In Bainbridge, Georgia, Fr. Joel Bladt is a Chief Cook, Bookkeeper,
Housekeeper, and Pastor.
At a meeting of ST (Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity) pastors in the Southeastern United States about eight years ago, a confrere suggested that one of the characteristics of "mission" parish, as distinct from ordinary parish, is that the pastor of the former is expected to do everything or almost everything by himself. By that criterion, St. Joseph Parish, in Bainbridge and its mission, The Church of the Incarnation, in Donalsonville, Georgia, are definitely missions.
Fr. Joel Bladt has been pastor of this two-county,
two-churc
h parish since January of 1993, and he is used to doing many of
the daily chores of a parish by himself.
The parish is too small - in numbers of people, not territory - to
afford the luxury of hired help. Fr.
Joel, however, is not complaining. He
loves the size of the parish, the fact that he knows everyone personally
and well, and he doesn't mind the small amount of office and domestic work
his job entails.
His main job, however, is being pastor of about a hundred families (from a total of 35,000 people) that make up the Catholic population in a largely agricultural section of southwest Georgia. Typical of many small-town parishes in the South, the Catholics of St. Joseph Parish are largely imports from the North but include a sprinkling of minority ethnic groups, notably African-American, Filipino, and Hispanic.
Fr. Joel came to Bainbridge with a lot of pastoral experience under his belt, having been stationed, from his ordination in 1961, in Cleveland, Ohio (twice); Walterboro, South Carolina; DeLisle, Mississippi; Dublin, Georgia (twice); and Capulin, Colorado. He also was involved in formation work, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Shortly after his ordination, Joel went back to school and received an M.A. in sociology from Catholic University, Washington, DC. Chief cook and bottle washer though he may be, Fr. Joel sees as one of his main pastoral goals getting the people to take responsibility (for pastoral and evangelization roles, not domestic duties!) and to recognize their giftedness as baptized people. They are hungry, he notes, for a deeper spirituality, for a deeper understanding of Sacred Scripture. "They are good people, very good people," he says. And he is happy to be their pastor, as well as chief cook, bookkeeper, and housekeeper.
- This article was contributed by Fr. Edwin Dill, ST
