
Okay, and I was like, I need toget to this old village uh in
New Talk uh to bring some of theitems.
And so I convinced some of thepeople, very luckily.
(12:04):
Um one uh gentleman, he's ateacher at the school actually,
said that he's going to uhconvince his son to help me with
this.
So on the next day, on GoodFriday uh in the morning, uh we
took ourselves, okay?
We took his snowmobile and asled and we went on Frozen River
across over there that is uh Ibelieve 11 miles or something,
(12:25):
maybe more than that, uh, toNewtok, to the old village that
is totally abandoned at thismoment.
The problem was that uh theriver froze uh very unevenly and
there were so many spikes.
So uh I actually turned my pantson this as I was just moving
non-stop on uh on thesnowmobile.
Uh we made that, uh, and Ibelieve there's more pictures uh
(12:45):
uh of uh of that church also.
Yes, this is from uh thereshould be some some other
pictures.
But my point is that I was ableto get to the church.
Yeah, I did that for survival.
Um I was able to get to thechurch and to bring the
necessary items.
Uh so for the first time in thatnew village, I celebrated Good
(13:07):
Friday, Holy Saturday, andEaster Sunday.
This is this old church.
Wow.
So uh we had a problem withactually the snow in front of
the church, so uh we had toreally uh duck the snow out.
Uh I had to break in uh becausesomehow the snow actually got
inside.
Uh this is like a four-yearentrance, so I had to push the
door uh inside, uh and then yes,to collect the items.
(13:28):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (13:29):
So that's where you celebrated Holy Week?
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Yeah, so this is old village.
Uh this is abandonment.
SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
Which is right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01 (13:35):
Yeah.
But uh like the whole idea ofgoing there, okay, taking items,
collecting items, like chalice,hosts, yeah, everything.
SPEAKER_03 (13:46):
There's your friendly snowman.
So what like what did you do foruh for for fun like when you
weren't uh working with on yourdays off?
SPEAKER_01 (13:59):
Yeah, you know what I had plenty of time off uh to
be honest with you because umthe uh native people over there
are not so active in the churchlife.
Uh so I try to really uh make myown schedule uh to stay active.
Uh sometimes I prayed even 10 to12 hours a day.
SPEAKER_06 (14:17):
Seriously.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
My days it was like long retreat during winter time
because mostly I couldn't doanything, right?
It was dark.
Uh we had let's say up to fivehours of sunlight.
Five hours.
Um the rest was total darkness.
SPEAKER_05 (14:29):
And with that wind over there with um what time
would the sun quote unquote comeup or go down?
SPEAKER_01 (15:16):
Yeah, yeah, usually around 11:30 noon that would go
up, yes.
The first light?
Yeah, and then around four afterfour-ish, uh around five-ish, uh
it would go down.
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (15:29):
That was at the at the shortest dice.
Right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01 (15:33):
But uh also winter.
Uh it's not like winter here.
Uh on that.
SPEAKER_05 (15:37):
How cold does it get?
SPEAKER_01 (15:39):
Uh for four months we had negative 20, negative 30
non-stop, four months in a row.
So when finally, uh that was thebeginning of April, uh, the
temperature reached 30 degrees,which is freezing in our
understanding, right?
30 degrees, okay.
That was like a heat wave forus.
Everybody went outside, we werejust walking on the boardwalk
over there and doing hot, hotweather.
(16:00):
Yeah, 30, 30 degrees.
SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
So now when you were on uh last time, you you had
expressed that you were it itseemed like you were kind of
seeing the end maybe of yourtime serving in Alaska.
Uh can you get us up to speed onon kind of maybe what went on
interiorly or or from that pointand uh that brought you back to
New Jersey?
So you're you're you're doneserving Alaska now then, right?
SPEAKER_01 (16:24):
Okay.
I'm done.
I will probably go to offer myvacation time from time to time.
Uh but uh yeah, I don't thinkright now of my full-time
contract there uh because it wasreally difficult uh physically
to live like that, uh to commutewith those small planes, to deal
with the weather, and that uhParish in Mertarvik was very
challenging for me.
Uh I was always drained of myenergy.
(16:46):
This is how I slept over there.
I made myself this uh this beduh in one of the classrooms.
Uh it was really, reallyphysically tough, uh, and I knew
like I I'm not able to continuethat in the long run.
Uh so um I was also glad that mycontract uh was coming to an
end, so I knew that I would comeback here.
However, one good thing was thatuh I I really changed myself as
(17:09):
a priest uh in my interior, inmy spirituality.
That was like a huge uh hugestep forward for me.
Uh it was like two years ofspiritual retreat.
Uh this is priceless.
Uh I'm not even able to explainthat, but uh I'm more peaceful
and more balanced inside myself.
Um something that I really wishevery priest would uh would know
about, yes, and experience.
SPEAKER_05 (17:31):
And um did you finish your seminary studies in
Poland before coming here toPatterson?
Uh and so then um uh there's thefour-wheeler, right?
Uh um uh interesting.
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (17:44):
Uh-huh.
So um as uh as we see overthere, there is the the heating
oil tank.
Okay, every place has uh someheating oil tank, and we have to
really fill up this regularlyand not to lose uh heating.
Uh and there is always some kindof serviceman uh who delivers
this, alright.
So with this, this is my churchby the way, uh behind uh behind
(18:06):
over there in the back.
So uh my church building waspretty old and had many of let's
say uh irregular shapes, I don'tknow, holes or other things.
SPEAKER_05 (18:16):
Uh so it wasn't very a church, that building there,
it's the other is it used forother purposes as well?
SPEAKER_01 (18:21):
Yes, so on this side here, that was my living
quarters.
Uh that was my room, um,bedroom, bathroom over there.
So uh but yeah, this is this iswhole uh old church on the side.
So uh I had to repay attentionto to deliveries because any
delay uh could uh pipes tofreeze and other problems,
right?
And the worst sound I canimagine, I have still like PTSD,
(18:45):
okay?
It's uh Toyo stove heater, okay?
It's like peek, peek, peak,peek.
It means that there is noheating oil.
I'm done.
Oh no.
So uh I tried to really avoidthat, and uh we got uh deliver
us regularly every two weeks uhof 100 gallons of heating oil.
SPEAKER_03 (19:01):
So the it strikes me the structure of the church,
obviously not like any churcheshere in New Jersey.
Are there any that are builtmore in the traditional style?
Like the maybe the cathedral,maybe in the city?
SPEAKER_01 (19:12):
Mm-hmm.
In the city.
SPEAKER_05 (19:13):
Okay.
But in the countryside of thetowns, villages, I guess not
really, right?
SPEAKER_03 (19:18):
Yeah, they look more like houses, like and you got to
know the native uh language a alittle bit, or or certainly got
to know some of the nativepeople.
SPEAKER_01 (19:27):
That would be ideal, but uh Yupik, uh Yupik language
Yuchtun is very difficult.
SPEAKER_05 (19:31):
Oh there it is, you pick him though.
SPEAKER_01 (19:33):
Yeah, uh I was able to follow just the phonetics, uh
how to read the text, right,without even understanding but
how to read the phonetics uh ofthe text.
Uh so I enjoyed singing withthem uh a few songs.
I actually got to know reallywell, so I can even sync to my
memory.
Uh but uh to speak Yuchtun, uhthat's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_05 (19:52):
How how long has the Catholic faith been in Alaska?
SPEAKER_01 (19:55):
It came with the Jesuits when um Alaska was
actually Orthodox first.
Oh yeah, that was firstChristianity and then Jesuits.
From Russia, would you say?
Yeah, yeah.
And then Jesuits brought uhCatholic faith um uh to to
Alaska.
And in my diocese, just rightnow, in the end of June, uh they
finished their mission.
Uh the two last Jesuits left.
SPEAKER_05 (20:17):
Uh so there is no more Jesuits uh in in my diocese
uh so uh you finished your uh uhthe theological studies uh in
Poland but had that uhdiscerning um call to the
missions, and someone told youthere was a need for priests in
Patterson, right?
Thank God.
(20:37):
And uh and uh um did you comedirectly to Patterson, right?
From Poland, right?
And then um uh did you um youwould have spent some time, I
guess, studying English andpreparing for diaconate then,
right?
Mm-hmm.
That was necessary.
And what was your first parishexperience here in the diocese?
SPEAKER_01 (20:56):
So that was when I was seminarian um East uh Saint
Rose of Lima in Istanbul.
Uh very Italian parish.
I still have many friends overthere, uh, and I go to to that
to visit my friends uh prettyoften.
SPEAKER_05 (21:10):
Italian food is a little different from Alaskan
food.
Yeah, oh yes, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:13):
But that was more Italian style, European style.
Uh then when I was deacon, Imoved to Whippany, uh, and that
was like more American like uhparish.
SPEAKER_05 (21:23):
Uh uh A Lady of Mercy in Whipany, right?
And then um when you wereordained a priest, where was
your first assignment?
SPEAKER_01 (21:29):
St.
Patrick's in Chatham.
SPEAKER_05 (21:30):
Um were you already a hockey fan, or did was that
Father Bob's doing?
Oh, you're a hockey fan?
Yes.
I'd like to hear that.
Uh you and Father Bob used to goto some devil games, right?
Yeah, right.
Yeah, that's what's happening.
Oh yeah.
And then um from St.
Patrick's in Chatham to uh OurLady of the Lake, right, right.
And then um back to Chatham tothe other parish in Chatham,
(21:53):
Corpus Christi, right?
Corpus Christi.
Um so um uh and by the time youwere in Corpus Christi, um that
call to um uh they they talkabout St.
Patrick um when he was umenslaved in Ireland and escaped
and got back to England, he feltthe people um of the place he
(22:14):
had been kind of calling himback to serve.
Um and uh in some way uh you hadbeen there a few summers and you
discerned that uh the Lord mightbe inviting you to spend some uh
be there for uh an experience ona longer basis.
Is that right?
Yes, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (22:32):
Exactly.
That was when I was in Chathamat Carpus Christi.
Uh I came to you and I said thatyeah, I I wish to go there.
Yeah, so we had like a very niceConversation and with God's
blessing and your help, YourExcellency, I was able to go
there and to experience this oldmissionary lifestyle.
SPEAKER_05 (22:48):
And you know, um in ministry and um uh in discerning
the Lord's will and serving aspriests, um especially as Daasin
priests, um yes, there hopefullywe all have some of that
missionary spirit, right?
Uh but that can take place inAlaska or it can take place in
in Chatham or Spartan orBoonton, right?
Uh uh and uh uh you said uh yourexperience in Alaska has helped
(23:12):
you in terms of your ownreflection on your priesthood,
right?
Oh yes.
Um and now you're doing the yourmissionary work in Boonton, in
St.
Cyril Matodians, right?
At the Polish church though,yes.
Along with um uh St.
Virgil's in uh in Morris Plainswhere you're living, right?
Yes.
Um so you're back um in themissions of Patterson, right?
SPEAKER_01 (23:32):
Yes, Your Excellency.
And actually, yes, there aresome things that uh like the
skills I have learned in Alaskathat I can implement uh here um
either uh in Morris Plains or inBunton.
Uh but yes, that that was a verybeneficial time for me, and uh
it it will really reward me inthe future.
Wherever I'm going to be, um Iwill definitely have a little
bit of Alaska in your heart,huh?
SPEAKER_03 (23:53):
Bishop, question for you.
Um can you talk about themissionary spirit?
Or or I mean uh so we havemissionaries, some other
missionaries in our diocese, andanywhere you want to go with
that?
SPEAKER_05 (24:03):
Well, uh, you know, it really since the Second
Vatican Council, there's been uhPope Paul VI said the church
exists to evangelize.
So that were and and and thatcall from baptism to be um uh uh
a call to holiness, but also tobe missionary disciples, right?
Jesus said, go to the ends ofthe earth and make uh disciples,
(24:25):
baptize them, Father, Son, andHoly Spirit, teach them and know
that I'm with you till the endof the age.
So and Pope Francis um wasespecially in his um uh maybe
most important uh uh document,uh Evangeli Gaudium, the joy of
the gospel, uh, was very focusedon that call to be missionary
disciples, wherever we are.
(24:46):
Uh yeah, some have that call toleave home and culture and uh
and what a blessing it can be.
I shared um we um uh anothermissionary uh from Oklahoma to
Guatemala, Father StanleyRother.
Uh there was a movie that justcame out about him this week,
and uh he's uh he's now beennamed a martyr, and he just
(25:07):
needs a miracle to be canonizedas a saint.
He would be the first male bornin the United States.
There's uh a few candidates,Fulton Sheen, Father Michael
McGivney, Father Rother.
There might be one or two othersthat are on the path to
sainthood, but uh so so far I'mpretty sure that no male uh born
in the United States.
There's been a few women born inthe United States who have been
uh canonized as saints, butapparently not a male yet.
(25:29):
And uh so Father Stanley feltthis call.
Um, and uh in in writing abouthim, I shared, you know, my own
experience going to theDominican Republic or Mexico or
um and then in Brooklyn andQueens, and now here in
Patterson, you know, getting toknow different cultures through
language, but also through uh uhthrough culture.
And so, yes, the the languagewas one thing, but you you got
(25:50):
to hold know a whole otherculture, right?
And uh trying to share the faithin that culture.
And it's I think it helps us seethe the beauty of our Catholic
faith.
It's you it is universal, right?
That word means universal.
And so um there, right?
Um uh beautiful picture, that'sa good timing.
Uh, because it's the same Eastervigil.
Okay, the some of the aestheticsmight be a little bit different,
(26:13):
but uh it's the same celebrationof the Paschal Mystery, right?
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Can we pause here?
So the thing is that you seethat there is a window and it's
pretty bright outside, right?
Yes.
Uh we had this celebration inthe evening, okay?
Um, okay, so that was all right.
But uh normally uh we would haveto start after midnight to catch
uh some of the darkness.
Why?
Because uh when the end ofJanuary comes, okay, February,
(26:38):
March, it's getting brighter andbrighter, and you know that
there is midnight sun, right?
So it starts usually around Maytime, right?
So when the Easter is late inApril, okay, it's already uh
pretty bright at night.
There usually it's uh some somedarkness is usually about 1
a.m., 2 a.m.
Okay.
So for me, like last year, okay,last year we had uh Easter
(26:58):
later, uh it was so like weirdto celebrate Easter with some
sunlight coming through, likeoutside.
Like when you do the fireoutside, and it's like uh it's
so bright, right?
So another aspect that um itwould it was more cultural
towards that uh region and thepeople over there.
SPEAKER_05 (27:16):
Uh so it might go for it goes from uh the shortest
days where there's only fivehours of daylight to um the
longest days would be how manyhours?
SPEAKER_01 (27:25):
Non-stop is light.
So over there in Kotlik, uh Ididn't see sun directly on the
sky, but it was bright likeyeah, it was much brighter than
this what we see with theclouds.
Right.
Uh but yeah, going from ArcticCircle, that distance,
geographical distance, um thereis non-stop sun seen on the on
the on the sky.
So let's say in Barrow,Utkyavik, that's the last city
(27:48):
in in Alaska, uh they see sunnon-stop going on the sky
non-stop, 24 hours uh per day.
Yeah, for a few months.
SPEAKER_05 (27:56):
For a few months.
Yeah.
Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_03 (27:58):
This is what's going on here.
The convocation, okay.
Any anything you can uh I thinkI asked you this last time, or
we asked you this last time.
Um, lessons learned from Alaskaduring your time that you could
bring back to New Jersey foreither for your yourself you
alluded to, but uh maybe othersas well.
Something uh to learn.
SPEAKER_01 (28:19):
Definitely time in isolation is uh really good uh
because we live in uh this chaosof today's world, nonstop with
our cell phones, media,multimedia and everything,
right?
Uh and it's sometimes reallygood uh to stop a bit uh and to
really listen to our interior,our hearts and minds, uh, and to
(28:40):
rely more on God, uh to listento what God wants to say to us.
Uh so this is what I would sayto everyone who are watching
right now.
Um sometimes really to pause tofind that time of retreat and
quietness is really reallyimportant.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (28:59):
What else do you want to tell us about?
SPEAKER_05 (29:01):
You had some fun.
SPEAKER_01 (29:02):
I learned how to survive.
Uh I realized uh this is uh thisis crazy, but many times I saw
people actually carrying eggs,having normal chicken eggs on
those planes like that.
Okay, so they were umtransporting eggs uh from
Bethel, uh from that bigger cityto their villages.
Why?
Because many times we didn't seeeggs in the stores, local
(29:25):
stores.
Our stole stores in the villageswere poorly supplied.
Uh and I believe that uh in myvillage uh I saw chicken eggs
only three times in the courseof two years.
Wow.
Uh because it's also poorbusiness for manager of every
store in the villages uh toorder eggs uh if they they come
broken, right?
So many times they don't ordereggs uh or they have
(29:47):
difficulties with umtransportation or um you know
good conditions becauseeverything is as you see, right,
is um very primitive.
SPEAKER_05 (29:56):
Uh when we saw the ice fishing, you said you needed
it to survive.
Uh was that half-choking or wasthere some truth to that?
So I re because now that you'retalking, I remember uh that your
the diet was a struggle, right?
SPEAKER_01 (30:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So uh I was actually uh eating alot of the fish.
Last year I went with my uhneighbor uh Paul Hunt uh and his
family uh for fishing regularly.
So I filled my freezer with fishand I ate for three months
non-stop fish.
Wow to save also some moneybecause the products in the
voters are very expensive.
(30:29):
Uh but uh having this abundanceof fish, I ate only fish.
SPEAKER_05 (30:33):
And you caught you caught all those fish yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
Yeah, yeah, but we had fishing nets.
SPEAKER_05 (30:37):
What kind of fish?
SPEAKER_01 (30:38):
Uh different kinds, uh, and white fish, different
kinds, salmon with King Salmonmy favorite.
I love it.
I love it.
Uh she fish, uh, all thosedifferent that swim in the
rivers.
SPEAKER_03 (30:49):
Did you bring some back for us?
SPEAKER_01 (30:51):
No, I ate all of them.
SPEAKER_05 (30:53):
Have you eaten much fish since you returned?
SPEAKER_01 (30:55):
Uh not so much, maybe once.
Um, but I I really want to eatsteaks, not some other meat.
SPEAKER_05 (31:03):
Not a lot of steak in Alaska.
SPEAKER_06 (31:05):
But they have moose.
Uh they actually can really uhsomeone gave me some moose meat
uh that eat.
SPEAKER_01 (31:13):
So it's very unique.
The most unique is actually sealmeat.
Oh boy.
From seal.
Uh it tastes a bit like chicken.
Uh no, actually like like drugs,like anti bio antibiotics or
something like that.
It's really not really tasty.
So you have to eat this withsomething, uh, usually with some
pastries or in some stool likeum form because uh you have to
(31:36):
kill the taste.
SPEAKER_05 (31:37):
I guess protein is protein if you need it.
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
Yeah, it's full of iron, uh a lot of the iron over
there.
So uh but it's it's really goodlike for survival there in that
climate.
SPEAKER_05 (31:45):
Wow, seal meat.
Do they do they eat a lot ofseal meat?
They do.
SPEAKER_01 (31:50):
Yeah, they they hunt for seal.
Um yeah, so there are a lot ofseal around?
Yeah, in those uh open watersover there, yeah.
They have plenty of those.
SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
So what what's next for Father Camille?
SPEAKER_01 (32:02):
I'm staying in our diocese, I'm enjoying the
moment, and I'm focused on uhministering in Bunton at the
Polish community.
SPEAKER_05 (32:09):
Okay over there.
Yes, yes, St.
Cyril Lemotholius, yes.
Um so um um we'll have to getyou um at some point to speak to
our seminarians, right?
Because uh uh it's it's uh uhpart of our formation um to
learn about different umexperiences of priesthood and um
(32:31):
when we're only in maybe in ourcomfort zone, yes, that can be
challenging in itself.
Um but it can be a blessing anda growing experience uh to allow
the Lord to lead us uh to someplace where we may not be
familiar, right?
And uh and uh um it can behelpful for guys as they discern
(32:51):
the call.
SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
Yeah, oh yes.
If I can be of any help uh andgive some knowledge to those
seminars, I will definitely dothat.
Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_05 (32:59):
That's great.
Um well Father Camille, thankyou so much for being with us.
Uh uh, we're grateful that uhyou know you had that um
willingness and generosity torespond to the Lord's call and
give yourself.
I know Father, as I said, BishopStephen was very, very grateful
for your time there.
Um and we're also glad that theLord led you back here to the
(33:21):
missions in in Patterson.
So um we'll keep you in ourprayers and uh um we'll see
where how and where the Lordleads us uh going forward.
But but thanks so much forsharing with us.
SPEAKER_03 (33:32):
Yeah, big big welcome back, and uh we see you
in here around more, hopefully.
Um before we wrap up, Bishop, umwhat are you what are you
reading?
What are you listening to?
SPEAKER_05 (33:40):
What's oh boy, um I listen I um I listened to a
wonderful book, um uh The LifeYou Save May Be Your Own, um by
Paul Ellie, I believe.
Um it's uh a kind of asimultaneous biography of uh
Flannery O'Connor, Dorothy Day,Thomas Merton, and Walker Percy,
(34:03):
uh philosophical writer andnovelist.
Um and uh um I think I startedit before retreat, continued it
on retreat, and finished it uhafterwards.
Um uh been a big fan of DorothyDay.
Um New York connection, I guess.
Yes, right, and uh some Brooklynconnection as well.
And um but uh you know I wasfamiliar with Florida Flannery
(34:28):
O'Connor a little bit.
She's um an acquired taste, Ithink.
But uh one of the great Catholicwriters, uh very funny.
I didn't realize she was assarcastic.
She's the one that um credited,I believe, with the line at some
fancy dinner with some uhupscale uh ladies, maybe, and uh
Catholics, and uh or maybe someweren't Catholic.
(34:49):
Uh in the course of the dinnerconversation, she said they were
talking about the Eucharist anduh being a symbol, and uh
Florida O'Connor said, Well, ifit's only the symbol to hell
with it.
So uh famous line, yeah.
Yes.
Um and um and uh again, I'mfamiliar with Thomas Merton, but
um wow, he was very prolific anduh and so popular in his time.
Um and um and then Walker Percy,uh the philosophy teacher,
(35:13):
Father Robert Lawrence, one ofmy favorite teachers in in St.
John's University, was a big fanof Walker Percy.
So uh never heard of that.
That was great.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (35:21):
Yeah, Thomas Merton can be a little deep.
Uh I'm attempting to read a bitof Thomas Merton.
SPEAKER_05 (35:25):
Yeah, I tried the Seven Story Mountain a couple of
times.
Yeah.
And uh didn't get all that far.
But uh, as opposed to in theseminary, I read Dorothy Day's
uh The Long Loneliness, her herum autobiography and spiritual
memoir.
Um yeah, um she's she's she'sshe's amazing.
Uh and and how popular she wasin her time and the Catholic
worker movement, you know, uhshe's she there was some
(35:49):
struggle in her older years whenyounger volunteers would come
and she uh wasn't so uh crazyabout the way culture and young
people were going in the 1960sand early 70s, and uh she let it
be known that she wasn't uh butuh but they came because they
were inspired and you know toserve in the Catholic worker and
then Catholic worker homesopened up all across the United
(36:10):
States, and some are stillgoing.
So um, yeah, that was that wasuh a good read.
SPEAKER_03 (36:16):
Great.
Well, there you go.
Some great recommendations, sothank you.
SPEAKER_05 (36:19):
I wanted to mention I uh in August the 5th I did a
final profession, Solemn Vowsfor uh uh Salesian sister um at
um Mary Helping ChristiansHeldon.
In August 14th, I celebrated afinal profession for Sister
Chiara Marie, uh, who's uh uh afaculty member at Divine Mercy
(36:41):
Academy in Rockaway and uh hasbeen serving there for a number
of years.
She made her solemn vows withthe sisters of Christian charity
um at their motherhouse inMendem.
And um in uh September I'll becelebrating uh a mass for a
Carmelite sister in Morristownwho's be making her solemn vows.
Um and uh we might have more tocome about the Carmelite
(37:03):
Monastery celebrating itshundredth anniversary.
We will as we pray forvocations, yes, to priesthood,
but also to consecratedreligious life, and it's great
to see in in about a month threesisters making solemn
professions.
So uh uh keep praying forvocations.
SPEAKER_03 (37:18):
All right, well, thanks again, Father Camille.
Thanks, Bishop, and thank youall for joining us.
Please subscribe, comment, andleave a positive rating.
Get to know us better byfollowing Bishop Kevin's
Instagram and beyond the beaconon social media.
Read the bishop's weekly columnon beaconnj.org and get in touch
if you have a question for thebishop or a podcast topic idea
(37:39):
and discover our other podcasts.
SPEAKER_05 (37:41):
Thanks, everybody.
God bless.
See you next time.
Welcome to Beyond the Weekend with Bishop Kevin
Sweeney, a podcast of theDiocese of Patterson, New
Jersey.
Join us for conversations aboutour Catholic faith.
And together let's strive tolive a life of faith, hope, and
love.
We're so glad you can join us.
I'm Jay Agnish, CommunicationsDirector for the Diocese of
Patterson.
With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney.
Bishop, how are you?
SPEAKER_02 (00:28):
I'm doing well, Jay.
How are you doing?
Doing well.
Yeah, a little break in therain, which is which is nice for
now.
Happy feast of Saint Mon SaintMonica, Saint Monica, Santa
Monica.
SPEAKER_05 (00:39):
And to you.
Patron saint of mothers who prayand worry for their wayward
sons.
With the son of the case.
Well, her son Augustine.
A little unique in the churchcalendar.
I think it's the only time whenon two consecutive days a mother
and son have their feast days.
(01:00):
Um today, St.
Monica, August 27th, andtomorrow St.
Augustine.
Pope Leo's favorite saint, theson of Augustine, as he calls
himself.
And uh so um and uh we'rerecording uh this on August
27th, and um it's also a sadanniversary, the first
anniversary of the passing ofFather Rafael Ciro.
(01:22):
Um I know died by suicide lastyear, and um I'll be celebrating
a mass for him tonight um withmany priests who can celebrate
at the parish where he waspastor St.
Stevenson Patterson.
Um Father Diego Monsalvo isdoing a good job.
Um and the people are walkingthe journey of faith, the
(01:44):
Paschal mystery, and um so we wetrust in the Lord's mercy, and
we'll have a special mass forFather Raphael tonight.
That's great, that's great,yeah.
I guess Father Camille is withus.
Um uh he would have beenordained a few years before you,
right?
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (01:58):
He also bit older in ordination.
SPEAKER_03 (02:01):
So with us is Father Camille Kiska, who is back from
Alaska, so we want to hear.
You got it warmed up now, right?
Oh yes.
But uh before we start ourconversation, do you would you
like to open up in prayer?
SPEAKER_05 (02:16):
Sure.
We'll um ask the help andintercession of Mary, our
blessed mother, our lady ofChestahova, and um also um pray
through the intercession of St.
Monica and St.
Augustine.
Pray for moms and dads, sons anddaughters, families, um,
especially might when theremight be some struggles or some
who might be away from thechurch.
Um Monica's that great exampleof uh uh never losing hope and
(02:40):
continuing to pray.
Um, and we never know when Godcan touch someone's heart and
they can come back to the Lord.
So um uh as we ask the help andintercession of Mary and Blessed
Mother, we'll also pray throughthe intercession of Saint Monica
and Saint Augustine.
We'll place ourselves in God'spresence in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of theHoly Spirit.
Amen.
(03:00):
We ask the help and intercessionof Mary, our blessed mother, as
we pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace, theLord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, prayfor us sinners, now and at the
hour of our death.
Amen.
Our Lady, seat of wisdom, Motherof the Church, pray for us.
Our Lady of Chestehovah, prayfor us, Saint Joseph, pray for
(03:24):
us, Saint Monica and SaintAugustine, pray for us, all holy
men and women, pray for us.
In the name of the Father andthe Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We have to mention our Lady ofChestahova, right?
We can't forget her.
Yeah.
There is an Ar and Our Lady ofAlaska, is there?
SPEAKER_01 (03:40):
There is Our Lady of the Arctic snows.
Oh, beautiful.
Oh, cool.
So it's very native to thatland, yeah, over there in
Alaska.
SPEAKER_03 (03:47):
Yeah, so uh so welcome back.
You've been how long were you inAlaska and and how long have you
been back now?
SPEAKER_01 (03:53):
So I started to go to Alaska actually in 2020.
Uh for my summer break, uh, myvacation time.
That's right, yeah.
So I offered my myself to gothere and to work uh as a
missionary priest in replacementof those priests who actually
went for vacation from thatdiocese.
SPEAKER_05 (04:06):
Your first summer was 2020.
2020, exactly.
In the midst of the pandemic.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Yes, yeah, that was 2020.
And then regularly every year.
And in 2024, I was privilegedwith the huge blessing of our
bishop, um, to go therefull-time uh for two years.
Uh so these two years justpassed, uh, and I got back um in
the end of May uh to our dioceseuh to serve back in uh in our
(04:32):
parishes.
Are there two dioceses inAlaska?
Yes, right now there is two.
There is the Diocese ofFairbanks that covers north
parts, uh western parts, and abit of central parts, right?
And then it's Arch Diocese ofAnchorage Juno that covers
southern parts of Alaska uh withJuneau area.
SPEAKER_05 (04:49):
Right there.
There used to be three dioceseswhere Juneau was its own
diocese, but it um they put itback together.
SPEAKER_01 (04:54):
I believe uh they were joined together in 2020, uh
Anchorage and Juno.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (04:59):
But you served in Fairbanks, right?
SPEAKER_01 (05:02):
Bishop Stephen Makawa, yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (05:04):
Right, right.
I met him at uh I think themeeting in June and uh thanked
him for uh receiving you, and hewas very grateful uh for your
being there.
Um tell me again, uh um FatherCamille, uh your your interest
in Alaska originally um that ledyou, I think then, to write to
(05:28):
the bishop and offer yourservices for a month in the
summer, right?
Uh uh what was what what kind ofled up to that?
SPEAKER_01 (05:37):
So uh there is a much longer story, Your
Excellency.
Uh we have to go back to my uhformation in the seminary, and
after five years, I Where wasthat seminary?
SPEAKER_06 (05:46):
In Warsaw, in Warsaw.
In Warsaw, in Poland.
SPEAKER_01 (05:48):
Uh I took a break because I didn't know if I want
to be a priest or not.
Uh so I really hesitated and Ihad really huge doubts uh in my
not only my vocation but also myfaith uh in God.
So to make the long story short,uh I left the seminary, uh then
I returned uh and I knew that Iwant to be a priest but a
missionary priest.
I wanted to go somewhere.
(06:08):
And at that moment, that was2014, uh I was more thinking of
going to one of the Africancountries, right?
Somehow I I don't know what Iwas thinking of Africa.
Uh but two of my friends gotback from Chicago and they told
me that this is missionarychurch here in the States and
that people need to missions ofPatterson.
Yeah.
So I got here to the States, butthis desire of uh being uh in
(06:29):
need to people in differentsacramental way and priestly way
was still in me, and that is whyuh in 2019 I got in touch with
uh Bishop Chad Jelinski then uhof Fairbanks, and he invited me
to come and to spend like Do youremember what first brought
Alaska into your mind?
SPEAKER_05 (06:44):
Did you know someone there or did you hear about it?
SPEAKER_01 (06:46):
Or for the very first time, I heard about Alaska
when I was in the seminar on thethird year.
Uh I heard about priests who flywith planes.
SPEAKER_05 (06:54):
Oh, yes, right, yes, yes.
One of the bishops uh I thinkhad a pilot's license.
SPEAKER_01 (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They did that, yes, definitely.
There are some priests now inAnchor uh Archdiocese of
Anchorage, Juno, uh, who havethe license so they fly.
Exactly with those kind ofplanes, uh sometimes smaller
ones.
SPEAKER_05 (07:10):
You flew in the planes, but you didn't fly the
plane, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:13):
Not by myself.
Although Bishop Stephen now uhwants to encourage some of the
priests to do uh the license,and he wants to buy one or two
planes over there.
SPEAKER_03 (07:21):
Awesome.
Yeah, I have my pilot's license.
I haven't flown in a few years,but uh Alaska, you read about
it, that's that's the place tofly.
Seaplanes.
Uh have you flown on a seaplane?
Is this a seaplane?
SPEAKER_01 (07:32):
Yeah, this is uh ten people um plane.
Uh there.
So uh in the last year I wasmostly responsible for two
places, two villages, uh Kotlik,uh which is in another part of
uh Yukon Kuskop Fim Delta, andMrtarvik, which is in the
southern part uh over there.
So between the two villages, Ihad to take three planes one way
(07:53):
and three planes uh back.
Uh and it was challenging.
Uh but yeah, those planes thatyou saw actually, so that was my
daily uh routine.
SPEAKER_05 (08:00):
Like um tell us what we're seeing here.
Is that a parish activity?
SPEAKER_01 (08:04):
This is actually village cultural activity.
Uh this is uh from uh April, Ibelieve.
That was our mini potlatch.
Uh potlatch is a social event uhwhere people gather from all the
village, and actually othervillages are also invited uh to
participate.
And it's uh much of culturalactivities with dances, singing,
drums, uh cultural dresses, um,native habits and different
(08:28):
things, and also sharing some ofthe foods uh with the the people
who really need uh thoseproducts, uh different also
products.
So it's like um state fair, uhsomething like that.
Um but it's in cultural way.
SPEAKER_03 (08:41):
So let me just say for those of you who might be
listening, I would encourage youto watch this episode because we
are scrolling through somephotos that we're discussing
now.
SPEAKER_05 (08:49):
Right.
And uh you mentioned April, uhyou said you had an and here's
the look is that a priestgathering?
Yes.
Uh maybe the Christmas or aretreat?
SPEAKER_01 (08:57):
That was convocation uh in Anchorage, uh in
Anchorage.
Okay.
So uh traditionally they have uhconvocation every year.
Uh we I believe we have everythird year, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Uh but they have every year andthey gather all the priests from
Alaska.
From all the three dioceses thenand now two dioceses.
SPEAKER_03 (09:15):
Are there in Alaska?
SPEAKER_01 (09:16):
Yeah, or in total, I would say it's over 60, close to
70 priests uh ministering overthere.
SPEAKER_05 (09:23):
In the diocese of Fairbanks.
SPEAKER_01 (09:24):
No, in Fairbanks it's only 27 or 28 at this
moment.
SPEAKER_05 (09:27):
Okay.
So the two dioceses have theirconvocation together, is that
right?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Um so um another time whenpriests gather is uh the Chris
Mass, and uh that would often beduring Holy Week, but in uh some
dioceses uh where it's not soeasy to travel, they have it at
a more convenient time, is thatright?
SPEAKER_01 (09:45):
Yeah, this is what we actually did.
Uh so we had our convocationover there in Anchorage, and the
priests from Anchor AnchorageJuno diocese stayed there for
Christmas with the bishop, andwe went on the planes and flew
to Fairbanks for our Christmasas we were together uh at that
moment, so we were able to dothis.
Um that's Bishop Stephen, yes.
(10:08):
Oh, yes, right there.
That was his pastoral visit toCatholic in February.
What is very interesting is thatuh Bishop Stephen um always
flies to our region over there,Hawaii region, and then he takes
snowmobile, okay, he takesanother person with him just for
safety, okay, and he commutesbetween the villages with
snowmobile.
(10:29):
So it's very unique that theCatholic bishop actually does
this, right?
Um he doesn't fly directly tothe villages, but he flies to
one and then takes thesnowmobile and um.
SPEAKER_05 (10:38):
You did some snowmobiling yourself, I think,
huh?
SPEAKER_01 (10:40):
I did, uh, but not so much.
I didn't have to um too much.
Uh but yeah, some some of thepriests actually rely mostly on
snowmobiling.
SPEAKER_05 (10:47):
Four-wheel drive, right?
The little buggy.
Right, right, right.
Um so um uh this is in ordinarytimers, you're dressed in green,
but you had said uh you had aninteresting experience at
Easter.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
Oh, Your Excellency.
That was that was so unique.
Uh um so it happened that I wassent to Mertarvik over there.
Uh and uh, as you know,Mertarvik uh there was no place
for me to stay at.
Uh, Mertarvik is a new village,relocated from Newtok.
So there is no Catholic churchyet, um, there is nothing.
So when I went there for mymonthly visit, uh I stayed at
(11:22):
the school.
This is the social hall at thatuh at that school, and I slept
in one of the classrooms.
Wow.
And so I went there knowing thatuh it's going to be very
difficult for me to celebrateEaster having uh basically
nothing.
Okay.
Last year I went only for EasterSunday, uh, so I took my ALP
from Kotlik and my stall.
Okay, I didn't even take thechasable, full chasable not to
(11:42):
you know, um pack everythinginto bags.
But this time on Holy Thursday,as I was going there, I realized
I don't have my stall.
I had only ALP.
I forgot to take the stall, andI was like, what am I going to
do?
Okay, and I was like, I need toget to this old village uh in
New Talk uh to bring some of theitems.
And so I convinced some of thepeople, very luckily.
(12:04):
Um one uh gentleman, he's ateacher at the school actually,
said that he's going to uhconvince his son to help me with
this.
So on the next day, on GoodFriday uh in the morning, uh we
took ourselves, okay?
We took his snowmobile and asled and we went on Frozen River
across over there that is uh Ibelieve 11 miles or something,
(12:25):
maybe more than that, uh, toNewtok, to the old village that
is totally abandoned at thismoment.
The problem was that uh theriver froze uh very unevenly and
there were so many spikes.
So uh I actually turned my pantson this as I was just moving
non-stop on uh on thesnowmobile.
Uh we made that, uh, and Ibelieve there's more pictures uh
(12:45):
uh of uh of that church also.
Yes, this is from uh thereshould be some some other
pictures.
But my point is that I was ableto get to the church.
Yeah, I did that for survival.
Um I was able to get to thechurch and to bring the
necessary items.
Uh so for the first time in thatnew village, I celebrated Good
(13:07):
Friday, Holy Saturday, andEaster Sunday.
This is this old church.
Wow.
So uh we had a problem withactually the snow in front of
the church, so uh we had toreally uh duck the snow out.
Uh I had to break in uh becausesomehow the snow actually got
inside.
Uh this is like a four-yearentrance, so I had to push the
door uh inside, uh and then yes,to collect the items.
(13:28):
Wow.
SPEAKER_03 (13:29):
So that's where you celebrated Holy Week?
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Yeah, so this is old village.
Uh this is abandonment.
SPEAKER_03 (13:34):
Which is right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01 (13:35):
Yeah.
But uh like the whole idea ofgoing there, okay, taking items,
collecting items, like chalice,hosts, yeah, everything.
SPEAKER_03 (13:46):
There's your friendly snowman.
So what like what did you do foruh for for fun like when you
weren't uh working with on yourdays off?
SPEAKER_01 (13:59):
Yeah, you know what I had plenty of time off uh to
be honest with you because umthe uh native people over there
are not so active in the churchlife.
Uh so I try to really uh make myown schedule uh to stay active.
Uh sometimes I prayed even 10 to12 hours a day.
SPEAKER_06 (14:17):
Seriously.
SPEAKER_01 (14:18):
My days it was like long retreat during winter time
because mostly I couldn't doanything, right?
It was dark.
Uh we had let's say up to fivehours of sunlight.
Five hours.
Um the rest was total darkness.
SPEAKER_05 (14:29):
And with that wind over there with um what time
would the sun quote unquote comeup or go down?
SPEAKER_01 (15:16):
Yeah, yeah, usually around 11:30 noon that would go
up, yes.
The first light?
Yeah, and then around four afterfour-ish, uh around five-ish, uh
it would go down.
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (15:29):
That was at the at the shortest dice.
Right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01 (15:33):
But uh also winter.
Uh it's not like winter here.
Uh on that.
SPEAKER_05 (15:37):
How cold does it get?
SPEAKER_01 (15:39):
Uh for four months we had negative 20, negative 30
non-stop, four months in a row.
So when finally, uh that was thebeginning of April, uh, the
temperature reached 30 degrees,which is freezing in our
understanding, right?
30 degrees, okay.
That was like a heat wave forus.
Everybody went outside, we werejust walking on the boardwalk
over there and doing hot, hotweather.
(16:00):
Yeah, 30, 30 degrees.
SPEAKER_03 (16:02):
So now when you were on uh last time, you you had
expressed that you were it itseemed like you were kind of
seeing the end maybe of yourtime serving in Alaska.
Uh can you get us up to speed onon kind of maybe what went on
interiorly or or from that pointand uh that brought you back to
New Jersey?
So you're you're you're doneserving Alaska now then, right?
SPEAKER_01 (16:24):
Okay.
I'm done.
I will probably go to offer myvacation time from time to time.
Uh but uh yeah, I don't thinkright now of my full-time
contract there uh because it wasreally difficult uh physically
to live like that, uh to commutewith those small planes, to deal
with the weather, and that uhParish in Mertarvik was very
challenging for me.
Uh I was always drained of myenergy.
(16:46):
This is how I slept over there.
I made myself this uh this beduh in one of the classrooms.
Uh it was really, reallyphysically tough, uh, and I knew
like I I'm not able to continuethat in the long run.
Uh so um I was also glad that mycontract uh was coming to an
end, so I knew that I would comeback here.
However, one good thing was thatuh I I really changed myself as
(17:09):
a priest uh in my interior, inmy spirituality.
That was like a huge uh hugestep forward for me.
Uh it was like two years ofspiritual retreat.
Uh this is priceless.
Uh I'm not even able to explainthat, but uh I'm more peaceful
and more balanced inside myself.
Um something that I really wishevery priest would uh would know
about, yes, and experience.
SPEAKER_05 (17:31):
And um did you finish your seminary studies in
Poland before coming here toPatterson?
Uh and so then um uh there's thefour-wheeler, right?
Uh um uh interesting.
Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01 (17:44):
Uh-huh.
So um as uh as we see overthere, there is the the heating
oil tank.
Okay, every place has uh someheating oil tank, and we have to
really fill up this regularlyand not to lose uh heating.
Uh and there is always some kindof serviceman uh who delivers
this, alright.
So with this, this is my churchby the way, uh behind uh behind
(18:06):
over there in the back.
So uh my church building waspretty old and had many of let's
say uh irregular shapes, I don'tknow, holes or other things.
SPEAKER_05 (18:16):
Uh so it wasn't very a church, that building there,
it's the other is it used forother purposes as well?
SPEAKER_01 (18:21):
Yes, so on this side here, that was my living
quarters.
Uh that was my room, um,bedroom, bathroom over there.
So uh but yeah, this is this iswhole uh old church on the side.
So uh I had to repay attentionto to deliveries because any
delay uh could uh pipes tofreeze and other problems,
right?
And the worst sound I canimagine, I have still like PTSD,
(18:45):
okay?
It's uh Toyo stove heater, okay?
It's like peek, peek, peak,peek.
It means that there is noheating oil.
I'm done.
Oh no.
So uh I tried to really avoidthat, and uh we got uh deliver
us regularly every two weeks uhof 100 gallons of heating oil.
SPEAKER_03 (19:01):
So the it strikes me the structure of the church,
obviously not like any churcheshere in New Jersey.
Are there any that are builtmore in the traditional style?
Like the maybe the cathedral,maybe in the city?
SPEAKER_01 (19:12):
Mm-hmm.
In the city.
SPEAKER_05 (19:13):
Okay.
But in the countryside of thetowns, villages, I guess not
really, right?
SPEAKER_03 (19:18):
Yeah, they look more like houses, like and you got to
know the native uh language a alittle bit, or or certainly got
to know some of the nativepeople.
SPEAKER_01 (19:27):
That would be ideal, but uh Yupik, uh Yupik language
Yuchtun is very difficult.
SPEAKER_05 (19:31):
Oh there it is, you pick him though.
SPEAKER_01 (19:33):
Yeah, uh I was able to follow just the phonetics, uh
how to read the text, right,without even understanding but
how to read the phonetics uh ofthe text.
Uh so I enjoyed singing withthem uh a few songs.
I actually got to know reallywell, so I can even sync to my
memory.
Uh but uh to speak Yuchtun, uhthat's very, very difficult.
SPEAKER_05 (19:52):
How how long has the Catholic faith been in Alaska?
SPEAKER_01 (19:55):
It came with the Jesuits when um Alaska was
actually Orthodox first.
Oh yeah, that was firstChristianity and then Jesuits.
From Russia, would you say?
Yeah, yeah.
And then Jesuits brought uhCatholic faith um uh to to
Alaska.
And in my diocese, just rightnow, in the end of June, uh they
finished their mission.
Uh the two last Jesuits left.
SPEAKER_05 (20:17):
Uh so there is no more Jesuits uh in in my diocese
uh so uh you finished your uh uhthe theological studies uh in
Poland but had that uhdiscerning um call to the
missions, and someone told youthere was a need for priests in
Patterson, right?
Thank God.
(20:37):
And uh and uh um did you comedirectly to Patterson, right?
From Poland, right?
And then um uh did you um youwould have spent some time, I
guess, studying English andpreparing for diaconate then,
right?
Mm-hmm.
That was necessary.
And what was your first parishexperience here in the diocese?
SPEAKER_01 (20:56):
So that was when I was seminarian um East uh Saint
Rose of Lima in Istanbul.
Uh very Italian parish.
I still have many friends overthere, uh, and I go to to that
to visit my friends uh prettyoften.
SPEAKER_05 (21:10):
Italian food is a little different from Alaskan
food.
Yeah, oh yes, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:13):
But that was more Italian style, European style.
Uh then when I was deacon, Imoved to Whippany, uh, and that
was like more American like uhparish.
SPEAKER_05 (21:23):
Uh uh A Lady of Mercy in Whipany, right?
And then um when you wereordained a priest, where was
your first assignment?
SPEAKER_01 (21:29):
St.
Patrick's in Chatham.
SPEAKER_05 (21:30):
Um were you already a hockey fan, or did was that
Father Bob's doing?
Oh, you're a hockey fan?
Yes.
I'd like to hear that.
Uh you and Father Bob used to goto some devil games, right?
Yeah, right.
Yeah, that's what's happening.
Oh yeah.
And then um from St.
Patrick's in Chatham to uh OurLady of the Lake, right, right.
And then um back to Chatham tothe other parish in Chatham,
(21:53):
Corpus Christi, right?
Corpus Christi.
Um so um uh and by the time youwere in Corpus Christi, um that
call to um uh they they talkabout St.
Patrick um when he was umenslaved in Ireland and escaped
and got back to England, he feltthe people um of the place he
(22:14):
had been kind of calling himback to serve.
Um and uh in some way uh you hadbeen there a few summers and you
discerned that uh the Lord mightbe inviting you to spend some uh
be there for uh an experience ona longer basis.
Is that right?
Yes, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01 (22:32):
Exactly.
That was when I was in Chathamat Carpus Christi.
Uh I came to you and I said thatyeah, I I wish to go there.
Yeah, so we had like a very niceConversation and with God's
blessing and your help, YourExcellency, I was able to go
there and to experience this oldmissionary lifestyle.
SPEAKER_05 (22:48):
And you know, um in ministry and um uh in discerning
the Lord's will and serving aspriests, um especially as Daasin
priests, um yes, there hopefullywe all have some of that
missionary spirit, right?
Uh but that can take place inAlaska or it can take place in
in Chatham or Spartan orBoonton, right?
Uh uh and uh uh you said uh yourexperience in Alaska has helped
(23:12):
you in terms of your ownreflection on your priesthood,
right?
Oh yes.
Um and now you're doing the yourmissionary work in Boonton, in
St.
Cyril Matodians, right?
At the Polish church though,yes.
Along with um uh St.
Virgil's in uh in Morris Plainswhere you're living, right?
Yes.
Um so you're back um in themissions of Patterson, right?
SPEAKER_01 (23:32):
Yes, Your Excellency.
And actually, yes, there aresome things that uh like the
skills I have learned in Alaskathat I can implement uh here um
either uh in Morris Plains or inBunton.
Uh but yes, that that was a verybeneficial time for me, and uh
it it will really reward me inthe future.
Wherever I'm going to be, um Iwill definitely have a little
bit of Alaska in your heart,huh?
SPEAKER_03 (23:53):
Bishop, question for you.
Um can you talk about themissionary spirit?
Or or I mean uh so we havemissionaries, some other
missionaries in our diocese, andanywhere you want to go with
that?
SPEAKER_05 (24:03):
Well, uh, you know, it really since the Second
Vatican Council, there's been uhPope Paul VI said the church
exists to evangelize.
So that were and and and thatcall from baptism to be um uh uh
a call to holiness, but also tobe missionary disciples, right?
Jesus said, go to the ends ofthe earth and make uh disciples,
(24:25):
baptize them, Father, Son, andHoly Spirit, teach them and know
that I'm with you till the endof the age.
So and Pope Francis um wasespecially in his um uh maybe
most important uh uh document,uh Evangeli Gaudium, the joy of
the gospel, uh, was very focusedon that call to be missionary
disciples, wherever we are.
(24:46):
Uh yeah, some have that call toleave home and culture and uh
and what a blessing it can be.
I shared um we um uh anothermissionary uh from Oklahoma to
Guatemala, Father StanleyRother.
Uh there was a movie that justcame out about him this week,
and uh he's uh he's now beennamed a martyr, and he just
(25:07):
needs a miracle to be canonizedas a saint.
He would be the first male bornin the United States.
There's uh a few candidates,Fulton Sheen, Father Michael
McGivney, Father Rother.
There might be one or two othersthat are on the path to
sainthood, but uh so so far I'mpretty sure that no male uh born
in the United States.
There's been a few women born inthe United States who have been
uh canonized as saints, butapparently not a male yet.
(25:29):
And uh so Father Stanley feltthis call.
Um, and uh in in writing abouthim, I shared, you know, my own
experience going to theDominican Republic or Mexico or
um and then in Brooklyn andQueens, and now here in
Patterson, you know, getting toknow different cultures through
language, but also through uh uhthrough culture.
And so, yes, the the languagewas one thing, but you you got
(25:50):
to hold know a whole otherculture, right?
And uh trying to share the faithin that culture.
And it's I think it helps us seethe the beauty of our Catholic
faith.
It's you it is universal, right?
That word means universal.
And so um there, right?
Um uh beautiful picture, that'sa good timing.
Uh, because it's the same Eastervigil.
Okay, the some of the aestheticsmight be a little bit different,
(26:13):
but uh it's the same celebrationof the Paschal Mystery, right?
SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Can we pause here?
So the thing is that you seethat there is a window and it's
pretty bright outside, right?
Yes.
Uh we had this celebration inthe evening, okay?
Um, okay, so that was all right.
But uh normally uh we would haveto start after midnight to catch
uh some of the darkness.
Why?
Because uh when the end ofJanuary comes, okay, February,
(26:38):
March, it's getting brighter andbrighter, and you know that
there is midnight sun, right?
So it starts usually around Maytime, right?
So when the Easter is late inApril, okay, it's already uh
pretty bright at night.
There usually it's uh some somedarkness is usually about 1
a.m., 2 a.m.
Okay.
So for me, like last year, okay,last year we had uh Easter
(26:58):
later, uh it was so like weirdto celebrate Easter with some
sunlight coming through, likeoutside.
Like when you do the fireoutside, and it's like uh it's
so bright, right?
So another aspect that um itwould it was more cultural
towards that uh region and thepeople over there.
SPEAKER_05 (27:16):
Uh so it might go for it goes from uh the shortest
days where there's only fivehours of daylight to um the
longest days would be how manyhours?
SPEAKER_01 (27:25):
Non-stop is light.
So over there in Kotlik, uh Ididn't see sun directly on the
sky, but it was bright likeyeah, it was much brighter than
this what we see with theclouds.
Right.
Uh but yeah, going from ArcticCircle, that distance,
geographical distance, um thereis non-stop sun seen on the on
the on the sky.
So let's say in Barrow,Utkyavik, that's the last city
(27:48):
in in Alaska, uh they see sunnon-stop going on the sky
non-stop, 24 hours uh per day.
Yeah, for a few months.
SPEAKER_05 (27:56):
For a few months.
Yeah.
Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_03 (27:58):
This is what's going on here.
The convocation, okay.
Any anything you can uh I thinkI asked you this last time, or
we asked you this last time.
Um, lessons learned from Alaskaduring your time that you could
bring back to New Jersey foreither for your yourself you
alluded to, but uh maybe othersas well.
Something uh to learn.
SPEAKER_01 (28:19):
Definitely time in isolation is uh really good uh
because we live in uh this chaosof today's world, nonstop with
our cell phones, media,multimedia and everything,
right?
Uh and it's sometimes reallygood uh to stop a bit uh and to
really listen to our interior,our hearts and minds, uh, and to
(28:40):
rely more on God, uh to listento what God wants to say to us.
Uh so this is what I would sayto everyone who are watching
right now.
Um sometimes really to pause tofind that time of retreat and
quietness is really reallyimportant.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (28:59):
What else do you want to tell us about?
SPEAKER_05 (29:01):
You had some fun.
SPEAKER_01 (29:02):
I learned how to survive.
Uh I realized uh this is uh thisis crazy, but many times I saw
people actually carrying eggs,having normal chicken eggs on
those planes like that.
Okay, so they were umtransporting eggs uh from
Bethel, uh from that bigger cityto their villages.
Why?
Because many times we didn't seeeggs in the stores, local
(29:25):
stores.
Our stole stores in the villageswere poorly supplied.
Uh and I believe that uh in myvillage uh I saw chicken eggs
only three times in the courseof two years.
Wow.
Uh because it's also poorbusiness for manager of every
store in the villages uh toorder eggs uh if they they come
broken, right?
So many times they don't ordereggs uh or they have
(29:47):
difficulties with umtransportation or um you know
good conditions becauseeverything is as you see, right,
is um very primitive.
SPEAKER_05 (29:56):
Uh when we saw the ice fishing, you said you needed
it to survive.
Uh was that half-choking or wasthere some truth to that?
So I re because now that you'retalking, I remember uh that your
the diet was a struggle, right?
SPEAKER_01 (30:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So uh I was actually uh eating alot of the fish.
Last year I went with my uhneighbor uh Paul Hunt uh and his
family uh for fishing regularly.
So I filled my freezer with fishand I ate for three months
non-stop fish.
Wow to save also some moneybecause the products in the
voters are very expensive.
(30:29):
Uh but uh having this abundanceof fish, I ate only fish.
SPEAKER_05 (30:33):
And you caught you caught all those fish yourself?
SPEAKER_01 (30:35):
Yeah, yeah, but we had fishing nets.
SPEAKER_05 (30:37):
What kind of fish?
SPEAKER_01 (30:38):
Uh different kinds, uh, and white fish, different
kinds, salmon with King Salmonmy favorite.
I love it.
I love it.
Uh she fish, uh, all thosedifferent that swim in the
rivers.
SPEAKER_03 (30:49):
Did you bring some back for us?
SPEAKER_01 (30:51):
No, I ate all of them.
SPEAKER_05 (30:53):
Have you eaten much fish since you returned?
SPEAKER_01 (30:55):
Uh not so much, maybe once.
Um, but I I really want to eatsteaks, not some other meat.
SPEAKER_05 (31:03):
Not a lot of steak in Alaska.
SPEAKER_06 (31:05):
But they have moose.
Uh they actually can really uhsomeone gave me some moose meat
uh that eat.
SPEAKER_01 (31:13):
So it's very unique.
The most unique is actually sealmeat.
Oh boy.
From seal.
Uh it tastes a bit like chicken.
Uh no, actually like like drugs,like anti bio antibiotics or
something like that.
It's really not really tasty.
So you have to eat this withsomething, uh, usually with some
pastries or in some stool likeum form because uh you have to
(31:36):
kill the taste.
SPEAKER_05 (31:37):
I guess protein is protein if you need it.
SPEAKER_01 (31:38):
Yeah, it's full of iron, uh a lot of the iron over
there.
So uh but it's it's really goodlike for survival there in that
climate.
SPEAKER_05 (31:45):
Wow, seal meat.
Do they do they eat a lot ofseal meat?
They do.
SPEAKER_01 (31:50):
Yeah, they they hunt for seal.
Um yeah, so there are a lot ofseal around?
Yeah, in those uh open watersover there, yeah.
They have plenty of those.
SPEAKER_03 (31:59):
So what what's next for Father Camille?
SPEAKER_01 (32:02):
I'm staying in our diocese, I'm enjoying the
moment, and I'm focused on uhministering in Bunton at the
Polish community.
SPEAKER_05 (32:09):
Okay over there.
Yes, yes, St.
Cyril Lemotholius, yes.
Um so um um we'll have to getyou um at some point to speak to
our seminarians, right?
Because uh uh it's it's uh uhpart of our formation um to
learn about different umexperiences of priesthood and um
(32:31):
when we're only in maybe in ourcomfort zone, yes, that can be
challenging in itself.
Um but it can be a blessing anda growing experience uh to allow
the Lord to lead us uh to someplace where we may not be
familiar, right?
And uh and uh um it can behelpful for guys as they discern
(32:51):
the call.
SPEAKER_01 (32:52):
Yeah, oh yes.
If I can be of any help uh andgive some knowledge to those
seminars, I will definitely dothat.
Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_05 (32:59):
That's great.
Um well Father Camille, thankyou so much for being with us.
Uh uh, we're grateful that uhyou know you had that um
willingness and generosity torespond to the Lord's call and
give yourself.
I know Father, as I said, BishopStephen was very, very grateful
for your time there.
Um and we're also glad that theLord led you back here to the
(33:21):
missions in in Patterson.
So um we'll keep you in ourprayers and uh um we'll see
where how and where the Lordleads us uh going forward.
But but thanks so much forsharing with us.
SPEAKER_03 (33:32):
Yeah, big big welcome back, and uh we see you
in here around more, hopefully.
Um before we wrap up, Bishop, umwhat are you what are you
reading?
What are you listening to?
SPEAKER_05 (33:40):
What's oh boy, um I listen I um I listened to a
wonderful book, um uh The LifeYou Save May Be Your Own, um by
Paul Ellie, I believe.
Um it's uh a kind of asimultaneous biography of uh
Flannery O'Connor, Dorothy Day,Thomas Merton, and Walker Percy,
(34:03):
uh philosophical writer andnovelist.
Um and uh um I think I startedit before retreat, continued it
on retreat, and finished it uhafterwards.
Um uh been a big fan of DorothyDay.
Um New York connection, I guess.
Yes, right, and uh some Brooklynconnection as well.
And um but uh you know I wasfamiliar with Florida Flannery
(34:28):
O'Connor a little bit.
She's um an acquired taste, Ithink.
But uh one of the great Catholicwriters, uh very funny.
I didn't realize she was assarcastic.
She's the one that um credited,I believe, with the line at some
fancy dinner with some uhupscale uh ladies, maybe, and uh
Catholics, and uh or maybe someweren't Catholic.
(34:49):
Uh in the course of the dinnerconversation, she said they were
talking about the Eucharist anduh being a symbol, and uh
Florida O'Connor said, Well, ifit's only the symbol to hell
with it.
So uh famous line, yeah.
Yes.
Um and um and uh again, I'mfamiliar with Thomas Merton, but
um wow, he was very prolific anduh and so popular in his time.
Um and um and then Walker Percy,uh the philosophy teacher,
(35:13):
Father Robert Lawrence, one ofmy favorite teachers in in St.
John's University, was a big fanof Walker Percy.
So uh never heard of that.
That was great.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (35:21):
Yeah, Thomas Merton can be a little deep.
Uh I'm attempting to read a bitof Thomas Merton.
SPEAKER_05 (35:25):
Yeah, I tried the Seven Story Mountain a couple of
times.
Yeah.
And uh didn't get all that far.
But uh, as opposed to in theseminary, I read Dorothy Day's
uh The Long Loneliness, her herum autobiography and spiritual
memoir.
Um yeah, um she's she's she'sshe's amazing.
Uh and and how popular she wasin her time and the Catholic
worker movement, you know, uhshe's she there was some
(35:49):
struggle in her older years whenyounger volunteers would come
and she uh wasn't so uh crazyabout the way culture and young
people were going in the 1960sand early 70s, and uh she let it
be known that she wasn't uh butuh but they came because they
were inspired and you know toserve in the Catholic worker and
then Catholic worker homesopened up all across the United
(36:10):
States, and some are stillgoing.
So um, yeah, that was that wasuh a good read.
SPEAKER_03 (36:16):
Great.
Well, there you go.
Some great recommendations, sothank you.
SPEAKER_05 (36:19):
I wanted to mention I uh in August the 5th I did a
final profession, Solemn Vowsfor uh uh Salesian sister um at
um Mary Helping ChristiansHeldon.
In August 14th, I celebrated afinal profession for Sister
Chiara Marie, uh, who's uh uh afaculty member at Divine Mercy
(36:41):
Academy in Rockaway and uh hasbeen serving there for a number
of years.
She made her solemn vows withthe sisters of Christian charity
um at their motherhouse inMendem.
And um in uh September I'll becelebrating uh a mass for a
Carmelite sister in Morristownwho's be making her solemn vows.
Um and uh we might have more tocome about the Carmelite
(37:03):
Monastery celebrating itshundredth anniversary.
We will as we pray forvocations, yes, to priesthood,
but also to consecratedreligious life, and it's great
to see in in about a month threesisters making solemn
professions.
So uh uh keep praying forvocations.
SPEAKER_03 (37:18):
All right, well, thanks again, Father Camille.
Thanks, Bishop, and thank youall for joining us.
Please subscribe, comment, andleave a positive rating.
Get to know us better byfollowing Bishop Kevin's
Instagram and beyond the beaconon social media.
Read the bishop's weekly columnon beaconnj.org and get in touch
if you have a question for thebishop or a podcast topic idea
(37:39):
and discover our other podcasts.
SPEAKER_05 (37:41):
Thanks, everybody.
God bless.
See you next time.
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