Fr. Mike Chowning has come down with a doozy of a cold, and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Today, Aug. 27, is a big day at Mother of Good Counsel Catholic Community in Hazard, Ky. Several hundred people including the Bishop of Lexington are expected to attend the re-dedication of a church that has been rebuilt from rubble.

Last fall most of the 67-year-old stone church, a landmark in Southeast Kentucky, was demolished to make way for a worship space that could handle events that routinely saw standing room only crowds and outside overflow. The process of planning, destruction and reconstruction has been accompanied by all of the hand-wringing and intra-parish angst that typically characterizes change. Would an expanded church be practical? Would it be pretty? Would it feel like the old church? In the past few years the project has taken its toll on the entire staff of Mother of Good Counsel, but Pastor Mike is showing the strain. Fatigued from months of planning and preparation, beset with a virus, he is losing his voice.

Not to worry. Pastoral Associate Pat Riestenberg and others at MGC are happy to discuss the renovation. And a lot of the talk is about Mike’s vision and his perseverance. “It’s my belief that he was an architect in a former life,” Pat says. “He basically got an idea and started working with it. He built a model so people could see what it would look like.” Mike’s idea, developed by Lexington architect Paul Kissel, was to expand the church on both sides, keeping the façade and utilizing the space that separated the right wall from the parish center. 

Apart from the addition of a new entrance, the outside, capped with the stone saved from the demolition, still looks like a little Italian chapel. The configuration on the interior is different, with seating on two sides that will accommodate 170 (the old maximum was 80) and a stone baptismal font blending into the wall. An extra-wide door (for caskets) was added in the back, along with a pair of restrooms. But what’s really striking is overhead, where an open ceiling crisscrossed with beams makes the space feel more imposing. Some day, plain windows will give way to swirling designs in stained glass, examples of which are displayed in the parish hall.

All this, of course, cost money. “It’s been a long haul,” commencing three years ago with the initial fund-raising campaign, Pat says. “I give Fr. Mike tremendous credit.” His attitude was, “I’m a good friar. I’m not afraid to ask.” So according to Pat, “He approached the province and the Mission Office and hunted down grants.” The initial parish campaign brought in $50,000. “When we put the project out to bid, it came back twice as high ($650,000) as the architect said. Then it was back to the drawing board.”

At that point there was talk of “keeping the old church as a prayer chapel and expanding into the parking lot,” says Bro. Mike Dubec, snaking a hose around the side of the church to water some recently added landscaping before the arrival of Bishop Ronald Gainer from Lexington. In the end, the only real choice was “to knock it all down or expand. We wanted to try to restore it as people knew it,” keeping the intimacy of the old church. After all, Mike says, “A building has memories.” The project gained steam when longtime parishioners like 89-year-old Ernestine Whitaker stepped in to lend their support. “I love this church,” she announced. “But if it needs to grow, we have to let it grow.”

In 2004, concerned about steadily rising costs, they decided to proceed. After a service of remembrance last October, contractor Brian Lewis moved in the bulldozers. The Christmas letter from Hazard showed the shell of a church that resembled a bombing raid from World War II. “About 75% of the original walls were removed,” says Brian, asked if this was one of his more difficult assignments. It was tricky, “to say the least,” beginning with the excavation by hand of new crawl space under the building. “The biggest challenge was getting the roof structures to the site” around the winding and precipitously steep road leading to the church. Imagine a 35-foot flatbed truck trying to negotiate 90-degree turns, and you get the idea.

In the parish center, Pat is in perpetual motion as an army of volunteers sets up tables for the kind of spread that follows most significant events at Mother of Good Counsel. The byproduct of the expansion is a state-of-the-art parish kitchen with an enormous refrigerator and—this is big—an industrial-sized ice machine. Everyone pitches in. Bro. Ed Gura has gone through 14 heads of cabbage to make coleslaw. Mike Dubec peeled 40 pounds of spuds to produce the biggest batch of potato salad in memory.

Maureen Castinero, a parishioner since toddlerhood, “at least 75 years, maybe 80,” has seen the new facility and “I think it’s gorgeous.” Benedictine Sr. Kathy Gripshover was “devastated” when the old church was demolished, but reassured when she saw the pastor’s scale model of the new structure. Sr. Kathy Donohue, OP, says of Mike, “He’s just been a true gift to the community.” Marlene Quinn, who moved to Kentucky 19 years ago, never participated in a parish before joining Mother of Good Counsel. “I loved the church. It was beautiful. It had a calming effect on you. The people were wonderful.”

Parishioner Heather Watts, a church council member here with daughter Cydney, says the renovation was desperately needed. “When we had a funeral there was no room. When we had a wedding it was SO tight.” She credits Pastor Mike with getting things going. “There’s no way we could have done it without his leadership. Some of the elders were trying to hold on to the old church, not wanting to lose the small church feel. They really have maintained the feel of the old church. It looks the same—we just have more space.”

By now, Pat is encouraging those “with good legs” to move down the side steps to the parking lot, where Bishop Gainer will lead them procession-style into their new church. A line of guests that includes Cincinnati friars Fr. Jeff Scheeler, Fr. Jim Bok, Fr. Bill Farris, Bro. Norbert Bertram and Bro. Gene Mayer follows him around the building and scatters on the hillside in a scene reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount. “We have come together to dedicate this expanded church,” the Bishop says, accepting the key to the door from contractor Lewis. “Fr. Mike Chowning, will you open the doors of this new church?”

In his homily, Bishop Gainer thanks the parish family for the “hard, sacrificial, diligent work” they have taken upon themselves, months of meetings followed by months of moveable worship in the parish center. “Thank you to your Pastor, Fr. Mike Chowning, who is so much in love with you, with Christ and with the Church.” Bishop Gainer calls the renovation “an amazing example of the preservation of the heritage of your community.” With the spotlight elsewhere, Mike is able to rest his voice through most of the Mass.

After a good long worship and the official blessing, congregants file next door to graze upon acres of food, with some starting at a dessert table that is roughly the size of a kitchen. The dedication behind them, Pat and the friars are ready to regroup for the next phase. An open house later in the day will reflect the theme of the year of renovation: "Expand the Tent of God's House"—a concept that resonates spiritually, communally and physically. After that, everyone can finally start to wind down. Everyone, that is, except Mike Chowning. He’ll be up late, sitting at his computer, writing thank-you notes.

Fr. Bob Bruno is settling into his duties as chaplain to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C. “The new job at the Pentagon is very exciting,” he writes. “There are so many facets to it at the senior levels of the chaplain services of the Army, Navy and Air Force, as well as the Archdiocese for the Military Services, U.S.A., and the Department of Defense. (Bob was recently elected to the Presbyteral council of the Military Archdiocese.) The archdiocesan chancery is here in Washington just across Michigan Avenue, northeast from the National Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. Just down the road from there is Carroll Manor Nursing Home, where (Bro.) Ambrose (Beam) resides.” When Bob visits, “He has a very bright and wide smile.”

“It’s hot there,” Bro. Tom Gerchak joked when we asked how things are in Jamaica. In Cincinnati recently to get his visa finalized, Tom said he’s slowly adjusting to the heat and humidity and is learning his way around Negril by delivering food once a month to 36 needy families through the Elderly Fund, supported by benefactors. “I am realizing more and more how blessed we are in the U.S.,” Tom says. “With $400 a month we serviced 120 families at St. John Vianney Food Pantry. This is because of the USDA and state food programs, as well as the support of the Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, which actively seeks donations and channels them to some 350 individual agencies. Here in Jamaica, we have had to buy all our food in recent months, and $400 is only enough to help 36 families once a month.” Food for the Poor is concentrating on countries hit by hurricanes last year, “so it may be some time before we receive their shipments again.” Tom is also accompanying the parish choir on the keyboard, “trying to learn the melodies for Sunday. I’ll also be teaching the First Communion students; that’s something new for me.” Asked how he’s handling the left-side driving, he admitted, “I say a little prayer whenever I get in the car.”

At the June meeting of the Board of Trustees of St. Bonaventure University, Fr. Fred Link was elected Chair of the Student Life Subcommittee of the Board, thus becoming a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees. “It deepens the relationship between our province and SBU,” he says.

Radio Maria recently launched its sixth American radio station, according to Fr. Duane Stenzel, who is Priest-Director for Radio Maria in Alexandria, La. The newest outlet reaches listeners within a 40-mile radius of Botkins, Ohio, through WHJM-FM 88.7. “The Ohio station, which began broadcasting June 15, doesn’t yet have a studio,” according to an Associated Press story. “And until it can develop its own programming, it is broadcasting programs from the other Radio Maria stations fed through Alexandria.”

Never underestimate the power of kindness. Based upon the testimonials at Bro. Jude Sukup’s funeral Sept. 2 at Mercy Franciscan Terrace, it is clearly his most enduring legacy. As Bro. David Crank said of Jude, “He was so connected with all of life, what Francis talked about, all that God created.” That connection was most evident in kinship with the wildlife he fed so faithfully from his wheelchair. It was less apparent but just as strong in the people whose companionship he cultivated. “He had a lot of friends,” according to David. “It didn’t matter how heavy your heart was, he always had a way of lifting it.”

That circle of friends included Adrian and Ophelia Tydlacka of Louisville and their sons Wade and Ryan. (Those who follow high school and college football will recognize those names: Wade played for the Louisville Cardinals and Ryan is finishing up his playing career at Trinity High School with a scholarship to the University of Louisville.) Although they were not related by blood, the Tydlackas considered Jude their cousin and treated him with such care and concern that he might well have been their parent. Years ago “when he came to Louisville, we became family,” Ophelia said. “He needed a family and we did, too.”

“What I’m gonna remember about Jude,” said David at the Reception of the Body, “is that he was truly a man of prayer. His prayer books are just worn out; the covers are off.” When you came to visit, “Nine times out of ten he was at his desk, praying.” And if he wasn’t praying, he was jotting jokes on a yellow pad and writing down conversation-starters for company. “Of all the friars I visited,” said Fr. Paul Walsman, “I didn’t have to entertain him; he entertained me.”

“He was always concerned about everyone else,” said Anne Cabanas, coordinator of assisted living at the Terrace. “He was an example to all of us.” The week before he died, Jude was visited by Pakistani friar Patras Sardar. “I asked Jude if he would share some things about his life,” David said. “He beautifully summarized his life. I don’t think we realized he flew and owned his own Piper Cub (airplane) at one time. It’s neat that one of my last memories of Jude was bringing him a missionary, and that Jude evangelized him. He never stopped.”

It was of course Jude’s love of creation that triggered an outpouring of anecdotes. Everyone could picture this man in a wheelchair in the garden, canvas feed bag at his side, arms outstretched to greet the hawks that perched nearby and the squirrels that brought their babies to his feet. When Larry Zepf first moved into the Terrace, he watched each morning as Jude pushed his wheelchair outdoors and close to a rock wall. As Larry discovered, “There were holes in the wall. Jude knew where every chipmunk lived. He would tap on the rock and the chipmunk would come out and take food out of his hand.”

One day after the feeding ritual when Jude turned his wheelchair around and headed inside, “The door opened and he came in and his ‘pet’ squirrel followed him in,” Larry said. Unbeknownst to Jude, nurses formed a circle around the uninvited guest and marched him (or her) outside. “Those squirrels and birds and chipmunks were his life,” said Beth Luken, executive director at the Terrace. Only once did she need to curb his enthusiasm. That was the time when Jude, in an attempt to create a makeshift hive for his brother bees, slathered honey on the window screen of his room. “The moral of all these stories,” said friend Pat Ballard, “is that Bro. Jude was ‘for the birds.’ ”

The readings from Daniel (“Bless the Lord, all birds of the air”) and Paul (“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us”) were echoed by Fr. Hilarion Kistner in his eloquent homily. “When Fred asked me to give this homily, he said I should find the readings. I did reflect quite a bit on how Brother Jude has been responding to God’s call in his life,” Hilarion said. “Let me begin with another passage of Scripture,” a line from I John in which Nathanael asks Philip, “ ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ I think of that when I think of Bro. Jude,” a native of tiny Rosebud, Texas. “As Jesus brought fame to Nazareth, so Jude brought fame to Rosebud.”

The name “Jude” means, “ ‘God praises,’ and that’s certainly what Jude did all his life,” Hilarion said. The reading from Daniel spoke of the song of the young men in the fiery furnace. “Jude’s fiery furnace was diminished physical condition in recent years. He had to find another way to serve God,” and that was by serving creation. “Jude never stopped praising God and serving others, humans and non-humans. Jude fed squirrels, birds, chipmunks, even spiders…Jude wanted to bring refreshment to all these creatures. He was known as the ‘St. Francis of Franciscan Terrace,’ and in many ways St. Francis was alive in Jude….

“A moment ago I read part of the Gospel. Read further. Think of these words (of Jesus) as coming from Jude: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink. Look at the birds of the sky…Are not you more important than they? Why are you anxious about clothes? Not even Solomon is clothed like one of them. Do not worry, what are we to drink? Seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness. All these things will be given to you.” Hilarion concluded, “As we celebrate Jude’s life, just as he spent so many years here bringing joy to animals and people, he will continue to do that as he takes care of all of us from heaven.”

As “a caregiver for God’s creation,” said celebrant Fr. Fred Link, “Jude did bring honor to Rosebud, Texas. I think the greatest tribute we can pay to our brother were his stories of his days as a nurse (in World War II). Is there a greater Franciscan attribute?”

Following a closing prayer, the congregation dispersed, crunching peanut shells underfoot (a tribute from Bro. Joel Soldenski) as they descended the chapel steps. “We saw a bunny rabbit hopping around outside earlier,” said Anne Cabanas, pointing across the lawn. “We figured he was looking for Jude.”