This article originally appeared in the March 2005 Boost-A-Month Club Newsletter

Kentucky Mission 'Like a Family'

Members of Glenmary's Grayson, Ky., mission gather for a "family" portrait.

Last year a longtime member of Sts. John and Elizabeth Catholic Church, the Glenmary mission in Grayson, Ky., died. His daughter, so moved by the outpouring of affection from the church community at her father’s funeral, said, “I can see why Daddy loved to come here.”

“We’re a real family here,” says Sister Maria Goretti Browne, pastoral coordinator of Sts. John and Elizabeth. This is an important quality in Carter County, Ky., where Catholics number less than one-half of one percent of the total population. Sts. John and Elizabeth was established as a Glenmary mission in 1964, and some of the original parishioners are still members.

“In the beginning, most of the parishioners were women from different parts of the county who had married local men in the military and who were returning home with them,” says Sister Maria, who has served as pastoral coordinator since 1998. “In the last few years, though, more local people have been joining the church because of our reputation. We’re known as the church that helps people!”

When the parish celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2004, Sister Maria and the parishioners invited all of the Glenmarians who have served the parish, including Brother Larry Jochim who worked on the construction of the church. “One of the men who helped him construct the altar still comes to church here,” Sister Maria says, proudly pointing out how that altar was constructed of stone from a nearby rock quarry in Vanceburg. “He’s never joined, but we still encourage him.”

When Sts. John and Elizabeth was first opened, the church shared its pastor, Father Pat O’Donnell, with Holy Redeemer Church in Vanceburg, about 35 miles away.

Today both parishes have pastoral coordinators (Sister Joseph Fillenwarth serves in Vanceburg), and they share a sacramental minister: Father Bruce Brylinski.

Like many Glenmary missions, Sts. John and Elizabeth is growing, thanks to Hispanic families and individuals moving into the area to work in agriculture and light manufacturing. “We’re reaching out to them with a Spanish Mass every Sunday,” Sister Maria says. Father Bruce is still in the process of learning Spanish, but Spanish-speaking worshipers appreciate his efforts, she says. “They know he’s doing his best!”

Glenmary vocation director Father Steve Pawelk, fluent in Spanish, says the Spanish Mass about once a month. “They enjoy being able to talk with a priest,” Sister Maria says.

On Dec. 12, 2004, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the parish celebrated the baptism of seven Hispanic members, four of them babies, “And we have another baptism coming up,” Sister Maria says. “We have about 50 Anglo families and 20 Hispanic, and we’re working to bring the two groups together.”

Sister Nery (Luchy) Sori, a Dominican Sister and a native of the Dominican Republic, joined the parish staff in September 2004 as a multicultural worker. She visits with local Spanish-speakers in their homes, meets with the families and learns their needs. She says there is particular need in the area of religious education, both for children and adults.

“She’s been preparing families for baptism and, in the process, has learned that the parents haven’t been catechized,” Sister Maria says. So now Sister Nery is beginning adult education programs for them.

Sister Maria , also a Dominican, is originally from Detroit. She has worked in rural parishes in Kentucky since the late 1980s. Asked how she came to Kentucky, Sister Maria doesn’t hesitate to say, “God brought me.”

She had completed an assignment on the provincial team for her religious order and, much to her surprise, found herself suddenly curious about ministry in Kentucky. After working for short periods in McKee and Clinton, Ky., she accepted a pastoral position at a Glenmary mission in Morehead, Ky., where she worked until the parish was returned to the Diocese of Lexington.

After several years in a non-Glenmary parish in Harrodsburg, Ky., she returned to mission ministry and working with Glenmary as pastoral coordinator in Grayson. She says she enjoys the support that she receives from Glenmary in her ministry and that her Dominican charism fits well in a Glenmary mission.

“I believe that we need to reach out to the poor, and Glenmary does it,” she says. “I believe we need to be evangelical, and Glenmary does it. I believe that we need to live simply, and Glenmary does it.”
Sister Maria plans to continue reaching out in Carter County “in as many ways as we can,” and hopes to extend outreach to adjoining Elliot County.

School Sisters of Notre Dame Sarah Neale and Marita Smith run Sarah’s Place, a women’s resource center in Sandy Hook, the county seat of Elliot County. “Everyone knows they’re Catholic sisters, but we need to reach out in the name of the Catholic Church,” says Sister Maria. “I could see a storefront church there in the future.”

As she continues her work in Kentucky, Sister Maria is fully living the Dominican philosophy: “To give to others the fruits of our contemplation.”

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