Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome to another edition of Big City Catholics. And this week, we take you across the country to a town called Wenatchee in the Diocese of Yakima, Washington State. And we'll have a chance to talk with Father Charlie Keaney, who worked for many years in our mission office, is a retired priest but is far from inactive. Let's begin with a prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: Amen. Amen.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Lord God, we thank you for your many gifts. We thank you for the gifts of creation, for the gifts of families, for the people who watch over and care for us in so many ways, those who are seen to us, and those who work in very quiet ways. Every meal, we give you thanks for the food that we are about to receive. And today, in a particular way, we pray for those who provide that food to us through their labors and through their care.
We ask you to bless all families to keep us in your care and watch over for those who labor on behalf of others. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Welcome, Father Kinney. Thank you for joining me for another edition of Big City Catholics.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: It's my pleasure to be with you, Bishop, for the podcast, and also to be with you out here on the west coast in the state of Washington and the Diocese of Yakima.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Exactly. And we're going to have a great conversation about this week, but just a little bit of an update. So after how many years as a priest here?
[00:01:33] Speaker A: I'm 47 plus.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Okay, so after about 45 plus, you officially retired, but you keep pretty busy.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: I do keep pretty busy, yes.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: I remember when you first came in, you were working, directing the mission office, the propagation of female.
And you were really committed to that work, to the work of missionary work of the church.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: Yeah. I have been working with a particular mission in Africa for the past 19 years. And in fact, this weekend coming up, I'm making an appeal in one of the parishes in Bayside, Queens, for that particular mission in Arusha for the Sisters of Saint Gemma Galgani. It's still part of who I am.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: It's very much a part of who you are. I talk a lot about our new pope, about Pope Leo. I say many of us have missionary hearts, but he has missionary feet. And I guess you have missionary feet to a certain extent as well. You've done the work. And when you came to see me about retiring, you said you weren't looking to be inactive, but that you would stay involved with the missionary work you do. And particularly you spoke about volunteering with the Catholic Extension Society and your desire to be able to get a little bit more involved in that, and that's what brings us here this weekend.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Yes, this weekend is kind of like a success story for me with Catholic Extension, to be honest. Right. So about four years ago, I got introduced to Catholic Extension. They actually tried to come and sell me calendars. And I was selling calendars at the same time for the Propagation of the Faith office in Brooklyn. And I was hoping that maybe since they produced so many calendars, maybe I could buy them from them. They could make money. We could make money, and we'd be a win win. It turned out we were both buying them from the same company, so that didn't work out. But the fellow who came to talk with me, his name was Ray, he said, do you like to travel? I says, of course I like to travel. I said, you know, what do you have in mind? So he talked about immersion trips that Catholic Extension provides for pastors through a grant that they got from the Lilly Foundation.
And so I got in touch with the office and I signed up for an immersion trip in the state of Montana, where we were going to see what the Catholic Church did with the help of the Catholic Extension of funding with the Native Americans. And I always wanted to find out something about the Native Americans, like, we don't have too many of them in Brooklyn, you know, so it wasn't part of our experience. But what happened is, at the time I was supposed to go, I broke my leg, and so I couldn't go. And then the next year, Covid came, and then when I started doing trips again, they got in touch with me. They said, the next one's going to be out in Yakima, Washington. I didn't know where Yakima, Washington was or what it was, but I signed up because it was something to do and someplace to go and see it. And when I came out here, I was very, very impressed with the work of the church and the Diocese of Yakima. I was extremely impressed by the ordinary, by Bishop Joseph Tyson for the work he does and the way he does it. I was impressed with the funding source of Catholic Extension, and this is one of many thousands of projects that they help around the country. It turned me on. Right. That was my first experience with it. At the end of it, I never forget. They kid me about this. They say, they remind me what I said. I said, you know, I says, I'd like to help you, but I'm not going to raise any money for you because I'm raising money for my charity in Africa. And they said, all right. So I said, but I can raise publicity and I can teach people and maybe inspire a few guys. And I did all that. I was very happy. But I have made many appeals for them already. So they laugh, they laugh. They say, you're making a lot of money for us. Different appeals.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: When did you written your in?
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Once I got in and I had the time the night before I left to come here to the state of Washington. This time I counted. Since I retired, Catholic Extension has had me in 13 different states and the Capitol that's making appeals of different sorts in parishes, to cocktail parties, at. At conventions, whatever. So it's really been great.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: It is, it is. So that brings us to this weekend, thanks to you, thanks to your invitation, we had a couple of experiences with Catholic Extension. You had asked about the possibility of Catholic Extension hosting dinner in Brooklyn for priests who might be interested in these trips. And we did that. We did it at Gargiulos.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:49] Speaker B: And when you have dinner, as a matter of fact, we were recording today, you see the square table, they set everything up. It's always about a square table. So that it's always a large set of tables set up in a square so that we're all at the same table and having one conversation.
[00:06:02] Speaker A: One conversation. We're listening to everybody.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Exactly. And so we had people give witnesses some of their experience. And that's when I realized just how many priests either have made trips with Catholic Extension or were interested. And that was the idea, was to open it up to correct.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: What happened was when I came back, I asked certain friends of mine and people that I was more friendly with, would you like to go on a trip here or there to see something? I says, the way they treated me and what I saw, I says it was life changing, you know. So I said, would you do this? The first time some guys from Brooklyn went would have been we went to the border in Texas at Brownsville and Tom Ahern and Bob Powers and a third person, I can't really remember who it was right now, went on the trip as well. And then there was another trip to El Paso, Texas, where Dwayne Davis went and Frank Black went. So I got in touch with all them and said, you know, we want to do this dinner and invite people that would be interested in seeing what you saw. And I saw, you know, so we came up with a list of about 30 guys, and I think 25 of them more or less came to the dinner and they heard things about it. A couple guys have gone on trips since, but this is the first time we've had a bishop on the trip. Thanks to you.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: And thanks to you because that's what happened part of this dinner. And then subsequently there were a couple of other meetings that I had, Catholic extension. And you made the invitation, we'd love to have you come on a trip. And then you did something a little bit different, I suppose, because instead of joining a trip, this is a trip of Brooklyn. Yeah. Priest, priest from Brooklyn and Queens was serving in Brooklyn and Queens. Yeah. There are 10 of us on, on the trip and I'm part of the group and it's just a great, great opportunity. What a eye opening opportunity.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: I told the guys at that dinner, I says, I said it's like getting continuing education and a retreat all the same time.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Really is.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: And compacted in three days.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: But we feel like we've been here a week already.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: We do, we do. We really. Pretty much at the 24 hour mark from when we actually made our first visit, they do it well, they set it right for priests so it's a Tuesday through a Thursday through the heavy day being the Wednesday so that guys could do something like this and not be gone on the weekends.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: That's exactly why they do that.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: That's why they set it up so that it fits a pre schedule. And then, you know, they tried to keep us comfortable, well fed and informed. And then when we go to places, it's very, very highly organized so that we get to see life as it's lived. The local church here and how the local church here, in this case in the diocese of is a church that meets people exactly where they are, goes out to the fields, goes out to the camps where people are living walks among the people. And it's bringing the church. It's not a social agency, although, you know, there's always a dimension to that. But it's really about bringing the church in all its fullness. That's the point of Catholic extension. To begin with.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Their mission statement is to aid vibrant, transformative Catholic faith faith communities in the poorest and most rural parts of this country. So that's what they're doing. They're aiding poorer Catholics in this country. That's a good thing for us to realize that there are poorer Catholics in this country, poorer churches, poorer diocese than where many of us come from, especially in Brooklyn. They do organize things pretty well, you know, so that the time is very well spent. I think like you said, to make it as comfortable as possible.
And almost everybody goes home really happy they came. And one of the comments I heard from quite a few of the Brooklyn priests who have gone on these trips before is they often say something like, I'm proud to be a priest again.
Because they see the church alive, active, going out, increasing the kingdom of God, you know, so that's, that's a great thing really about.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: It's deeply rooted in the gospel.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: One of the things I was really impressed with Bishop Joe Tyson, I use this story when I preach at the Appeals for Catholic Senate. One of the things he would say is he tells us seminarians that in my parishes there are no chalices without calluses.
And he means it.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: He does.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: And he has this very unusual formation program for his seminarians in the summer. And you heard about it, we seen it.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: So let's talk about it a little bit. So what, each of the trips that Catholic Extension organizes for the priests, and they do that through a grant from the Lilly Foundation. So they have their own separate, that Catholic Extension is funding many, many projects. But through this grant they give this exposure, this experience to priests. And so in this particular case, we're visiting with farm workers who work on a seasonal basis and really along the California coast as the seasons change. And right now we're in Washington State during cherry picking correctness.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Two weeks ago you wouldn't have known that.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. And I would not have known that. And yet here we are visiting yesterday, the first day of our trip, visiting one of the camps, seeing what happens there, what life is like, what the living situation is. But then today, visiting an actual farm, going and going to see the fellows pick the cherries, talking to them a little bit, engaging with them, even getting to pick some cherries ourselves. And there'll be more that we'll talk about some of these experiences. But you mentioned Bishop Tyson and this work that he does with the seminarians. He asks his seminarians to spend summers actually working out in the fields. He does with the works.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: And he does it himself too.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: He does it himself. So they are out there picking the fruit just like everybody else, but also they're engaged, they're talking with people. Some of the two of the fellows spoke about their experiences and just that over time you're just spending time and you start to hear people who share their stories like they would with their co workers, but you are listening with the ear of Christ, with the ear of the church, that true concern of the church. So one of his innovative Projects is involving the seminarians in that day to day work. And boy, do they come back and they tell us how rewarding that is. It's got to be a lot of hard labor.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a lot of hard labor. And I'm sure the first two or three days didn't feel too rewarding, you know, as much as, well, I just got one more hurdle to do. The fellows that gave witness, the two priests and the two seminarians that we heard from last night, they all say that, you know, it's an important part of their growth into being a priest in this particular diocese. Because Bishop Tyson always says, if you want to be a priest here, you got to remember these are the people you're going to minister to, right? You got to know them. You got to know their dreams, their hopes, their fears, their lives.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: So it's not hard work for the sake of hard work. No, it's hard work for entering into solidarity with the people you go to serve.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: In fact, I don't know who was telling me this, but some. One of the priests or the bishop last night, he was saying when the seminarians work in the fields picking fruit, they don't get paid for the fruit. They get paid a stipend from the. The diocese because this is their pastoral formation, right? So what the diocese has done with the owner of the vineyards and the orchards is to say whatever money they would have gotten, you can give it to any charity you want.
Most of it comes back to the diocese, but not all of it. But they said, you know, and that's how they do it. But they do it for two reasons. One is to teach these guys. This is part of growing up to be a priest.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: And also, some of them only have student visas. They don't have work visas.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: So they can't work and get a salary from the place, but they can get a stipend for going to school or going through a process.
So they do it that way.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. You know, one of the things that impressed me is it's almost universal, I guess, because it's probably taught to them. But they make a connection with the Eucharist and with celebrating Mass. So they talk about how those prayers at the preparation of the gifts, you speak of the fruit of the vine.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: And the work of your work of human hands.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Yes. That hits home now in a very powerful way. They say, and even the priests whom we met who went through the program years ago, they hear those words or they pronounce those words very differently.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: And I think the guys from Brooklyn that are here this week are going to say that differently when they go home.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Same here. Yeah. Yep.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: I could see it last night when you said it.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. You know, the second thing Bishop Tyson spoke about, what he does speak about often is, you know, we lift up the bread and wine that becomes the body and blood of Christ.
And he says, you can't lift up the body of Christ if you're not willing to lift up the elements. Correct, yeah. You know, and of course, circumstances are different. We live in a very urban diocese. It's a very different. So this is not exactly the formation that would form somebody who. For Brooklyn or Queens.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: But that sense of solidarity is universal. That is something that. That's a good challenge for all of us, for us as priests, Bishops stand in solidarity to walk among God's people. And as we listen to them, you know, much of what Pope Francis spoke about with synodality, it got caught up in meetings and ideologies and all of that. But basically, it's that we walk with one another in solidarity, listening to one another share one another's burdens and realities.
And so for these guys to express that so powerfully is very inspiring.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: For me, it is, and it's part of why I was so really inspired the first time I came.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Speaking of some of the experiences, this is a little past the midpoint of the day. We have, to me, one of the highlights, I think, will be celebrating Mass in one of the camps. Let's talk about that experience first. It's one that's yet to come for me, but it really intrigues me. Basically, Bishop Tyson offers a dispensation from Sunday Mass because the work is of the farm and because the work of harvesting is kind of an urgent work. It's an urgent work, a very short season. And a day that's lost is not only a day lost for you, you know, in terms of wages, but it's a day shorter in the harvesting season. It's fruit that goes bad.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: And what we heard today, one day of work in the orchard we were in is 90 tons of cherries, 90 tons. One day's work, one day of work.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: So he gives the dispensation, saying, if you can't get to Mass on the Sunday itself, we're going to bring the Mass to you.
And so during the week, usually on.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Wednesdays, in many different camps, many different.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: Camps, the primary priest and the bishop go out and offer the Sunday Mass or the Mass of the day, depending on the circumstances in that Pastoral situation, but often the Sunday mass to connect people with the Sunday Eucharist, because, you know, and that's sort of how it's done in the mission territory. When I was down in Dominican Republic, you know, there was the mass in the city, which was territory during the week. Then you go out to the compost. Yeah.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Actually I worked at Rikers Islands, you know, we said mass every day of the week for Sunday.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: Because we couldn't say it all, enough of them on Sunday.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: And yet it's amazing, he tells us, and I've seen some of their material from Catholic extension, what that Sunday mass on Wednesday means to people.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Well, I was at it four years ago. I'm not sure we're going to the same place tonight when they throw out the names. I don't always remember the name of every place in the world. But we went to a converted hotel that was converted into a rooming house for migrant single men. And it was a very nice facility, very different from the camps that we went to today. It was really a nice facility. You know, it was clean, it had heated air conditioner, had running water. And they had services for them there too. They had a little area where one day a week the Western Union person would come in. So if they wanted to send the money home and they had other service, they had laundromats for them. They had a whole bunch of different services.
They had somebody from the bank come and help them with accounts if they wanted to deposit the money. And they had like the biggest room in that former hotel would have been a ballroom years ago, but we used it for mass.
And it was still during COVID that I went, you know, it was still fighting the whole thing. So you had 6ft distance. So we had single seats, but they were rows apart. And it was fascinating. I walked in, there were hundreds and hundreds of single men. I thought, this is the biggest seminary in the world.
Because that's who was living there was single men. But they came in droves.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: And they knew the bishop.
Yes, they knew the bishop. They said, you know, he's one of us. And he connected in the homily and stuff like that. His Spanish was really very, very well spoken Spanish. And he has been some of the places that they talk about that they come from. And he was comical and profound at the same time. And I said, listen, during that Mass he gave a few first communions and confirmed a few kids, apparently is part of what he does.
And he says, you know, he has a very shortened RCIA because these people's life don't fit into the church calendar.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: People on the move.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: They're always on the move to go.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: From season to season.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: So it's hard to sink roots and do a two year kind of program formation. Yeah. So he works with people and celebrates the sacraments. It's a great, great gift for people. So the camp we were at was really. There was a single men's section, but it was also a very large family section. And this was today, very interesting for me. We went to the camp again this morning and they run in this camp, but apparently everywhere, special sessions for the children. Dr. During the day because the parents, both parents are out there picking fruit.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Both the mother and the father, they're.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Doing all the work. So the kids, there's something during the day. There are activities throughout the day. There's food that's provided for the kids during the day. And what's happening is also two things. There's catechetical formation, but also literacy.
There's a bit of literacy.
[00:20:14] Speaker A: No, they're doing. They're doing a great job. But you know, using this time that otherwise you'd be just like watching tv if they had a TV or something.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: Tv. It's great because a lot of these kids, one of the questions we asked is do they have any formal education? And the answer is yes, A lot of them go to school. You know, so we met families like from Fresno, California.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:20:32] Speaker B: I think there were a lot in that camp from Fresno. Yes. So the family has an apartment there. The kids go to school. But during the growing season, the family's on the move. And so this is when they get a lot of their work done. And the kids, kids travel. The whole family travels. They live in very tight quarters. But during the day the Catholic Church is offering these programs. One we went to is a Catholic school teacher who runs today. Yeah.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: And they. No, they do literacy. There were books around for them to read or be read to, as you say, arts and crafts kind of a thing to do some athletics. And you know, last time I said we were doing races, three legged races and things like that. You. The one thing I really liked. I don't know if you noticed it, when Bishop Tyson walked into the room, he had his hand puppet.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: And two of the kids shouted, right, El Coyote.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: Right, exactly. They knew it. I'll tell you something. Even some of the men started coming back from work. There was a group of men at the table. We met them yesterday.
[00:21:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: And they're sitting at the table.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Same thing.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: El Coyote.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: They know. They know. You know, he uses hand puppets to teach.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:37] Speaker A: He has a conversation with the character in his hand, like, you know, like some comedians do or whatever. He has this one now. He calls it Carlitos Coyote. Right, Right. And he had another one last time I was here. It was a donkey, and he called it Arturo El Burro. It was hilarious. But everybody knows it. It's a great simple gift or trick, too.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: It is. It is. Yeah, it is. So the point of Catholic Extension is to help continue to build the church.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:22:04] Speaker B: And to allow local churches, like this Diocese of Yakima, to do exactly what they want to do, to be out there in the fields with the people. They fund all kinds of programs and opportunities so that the church in turn can walk among the people. Bishop Tyson does it in an amazing way here in Yakima. But briefly, some of the places that you've been.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: You mentioned being Montana with Montana. I've been down in Brownsville, Texas, and we went across to Reynoso on the other side of the Rio Grande in Mexico. I've been to Appalachia. I preached up in Minnesota. I was at a convention for the Catholic Daughters of America, representing Catholic Extension in Louisiana. And I've preached in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill. And I could all see the Capitol from where I was. It was great. I've seen quite a. Quite a lot of the country and a lot of the church. But you see, that's what it is.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Extension. It's not one size fits all. So they know that the local church knows the needs of its people.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: It's very interesting because sometimes when we go to different places and talk about. A lot of pastors would like to. I'd like to take my people there and do something with them. We said, that's not what we do.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: No.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Okay. We're funding the people who were there for them to do their job or to do their ministry, their vocation, you know, their program. We're not imposing our program. We're not doing it for them.
Letting them do it and letting them develop their own leaders.
You know, Catholic Extension gives them scholarships so they can get the education to be the leader of their own people. So some guys, I'd really like to do a mission project with my kids or that's not what we. Catholic Extension. The CEO was here last night and he said Catholic Extension is a fundraising organization. That's half of it. It's a fund distributing organization as well. It collects a lot of money and it gives away a lot of money. That's its job, and they do it very well. And, you know, I'm sure the Catholic Extension has the same kind of hope that I have with this trip, that some of the fellows in Brooklyn will go back home and say, geez, I got to help. What I saw, right? Catholic Extension has this program, they call it Partnership of Parishes. They will really help any parish who wants to help us fund vibrant, transformative faith communities in the poorer and most rural parts of this country.
So I really hope that happens.
[00:24:19] Speaker B: Well, I wanted to say thank you to you for involving me in this, for helping me see this good work and to experience it firsthand. And like you say, you know, we get samples of things, but we're not here to do other people's work. We're here, in a sense, to learn, to learn from the local church, how the local church is meeting the needs.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: Of its particular community and that it needs more money to do it and.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: That they need more money to do it. That's how we can help them. And of course, we are united in prayer.
So as we come to this conclusion of this week's episode, I want to say thank you for joining us. Please joining us in spirit and in prayer as we make our way now to and back home from Washington State. Please join us next week for another edition of Big City Catholics. And let's close asking God's blessing.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon your kindness and grant you his peace. May almighty God bless you and your families. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: Amen.
