SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to Beyond the Weekend with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast with the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey. Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith, and together let's strive to live a life of faith, hope, and love. I'm Jay Agnish. With me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney. Bishop Kevin, how are you today?

SPEAKER_05 0:23

I'm okay, Jay. Yourself?

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Doing well, thank you. So I a couple house cleaning items. So uh first of all, congratulations. Uh yesterday marked your fourth uh anniversary of your installation as bishop of the diocese of Patterson.

SPEAKER_05 0:38

So amazing time really flies. I must be having a lot of fun. Uh uh, but you know, it's been a wonderful blessing, and um it has gone by very quickly, but uh feel more and more at home here in Patterson every day, and uh got a lot of nice messages yesterday, so um so um very grateful.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Yeah, and of course you just also celebrated your uh aniv your ordination uh anniversary last week.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Uh yes, uh twenty-seven years um and um it was ordained on June 28th, so I was blessing to say my first mass on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which was my dad's birthday. My mom's birthday was June 27th. I was ordained on June 28th, and my father's birthday and my first mass June 29th. So uh easy to remember at least.

SPEAKER_02 1:27

And of course, I just I want to mention, Bishop, some uh awards that we received as a podcast, and also your Instagram account was named uh Receive First Place, best uh Instagram account for a diocese and bishop.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Steele is here behind the scenes and does great work on the Instagram account. And uh Jay, thank you for all that you've been doing. And um yourself with Brian Hansberger uh really got the YouTube channel and the podcast going. And um it's uh it's been great and it's a way of sharing the good news as we will today is with our brother Franciscan Zia.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Um, yeah, so uh do you want to open up with prayer first or should we introduce the bigger?

SPEAKER_05 2:05

Yeah, we'll uh we'll we'll say a prayer.

unknown 2:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

We place ourselves in God's presence in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. As we give thanks to God for the gift of this day and the gifts and blessings of each day, especially the beauty of God's creation, and always praying for the gift of peace, um, we'll pray together the the prayer of St. Francis as we say, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me so love, where there is injury, pardon, where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. St. Francis of Assisi, pray for us. St. Claire, pray for us. All holy men and women pray for us in the name of the Father, Son, of the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Amen. Okay, so today we welcome three Franciscan friars to the show. One uh each is a priest, one is a doctor and educator, another a future immigration lawyer, and the other has a heart for social justice at the border, on death row, on the streets, and in his own suburban backyard. Our guests are Father Chris Van Hate, OFM, Father Matt Pravitz, also OFM, Father Emmett Murphy, and uh Father Chris is the guardian of the Friars' retirement house in Butler on the grounds of St. Anthony of Padawa Parish, where Father Matt is the pastor and where Father Emmett can be found saying his morning prayers and helping at the parish food pantry. They live in community and they they were kind enough to drive up together uh to our studio here in Clifton. So welcome, thank you for coming, thank you for joining us. Great to be here.

SPEAKER_05 4:02

Welcome, thank you so much. I was not too long ago, a few weeks ago, at uh St. Anthony's for um confirmation and beautiful butler. It really is a beautiful spot there, right? High up looking over the valleys, and uh it's uh it's a great spot.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

We can see so far away uh the the mountains in the morning, the the uh steam rising from the lakes. It's uh just a beautiful place to be.

SPEAKER_05 4:25

Um and we're so happy to have you here in the diocese, and uh you've the community's been in part of the diocese uh since it's uh it's been part of the Catholic Church, as we learned from Monsignor Kupke's book, uh Living Stones or his podcast, Coffee with Kupke. Uh the Franciscans have been such a part of evangelization and the growth of the church um here in northern New Jersey and in so many places, um, which we can talk about as we go along. But uh maybe we can begin, and I think um allowing our viewers and listeners to kind of get to know you, it also is a reminder that God has a call for each one of us, a plan and we have vocation, and that call comes and is received and uh lived out in different ways, and uh happy to have each of you with us, and maybe so you can just maybe just introduce yourself where you grew up, maybe where you heard the call, how you got to know the Franciscans, and anything else you want to share about uh your own life and ministry.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

My name is Matthew Pravitz. I'm from the College Point area in Queens, New York. We have neighbors, neighboring parishes. Uh and um I I I heard the call when I was in college. Um I knew I wanted to be a medical educator, and while I was in college, uh I also r uh ran into the Franciscans, literally uh ran into the Franciscans. St. Francis College in Brooklyn.

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Oh, right, sure, sure. The little college with big dreams, right? There you go.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

That's exactly it. And um so uh when I joined the order, um I was in education, uh elementary school, high school, and then college, and then um I wanted to continue um in uh medical education, so I uh went to medical school, and when I graduated from medical school, then I was put on faculty at the school. And I was there.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

Also at St. Francis?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Uh no, no, this was at New York Medical College. Yeah. And I was on faculty uh for 39 years.

SPEAKER_04 6:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

And um and then uh before right before I retired, well, it was actually 12 years, I was the academic dean also uh at the uh medical school. So it was a great opportunity because um I I wanted to um help young doctors learn how to be good doctors, um that they be empathic, that they get to know their the people themselves, uh that you you uh it's a whole different and that th that comes from Franciscan uh Franciscan. The bedside man of the bedside. Yeah, and it just goes totally beyond um just individual pieces of knowledge. Um almost anybody can learn that stuff, but not everybody can then impart uh empathy and communicate it compassionately. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:14

Uh did you say when you entered the community?

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Uh 1964.

SPEAKER_05 7:18

Okay. Uh uh during undergrad or after? I was while I was in college. Right, okay, great, great. And then you um you went to the community and and continued. And then continued in the medical studies and then. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Uh and then uh I I was ordained um actually 13 years after I started everything.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

I was gonna ask when you studied theology. Did you go to the other side?

SPEAKER_01 7:41

1977 I started.

SPEAKER_05 7:44

You must like school?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

It's a great place. Well, any edu any educator that you talk to you you have you really have to like education. Thanks. We have chalk in our veins. Yeah, yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Um Emmett Murphy. Um I was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1933, Labor Day, as a matter of fact. And um I grew up in the next town, Arlington. It goes Boston, Cambridge, Arlington, Lexington, Concord. It's very historic.

SPEAKER_04 8:18

Oh, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Paul Revere's Ride. I'm the oldest of six kids. Uh I have a sister living in Maine, and I go to visit her uh once or twice a year. I entered the Franciscan Brothers uh uh uh back in 1951 in the brothers' training school. I got my vocation, I think, well, from the Lord, and also from the uh St. Anthony's Shrine in Boston. It's a downtown church like 31st Street in New York, where I spent 13 years. Oh, is that right? Okay. Yeah. And I became a brother. I had no intention of becoming a priest. I was a brother for 31 years in the order, and I was in Philadelphia, co-founder of the soup kitchen, and I was thinking about the priesthood, and I said, I gotta be nuts. I just about got out of high school. So Father Dan Lanahan, who lives with us, had a brother in the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn, and he arranged for me to go to St. Francis College. So one of the brothers came down by train to at the soup kitchen, and he had a big yellow pad, and he says, Tell me what you do. And I said, I I uh uh I never I never went to college, of course. I uh I uh opened cans of soup and he put down master chef. I uh and then I I go pick up people and and and uh furniture and all that, and he put warehouse work or something like that, and then he put down um uh the the men's shelter at night, he put down hotel management, and I got 114 credits. And I went to St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and uh uh I I was got my bachelor's there, and then I applied to Pope John Seminary in Boston. Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, there were two guys behind me for the Patterson Diocese. Uh they're both dead now. Uh and uh but anyway, I was ordained at 31st Street when I was 53 by Bishop uh Emerson Moore.

SPEAKER_05 10:23

Oh, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

I was older than the bishop.

SPEAKER_05 10:25

Right, right. I was. He was one of the first African-American bishops.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

He was, yeah. And then um uh I uh was sent 31st Street for a year, and then I went to down south for uh Raleigh and Durham, where uh uh uh you were down there, Chris in Raleigh, and I worked uh in the prison down there one or two days a week on Death Row uh for mass and so on and so forth. And then um um I was in uh Ringwood, and I was the last Franciscan in Ringwood and I handed over St.

SPEAKER_05 11:04

Captain of Bologna, right? Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

And I handed over the keys to the new priest and I said, Good luck, you know, and I went to Butler. And then in Butler I was in the parish as an associate, and uh then I then I was was down in Raleigh, and they every time they needed some warm body, they called me to do this, that Durham, Raleigh, so on and so forth. So anyway, um I'm in Butler, I'm retired officially, but I I like to help out. I've been helping out in a lot of parishes in the diocese, uh, the two West Milfords, Good Council, uh um the uh uh what's the other place there where the sisters are?

unknown 11:52

St.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

Joseph's. Caldwell. I think it's Master of the Sisters. Even the help in the arts diocese of Newark. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, yeah, and a lot of the and um uh my motto was you call I haul.

SPEAKER_05 12:04

You know, and um that was part of your resume from the beginning, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Oh, and then I was on the border for six uh uh a year. I went down, and it w uh we didn't go down there to really first to work at the bicross. We went down to establish a a uh uh a prayerful uh Franciscan community of uh friars, and there were four of us there, and we had a good good uh life to a lot of life of prayer, and then we served, we used to go over every day to a uh a shelter, and it was at the time when uh President Trump had stopped the immigration, and a lot of people were putting up these charpaulin tents against the the the huge thirty-foot wall. Right, right. And we used to go and and gather the families. We try to work with the families and bring them to the shelter and have them take a shower, give them food, clothing, medical attention. And there were four of us, and there were four or five sisters working with us.

SPEAKER_05 13:06

That's just a few years ago, right? Yeah, uh I don't know how many years ago.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

How old were you when you did that? 80 something. We had a story in the beacon, I believe, right? Yeah, it was just like a couple years ago, yeah. He was there for 13 years old. And then um uh when we find a body of a migrant in the desert, the um uh county coroner would contact the sisters, and they would contact us, and we go out to the spot where the body was found, and we would have a beautiful prayer service. Um there was a a a Navajo Mexican Catholic deacon and myself. So we we he had an eagle feather and I had the incense, and we gathered around, and we brought people with us around, and we prayed and sang uh and put a beautiful cross where the body was found with the name of the migrant, if we knew it. Wow, you know. Uh well some of them were non-identificado or nidificada, you know, they didn't. And then we we were picketing for justice down there uh on along the border and so on and so forth. Almost got arrested a few once or twice until we, you know, kind of ceased a bit, because we didn't want to ruin the the the apostolate. No, right, right. Yeah, and then um I came back to Butler and um I'm as happy as a clam. Well, we're happy to have you. And I got a great guardian.

SPEAKER_05 14:29

Father Chris, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Sure, I'm Chris Van Height. I'm originally from Stoughton, Massachusetts. Um I w uh went to Holy Cross in Worcester. Okay. Uh graduated in 87. It was towards the end of my time there that I first thought about a vocation. So I entered the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I was in Cleveland. Um and I love the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. And uh What did you study at Holy Cross? I was a biology major. Oh wow. And so one of the great things about the Jesuit Volunteer Corps was it both really sparked an interest in community for me, but it also taught me that I wasn't ready yet. I just knew I wasn't this was not the time. And so I went into biotechnology. I uh came back to Massachusetts, I worked in the biotechnology industry, and it was really the Great Jubilee of 2000 that re-sparked, or you know, the vocation fell off the shelf and hit me on the head again.

SPEAKER_05 15:24

Uh St.

SPEAKER_03 15:24

Pope John Paul had a way of uh that was great, and you know, um, so that's when I said, you know, I really need to look at this. I'll regret it if I don't. Um and like a good American, I shopped for a religious order. I kind of always knew it would be a religious order. Um, and I really wanted one that, like I said, really focused on fraternity, community living, and that was a core value of theirs, and that's how I found the friars. It was through Arch Street um in Boston. I, of course, knew of Arch Street, but actually until then had never actually gone there. Um, but I had met some great friars there, and that's really what um did it. And so I entered in 2001 into the uh postulancy and then um solely professed in 2007 and was ordained in 2008. Um and then pretty much right after ordination I went to Mexico to study Spanish for about five months. What part? Guadalajara. Loved it, loved it. I live with the friars there in Zopoban. It was a house of it was their house of philosophy, uh, as well as their provincial headquarters. So there were 60 friars in the house. Wow. Wow. Only one other friar spoke English.

SPEAKER_05 16:33

That's where you gotta go. Yeah, that's where you're gonna go.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

And that did it. Plus, I went to a regular kind of language school in Guadalajara, too. So um then I came back. I started the Spanish ministry actually at St. Bonaventure's in Patterson. Is that right? Oh wow, I didn't realize that. Wow. Uh and then uh after a couple of years as Procreal Vecar, I became pastor there. Uh and then a couple of years later, they needed me down in Durham, North Carolina. Uh a big parish there. Um so I was there for six years. Um, and then uh now for the past four years I've been guardian of the retirement house in Butler, also helping with the Spanish mess next door at the parish as well. So which parish is that? St. Anthony's.

SPEAKER_05 17:13

Oh, you mean next door from next door? Within St. Anthony's.

SPEAKER_03 17:17

Yeah, I mean with next door, i.e.

SPEAKER_05 17:19

the church is literally attached to the primary. Um, they have Spanish mess there as well, isn't it? Yeah, right, right. Uh and are you also studying at the moment?

SPEAKER_03 17:28

I'm not right at the moment. I'm transitioning from being guardian. Uh I've applied to, been accepted, and we'll be starting in August at Seton Hall Law School. Oh, great. Um, you know, with the goal of getting a law degree that, you know, I see, you know, focusing in on immigration law.

SPEAKER_05 17:45

Right. Um Father Emmett and Jay referenced it in uh, you know, I sometimes get emails um uh from those uh who, you know, I think there's uh there are legitimate concerns about uh the border and border security, and um um we look at we pray for our country as we think about the debate that took place last week. But um um the uh I think for our ourselves you can share your experience, but um uh you know if somebody's there in need, right? We want to meet their need. I I I I hope and pray that the government can do the government's job and and secure the border. Um but then also um uh um uh uh having served in uh in Brooklyn and Queens for for 23 years and um especially as pastor of a uh migrant community biology Mexican in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, um you see um people are here and and are not documented, and um they're here 20 plus years raising kids. Some of them are grandparents, and uh it's uh it's a such a difficult way to to live. And um and and there there are services that the church can provide in addition to uh feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger, but also um advocating and uh working within the law, right, to um to uh to help those who who might be able to regularize their status. So I guess that's some of what it and would you say was it your experience in ministry that led you to want to uh pursue um the legal studies?

SPEAKER_03 19:25

Absolutely. Uh when I was down in Durham, and this was before you know the current crisis, this was several years ago, Durham uh uh the Parish Aramacca Conception um is a very large 3,000-family bilingual parish with a school and so forth. And so we did a lot of work with um the Latino community there. Um, you know, and there it there was of course a food pantry and we had a health clinic and a furniture project for people who need furniture, and that helped everybody, not just immigrants, anybody who in need. Um and we had a community meeting with the Latino community uh at one point and said, What more can we do for you? What do you need? Do you need um you know more health care? Do you need what what is your number one need? And the number one answer is we need legal assistance. Right. As a matter of fact, we need help with immigration because the few lawyers that are there, they're overwhelmed. And now you can imagine even more overwhelmed and that they really need help with that. And so that that really made a strong impression. And so, you know, when it was time to think about, you know, what might be a next step, you know, that really just popped right in and said, you know, you're I can do this, I should really try it.

SPEAKER_05 20:38

And we um uh talk about having mentioned the Jesuits, uh the word they love discernment, which we all try to understand what God's will is and how God may be calling us. Um Father Emmett, you just felt called, is that right, to to go um uh uh to the border when you did, and and as you said, uh the the the first uh maybe ministry you wanted to offer with others was the ministry of prayer, right? And and then that that prayer and discernment led you to do what you could to help those who were in need where you met them, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

We friars had a big trending in Denver, and one of the friars from another province at the time uh was working on the border, and he gave a talk to us, and I said, I'm gonna go there. I uh you know, because I had been retired officially. And so uh I approached him, he said, Oh yeah, sure, welcome. Come on, that's you're welcome to come with us. So I took Amtrak down to uh Phoenix, uh excuse me, Tucson, and they pick me up and the rest is history. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

It's about answering the call of the spirit. You know, you never know when you're gonna hear, you know, hear something and it's gonna say, you know what, that's speaking to me right now. And if you're open to that, right, you can respond in these persons.

SPEAKER_05 22:34

And as St. Francis uh certainly taught us, um uh putting Matthew twenty five into action, right? See? Jesus and our brothers and sisters in most in need and trying to respond to their needs and uh and and that involves prayer and discernment right to see uh I'm sure you see it even as a pastor right now it's um right right you know speaking of uh of of St.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Francis he he didn't recruit anybody he didn't go out to recruit um he just did and people saw what he was doing and they say gee I want to do that I I I I want to and uh so much of our ministry all of our ministries uh is really in the marketplace and I think that that's the thing that attracts people and when we're in the marketplace we're looking around we see who's in the corner what's going what's going on there and keep our head down and just keep going and and look to see what can possibly be done to straighten straighten things out make it good more orderly and holy above all things back for uh back in the 1980s uh in the South Bronx there was a a vicious need for walk-in clinics oh yeah and so I got a a group of people together and we started five walk-in clinics and they're still they're still uh running right now it was because it was a need that had to be done at that particular time you I was gonna say also you you're going to start uh the Polish uh in the parishing out to the Polish community yes yeah um it's interesting when uh parish I was in in Brooklyn we had similar uh uh meeting or conversations about what was the greatest need and um uh it was ESL it was um uh those who had come and were raising kids and uh and and didn't have much education but they wanted to learn English while they were here and I think maybe that's not maybe always understood by by Catholics maybe who haven't had the experience of uh ministering or uh or or living with a a community where uh there might be an original language and you know Pope John Paul II right I think he spoke 20 plus languages but he said when he prayed he prayed in Polish right so uh sometimes there might be criticism for uh well why don't you why don't you have mass in English? They should learn English yes but when you come here and and sometimes a year for uh generations depending on the on the situation but um uh pray being able to pray and and and be at mass in in one's own language um uh is is is so important for us to offer I believe right absolutely for this past holy saturday uh the vigil um we had trilingual it was uh English Spanish and Polish and it was just uh it was so stimulating and when the prayers were said in Polish that whole part of the congregation and then when something uh came uh for Spanish and then and it was just such a wonderful experience and that's what we're he we're trying to expand on that and to get everyone uh together on it awesome yeah it makes me think of um so I was uh raised as as you know uh uh our Lady Queen of Peace in in West Milford which was Franciscan back when I was there with my I was there when you were a little boy sure were I'm like why don't I remember Father Matt shows I was like literally zero years old.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

But uh yes and you you know my mom who was uh attends uh St. Anthony where I full circle uh was attending years later and met my wife there Annette who you who you all know or not familiar with who was a DRE there at St. Anthony so and we always speak fondly of of the Franciscans uh of you guys and the Franciscans I something about the charism um I always sense the warmth uh you know from the Franciscan priests and um yeah I was definitely definitely I'm inspired I'm inspired by your charism I wonder if you could um talk a little bit about um the the the charism of St.

SPEAKER_05 26:28

Francis of Assisi maybe what inspired you is there a saint there's many canonized saints who are Franciscan is there one who you know Juniper Cerra's right uh yesterday any anything that comes to mind in that regard I mean j Juniper O'Sera he was all out there by himself I mean he he he did such all the walking he did with all the health problems right as he kept going out yeah it's funny we were talking yesterday um you know in Emmett's day uh friars would take a new name you know uh uh and Emmett uh did by the time I entered uh that wasn't the case you just went with your you know baptismal name and there you go but uh we were talking and I know and it was interesting um if I were to pick a name I said I'd pick Maximilian Maximilian the parochial vicar there Jim Bernard who's a variety as well of course said you know what that would have been the name I would have picked so Maximilian Colby for sure was very very inspirational for me uh as um we reflect on the gift really of of of religious life in the church and looking back to some of the great founders like Francis and I think as Dominic is a contemporary and then see it lived out in in different ways over the centuries really and uh that ongoing discernment that happens for us as individuals uh happens for families it happens for communities and um you talk about um the growth of the church in the southeast right as as as you experience um we're seeing some uh maybe reduction here in in the Northeast and some communities that had many vocations now don't have as many as they did and there's a need for some restructuring. Your community recently went through that discernment process right and is it five provinces that have merged into one?

SPEAKER_01 28:19

Six provinces well maybe you can share a little bit about what that experience has been like well this is a a uh has been in the works for a number of years. It wasn't something that you just plow into and so there was so much discernment and prayer about that conversation over and over and over. And and even to the point of what are we going to name the province? Which I think is a wonderful thing that it's Our Lady of Guadalupe I mean the the list of names that we uh were submitted some of them were unbelievable but but but someone should have someone can laugh like a friar. But but now that it's a uh a one big large province um it it it's actually at first it was a little scary you know because you're you're out of your own territory you don't know what what's going on and as things unfold it's it's not without its little wrinkles but as it's unfolding it's a wonderful experience.

SPEAKER_05 29:23

Is it Father Hayes is the new provincial he's uh from Franklin Square.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Oh is that right he's a Harvard law grad. Oh wow and then um the vicar was a former provincial from the Midwest n very nice and then the the counselors uh how many other six of them? Counselors seven uh one's an Indonesian all young guys a couple of Hispanics and uh some uh American you know so it's it's a great mixture and it's a young you know and they farm them out uh to different places to uh you know you can go and see them and so when they come to see you.

SPEAKER_05 30:02

Building up those relationships right in communication regional areas yeah uh the uh it led to some sad news here in Patterson that um the community would be withdrawing from uh St. Bonaventure's um and and that um s I know historically is so important but um uh it uh uh I was great I was very grateful and happy to hear from Father Hayes that um everything is going good in Butler and uh um St. Mary's in Pompton Lake right as the other parish in the diocese. Um and uh as we were just before we started uh I um as we 31st Street for I guess as Bostonians are in that area you have there was that shrine right in the center of the city. Um I think um St. Francis 31st Street is one of the great untold stories the ministry that happens there um the the uh 12 step groups um confessions uh uh many I know priests in Brooklyn and Queens were very happy to be able to take the train into 31st Street and go to confession almost any time and uh and and that makes me think of um Father Michael Judge who served many years here in in Patterson as the pastor of St. Joseph's in West Milford and um and then um was ministering there in 31st Street and and chaplain for the fire department was the first one as we know to um give his life or or um to die on September 11th. So maybe just a few words about uh you could maybe share a little bit about your experience St. Bon Adventures as as pastor, right? You were and then if if you have any recollections of Father Judge.

SPEAKER_03 31:31

Yeah I mean you know St. Bond's is a great parish and and we know that it will go on and continue to be a great parish. One of our younger uh more recently ordained father Alex Nevitt is going to go and he's been working with Father Dan Grig and see too and so um I think we're proud of the work we've done there the spirit we've imparted there. But we've always had such a great relationship with the diocese you know uh we know that that what we leave behind will be taken forward.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

It'll change of course uh but you know uh we're we're we've we also feel good of course that we you know we're leaving the parish in a pretty good state absolutely absolutely to hand that on and so in many on all the levels I think so so yeah it's difficult of course um you know there's so many memories every stained glass window someone's gonna have it on that's right yes so many of our churches throughout the diocese I think of even uh Holy Cross and in Wayne the some beautiful um the Franciscan stained glass windows so even even that you know that will linger but they're and they're they're beautiful windows um but you know the spirit of France is a little bit of Francis and also but part of our charism is m uh is to move on itinerancy we don't own it uh we work there uh we minister there we pray there and then we say okay we've now we move on to the next we've done what we've needed to do here and we move on because we don't own it it's not ours it's God's um and we hand that on and so we do what is ours to do and then we move on to the next how about a word about either the ministry in 31st Street in Manhattan or uh Father Michael Judge Yeah I lived at 31st Street for 13 years uh as a brother and um once as a year as a priestman Mike Judge was um uh on my floor you know and um uh I always remember going into common bathroom and shaving and uh Mike was there and I was there and I said Mike how do you handle people that think you're crazy he says well maybe they're right he said but what I do is I have a prayer I say oh Lord I can't you can please do it thanks you know he kind of passes off off to the Lord and um Mike was certainly actually what happened was when when I was ordained uh the chaplain at the time Ju Julian uh um uh forget his last name deacon he was dying of cancer so he asked me if I wanted to be the chaplain well for the fire department and I said no I'm being transferred to Ringwood see so I said ask Mike Judge so oh gosh that that was a great match you know uh from downtown Brooklyn and educated in the city and knows the city and you know is uh like Mr.

SPEAKER_05 34:28

New York in a way you know and all that stuff you know he fitted right in the I saw him the Saturday before it was the Great Irish fair in Brooklyn and um firefighter Timothy Stagpole who had been injured in the went to St. Francis College after he was hurting fire he was getting award um as the Irishman of the year I think and Father Judge was there uh to to support him as they seem to be at a every fire FDNY function right in baptism and mess and uh and um uh and um and they both perished on on September 11th pole Timmy Stackpole was my student is that right when I taught him in high school wow wow his wife Tara they're a wonderful parish good uh wonderful family and part of Good Shepherd Parish in Brooklyn right I used to ride on the truck fire truck across the street when I was at 31st Street in the 60s is that right yeah I knew a guy uh he was a captain Howard Kennedy said come on put on some stuff and ride with us that's great and the first one was a wig shop on 34th Street there was a fire in a wig shop and it was a scary thing going against traffic up 7th Avenue So the hair was on fire is that what you say the wigs were on fire but my my experience with Michael Judge was when I was stationed at Queen of Peace in Hewitt when when when you were a little kid and he was Michael was the pastor at St.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Joseph's at the time and um that was the first time I ever met him and um he just had such a personality that was just so attractive attractive full of life full of life full of life and so and I think you know his the his type of ministry and all of our type of ministry you know we bring our own personality into it. We're not all the same thank God but um but we b bring that personality and that's what makes a particularly religious life as a Franciscan fun. Right.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

And Father Matt you had kind of uh alluded to the spirit of the Franciscans not being in the same place for too long is that maybe lead into your desire to be educated in in different ways that maybe led you to become a doctor and Father Chris maybe is leading you to become a a lawyer is a head in the right direction here?

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Yeah well I I think especially when we're moving along in ministry and we say maybe I for example I wasn't ordained right right right away and then as time went on I said I I'm I have certain talents and so forth that I and so uh I uh studied went to seminary to to study for ordination. And I think we just take um uh a checklist and we look and see what what can I do? What what's the next step? Where am I going? And I think that that's the spiritual director helps in that right and also it's the it's uh the brothers too well I mean we share a lot.

SPEAKER_05 37:20

And then sometimes the Lord speaks through obedience.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

That's right yeah yeah yeah yeah oh yes I mean this was all approved when I go to school it was all approved all the way up the line that's for sure. But also too you're right it's part of our charism is responding to the signs of the times what is the needs of the church what are the need what are the needs of the people of God and being willing to do that. I think it is it is a very core aspect of our charism Francis himself said I have done what is mine to do may you do yours he said that to the brothers and so we should always be open as friars to to thinking you know I'm very happy I'm actually very happy as being guardian of the retirement house I'm not doing this because I'm gonna get away from that I'm actually staying in the building too but it's because I really feel called that this is the next step. This is I'm responding to a need that I see and that I can do it. And you know I'll continue even while going to school to help with the Spanish mess next door so that's not stopping.

SPEAKER_05 38:25

You know and you've got an experience of um Cedon Hall University which thank is a great blessing to the church here in our state and in in this area and um there there uh the seminary is there right for our um um both the college and uh the oligate uh for the for run by the Archdiocese of Newark but we have guys studying there as the as there are from other dioceses so um you'll you'll be back on campus uh actually the law school though is a separate it's in Newark actually it's right near Newark Penn Station Okay right down the street from here it's near the prudential center?

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Yeah it's a yeah it's between it's between that and the and the trans station it's near the courthouses near Ruckers Newark where I went to the city.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Yeah exactly actually you know one of one of the other things if you you you look at the three of us we're not finished products no matter what age we are we're n never a finished product into so like for me to move into pastoral ministry you know uh this this is brand new to me. It's wonderful I love it. It and it it's uh it enervates us.

SPEAKER_05 39:26

The um the Coffee with Kupke uh they're on I think they're on their 20th episode and they're just getting to because they're going through uh the the book that Monsignor Kupke wrote and uh chapter six is very long with a few episodes on and chapter seven is finally the diocese is named is is is uh created and I think it was Bishop McLachlan was the first bishop. He was a uh um an academic a scholar a teacher his whole career up until that point had been rector of the seminary um I think vicar general for the diocese of of Newark um but had very little pastoral experience.

SPEAKER_02 39:58

He gets named a bishop and apparently he loved the pastoral party and he you know blossomed and uh so right you never know what yeah yeah yeah all right well you're all doing awesome work keep it up thanks for thank you thanks for joining us um anything else for the the brothers before any big plans for the summer for yourselves or in the parish or just trying to get a little rest which I could completely oh yes but for for me this live this is like living in the country coming from Manhattan and here it no it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_05 40:33

So who needs to go anyplace the state case right right right right um and this the this part of New Jersey I mean um the northern Passaic more Sussex um I um I feel uh at home in Patterson and Passaic they remind me a little bit of Brooklyn and Queens so I'm glad to be living still in the city more or less um and close by uh to Brooklyn and Queens in Manhattan but uh but um when I get I where was I um recently oh Schwartzwood all the way at the uh far end of of Sussex and driving up there on a Sunday morning what a what a gift what a beautiful um and then the lake area there by Highland Lake we had our um our our vocation day at um uh Camp Shiloh the Bible camp in uh uh and uh um they did a a hike I think up as they did last year and Father Ed Rahman was saying what a beautiful view of all the surrounding lakes uh so the Patterson Diocese is so diverse you go ten minutes to subscribe urban suburban and rural absolutely yeah that's right right that's right yes yes Francis would love the beauty of nature right yeah so thank you very much for thank you for for you for being with us today and for your service to the church here in our diocese and um we'll continue to pray for one another and we discern because we're not finished products right what is what does the Lord have in store for each of us right? Yeah awesome thanks again yeah and uh bishop before we wind down the episode is there anything else you'd like to wish everyone I'm not sure when it'll come out but uh obviously this coming Thursday is the fourth of July and uh we have a lot to be grateful here in this great land of ours um as we continue to pray for our country and um and and we give thanks for uh those who have made our country what it is and the freedoms that we have and uh and we ask the Lord uh to compl continue to bless us um on on on our independence day on fourth of july thank you amen thank you and we're gonna we're gonna take a slight break but we will be back uh in a I think in a few weeks and we'll have some more exciting episodes ahead so stay tuned give you a chance to and uh the uh eucharistic congress is coming up in um in uh in Indianapolis so please keep that in your prayers we'll be heading out I think the 16th of um of of of July and uh be there through the 21st who knows we might do a little uh remote from there or a call in or something or if not when I get back I'll look forward to we'll certainly have plenty of pictures that we'll be posting and uh I was gonna say please do send photos.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

Yes so we'll get them up on your on your award winning Instagram account. All right well thank you for joining us please subscribe comment and leave a positive rating. Get to know us better by following Beyond the Beacon on Facebook or Instagram email questions and podcast topic ideas to beyond at pattersondiocese.org discover our other podcasts Coffee with Kupke and the Wall Street Journal. See you next time.

SPEAKER_05 43:21

Thanks everybody God bless happy fourth of July thank you for this