‘Biking 4 Vocations’

BIKE TREK  A team of two priests and three seminarians from New York State completed a 1,400-mile bike trek last year up the East Coast, called “Biking 4 Vocations,” to raise awareness for vocations. The cyclists are pictured pedaling along the highways and byways of their physically-challenging route.

MADISON  Last year, a hearty team of young men that consisted of two priests and three seminarians from New York State successfully finished a physically demanding 1,400-mile bike trek up the East Coast — called “Biking 4 Vocations” — to put into high gear efforts to raise awareness for vocations.

But these bicyclists could not have known that two specific things would take different and unexpected routes after they finished their 29-day “pilgrimage”: the Pine Brook-based director of a documentary film about the ride would act on her own newly clarified vocation and the focus of the film would shift from capturing the drama of the excursion to more thoughtfully exploring the heart of vocations.

Following these bicyclists on every mile of their ambitious road trip was 27-year-old Caitlin Fitzgerald, a parishioner of St. Pius X Parish, Montville, and current communications and information coordinator at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard. This TV professional captured on video the adventures of the bicyclists from the Archdiocese of New York and the dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre on their journey that started in St. Augustine, Fla., on May 17, 2015 and ended in Rockville Centre, N.Y., on June 14. The resulting 49-minute documentary, “How We Are Called: the Story of Biking 4 Vocations,” debuted on May 6 on NetTV of the Brooklyn Diocese.

“A great family in Pawley’s Island, S.C. gave us a place to stay early on in our trip and spending time with such a faith-filled couple and children absolutely on fire for Jesus made me realize I wanted to have a family like that. That’s when my own vocation became clear to me: to become a wife and mother someday,” said Fitzgerald. She said she grew closer to her faith while attending daily Mass and adoration on the trip, which was approved by Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. “Suddenly it wasn’t about making the most money or working on the most successful show. My success is going to be measured by how well I love and how much of God’s love I can spread.” she said.

During “Biking 4 Vocations,” Fitzgerald also realized that she needed to put her newly re-awakened faith in action by working for the Church. This graduate of St. Pius X School, Montville, and Morris Catholic High School, Denville, credits her experiences on the trip for eventually leading her to a fulfilling position at St. Paul’s.

Not only that but the focus and style of the film evolved during editing process — undertaken by Fitzgerald, DeSales Media and The Media Place. Originally, she envisioned a fast-placed documentary that highlighted the drama, mishaps and grueling pace of the ride — similar to reality TV shows such as “The Great Race.” Instead, it turned into a timeless meditation on the nature of vocation, discernment, Catholic discipleship and the Church in modern society. The film splices footage from the bike trek with thoughtful interviews with the bicyclists and other clergy including Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn.

“I thought that the film would be more dramatic — about the riders falling off their bikes and the sometimes hilarious arguments the priests and seminarians found themselves in,” said Fitzgerald, who decided to hitch a ride with “Biking 4 Vocations,” after Father Joseph Fitzgerald, Rockville Centre’s vocations director, one of the bicyclists and also her cousin, asked her join the pilgrimage to help film it for a documentary. “Instead, it became a discernment video — a teaching tool for diocesan vocations directors, elementary and high schools and young people. It tells the personal stories of the riders, who are regular guys. It’s here to encourage people to check it out and see what God is calling you to do,” she said.

“How We Are Called” features lots of footage of the bicyclists on the road as they pass through 11 states, five archdioceses and 10 dioceses for the ride, which was guided by the slogan “Share the Road with Christ.” Father Fitzgerald, a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Handball Team, was joined on this road trip by the following bicyclists: the Brooklyn-based Father Marc Swartvagher, now pastor at Our Lady of Grace, Howard Beach, NY, and seminarians Dominik Wegiel of Brooklyn, Stephen Rooney of Rockville Centre and Steven Diaz of the New York Archdiocese. Along the way, the men stopped in parishes, schools, seminaries and other locations to celebrate Mass, conduct holy hours and talk vocations, as well as eat, rest and recreate.

Riding with Fitzgerald in a car next to the bicyclists during filming was production assistant Victoria Drasheff, a film student and another one of Fitzgerald’s cousins. After making this film, Fitzgerald left the job that she loved — as an associate producer at Gigantic! Productions, which produces MTV’s “True Life,” to work for St. Paul Inside the Walls.

They taped footage for six hours a day for 28 days and visited some impressive places, such as the Papal Nuncio’s residence in Washington, and met many of the bishops in the dioceses that they visited where they often received a big welcome and attention from local media, Fitzgerald said.

“We got people pumped for vocations but we will not know all the fruits of our labor. This is a way to let the younger generation know that this vocation is possible even with all the distractions of today’s society,” Fitzgerald said.

The film shows Father Fitzgerald telling one group of young people, “God has a plan for you. We can respond to it or push it away.” Then, audience members give their reactions to the speakers, some of them surprised that priests and seminarians are “human” and interact with the modern world with their cell phones and FaceBook accounts.

Interspersed with footage of the trip are deep reflections about vocations by riders and powerful vocation stories by the seminarians. Rooney declares, “To be a priest in the 21st century means to reject the culture,” which “is telling us to go for money, for success and for girls.”

“Instead, God is telling you, ‘Don’t raise up yourself. Lower yourself instead of putting yourself first. Put Me first.’ Put God and His children first,” Rooney said.

Click here to view “How We Are Called: the Story of Biking 4 Vocations.”