Are you the type of person interested in mission life or missionaries or exciting places you’ve never been? Then Mission Priest may be right up your alley!
Maybe you’re a person looking for a little adventure, getting out of town to visit a country where things are different from your everyday life. Then Mission Priest just might be the stimulus you need to do it!
Or, just maybe, you are a priest like me who is filled with energy and good health and not ready to retire despite what the biological clock says. Well, Mission Priest may be just what you are looking for to give you some new ideas on how to serve God’s people in new and exciting ways!
Mission Priest is designed to welcome you into my life and thoughts as a missionary priest. Every week, I plan to have four posts.
Mondays, or “Mission Mondays,” are designed to tell you a little about my exciting parish – San Francisco de Asís – deep in the heart of the mountains of southern Honduras. And with 87 churches and 50,000 parishioners scattered over 248-square miles, I can assure you, it is an exciting and inspirational place! Most of these posts will feature photos of the churches and people of the parish. [Visit “Our Parish” to get a fuller picture of the parish.]
Wednesdays, or “Whatever Wednesdays,” are for whatever interesting things you might like to know, such a something about our healthcare projects, my retreat center, or an interview with one of the ministers of the parish.
Fridays are devoted to introducing you to a Catholic Christian mission hero. And because Catholic Christians have over 2,000 years of missionary history, we have lots of heroes to emulate!
On Sundays, I’ll post a picture describing the Gospel story of the day that Catholic Christians around the world are reading that Sunday.
So, what makes me such an expert? Do I have years of missionary experience on which to draw? NO! In fact, I’m not a long-seasoned missionary at all; I’ve only been living in Honduras for a year-and-a-half. I’m like the “new kid on the block” mission-wise, seeing mission life from a fresh and fascinating perspective. Like the proverbial “kid in a candy store,” I’ll share my excitement and joy with you as I experience this fascinating life.
So how did this site get started? It’s simple, really. I want to share with others what I have, and they don’t have, but want. Just as I was fascinated by the mission life before becoming a missionary, I’m sure others have the same desires. But for one reason or another, they can’t be here. So, I’m sharing my life with you.
I’m originally from Cleveland, Ohio. From the time I was four or five years old, I knew I wanted to become a priest. I had no priest role models; I just knew that is what one day I would be.
As a teenager, I went to a high school seminary run by the Maryknoll Fathers. I loved the place and the education. But, when it was time to graduate, my spiritual director said, “Bob, I think you should go and explore the world before continuing your priesthood journey.” From this school, I got a life-long love of missions and a solid foundation for writing. That would come in handy in later life as a professor in a “publish-or-perish” institution!
So, that’s what I did. I first became an R.N. from Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital School of Nursing and obtained a B.A. in sociology from Cleveland State University. When I was 25-years old, I began the lifestyle that would follow me for most of my adult life: being a full-time graduate student, teaching in universities on weekdays, and practicing nursing on weekend nights.
After getting my Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Montana, I obtained my post-doctoral M.S. in psychiatric-mental health nursing from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City and began my professorship at The University of Iowa. For the next ten years, I taught psychiatric-mental health nursing and chemical dependency nursing, and I did sociological and nursing research in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the United States.
But, my desire for priesthood never left me, so in 1992, I began my priesthood studies and graduated with my M.Div. from St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana. In 1998, at the age of 55, I was ordained for the Diocese of Raleigh and worked as a parish priest for twenty years.
After my first year of priesthood, I was invited to visit Honduras a year after Hurricane Mitch. The missionary spirit was re-kindled, and I eventually became the Mission Director of the Diocese of Raleigh. During these years, I also developed “sister-parish” relationships with parishes in Uganda and Honduras.
In 2018, after serving 12 years as pastor of the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary, I retired as I had come to the magic retirement age for priests, 75. Then, I decided to begin the second half of my life as a missionary priest, and I accepted Cardinal Rodríguez’ invitation to work in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa in the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary’s sister parish, San Francisco de Asís.
So, that’s my story in short. Now, I’m at the stage of my life that I have time to share in ways that I haven’t been able to do as a busy pastor, and I welcome you into my life!
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