Father John Rausch poses with Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne following the Pax Christi Teacher of Peace Award ceremony.

When members of the Diocese of Lexington’s Commission for Peace and Justice learned that the commission’s coordinator, Father John Rausch, would be recognized as the Pax Christi Teacher of Peace in 2007, planning started for a party to which everyone in the diocese was invited. St. Clare Church in Berea, Ky., hosted a potluck dinner and over 100 people traveled from the 50 counties in the eastern part of the state to celebrate Father John’s award from the national peace and justice group. The celebration and the gathering of people illustrate the core of Father John’s ministry: relationships.

In addition to chairing the diocesan commission, Father John is an regional worker who has lived in Appalachia for most of his over 30 years as a Glenmary priest. He serves as the director of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA) and is an accomplished writer whose monthly column, “Faith in the Marketplace,” helps link economics to the gospel message for readers of 20 Catholic newspapers across the country. He is a regular contributor to Glenmary Challenge and his writings also appear in other national publications.

“Ministry isn’t philosophical, but it’s dealing with people,” he says. And from people he learns of systemic problems that can be addressed with an increase of justice in the world.

Justice as it is practiced by his friend, Dr. John Belanger. Dr. Belanger treats patients from all over eastern Kentucky—for $20 per visit—at Paint Lick Clinic in Garrard County. Without Dr. Belanger, these folks wouldn’t have access to affordable healthcare.

And he learns of injustices, too, as he meets the people of Eastern Kentucky. People like McKinley Sumner, a Perry County landowner whose land was encroached upon and bulldozed by a coal company without his consent. “He’s going to have to get a lawyer to fight this now,” Father John says. “But the coal company will be able to hire 10 lawyers to his one.”

And he learns firsthand of the struggles “the folks” are facing every day. One such encounter happened when he picked up a hitchhiker, whose name he never learned, on a dark, two-lane road that snakes through Eastern Kentucky.

Father John admits that if he had passed the hitchhiker on a major interstate, he might have been reluctant to stop (“might,” he said. He didn’t rule it out.). But, he says, the rural road and late hour inspired him to offer the young man a ride.

He discovered after talking with the 21-year-old man that he was making a 25-mile trip home after work on foot because his father, in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, forgot to pick him up. The young man had been walking for over two hours, with many miles to go.

Father John learned that he was studying for his GED, hoping to some day have a better job than the one he held in a metal plating plant. “This kid was using the strength of his body for his livelihood when he should be using his mind,” Father John says.

Father John dropped the young man at his rundown house and left him with the leftover lasagna and dessert he was taking home from a meeting. From that day on, “he became one of the faces I see when I visualize ministry,” Father John says.

Some might think a ministry that involves fighting systems that value profits over people would be lonely, but for Father John the opposite is true. “I feel alienated when I’m not connecting with other people,” he says. “If I’m only thinking ‘what’s in it for me or my group,’ there’s a disconnect in my heart. When I’m connected with people who are vulnerable I feel connected with God.”

The relationships that Father John develops with people like Dr. John Belanger or McKinley Sumner or the hitchhiker fuel his energy to continue his work to bring awareness to people who have the means to help stem the problems that come from overconsumption.

Father John embraces the philosophy “live simply that others may simply live.” In conversations or during presentations, he describes the ways in which wasting electricity in Chicago, for example, impacts the lives of people in eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and southwest Virginia. Producing that electricity means more coal is needed and the way the coal is obtained impacts those living in coal producing areas environmentally, physically, economically and emotionally.

Good stewardship of God’s creation supports the common good “both in the present era and for generations to come,” Father John says. “If we are good stewards, future generations will still have the types of choices we have today.”

In addition to his roles in the peace and justice commission, and the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, Father John fills in for parish priests throughout the diocese, traveling two or three weekends per month. During these “fill-in” weekends, Father John makes sure to incorporate the social teachings of the Church into his homilies and ways families can live those teachings.

No matter what hat he is wearing on a particular day—writer, peace and justice coordinator, CCA director, organizer—he has one goal: to use his gifts, talents and possessions to reach out to people. “It’s in that way that I connect with God,” he says.

This article originally appeared in the April 2008 Boost-A-Month Club Newsletter