Reaching out to the homebound

LONG VALLEY  Did you ever wonder about the priests who serve your parish — their family backgrounds, their interests and hobbies, their personal interactions with each other or their everyday routines around the rectory?

With the “ding-dong” sound of a doorbell, parishioners of St. Luke’s in bucolic Long Valley no longer have to wonder because that sound introduces each episode of an entertaining new video series on the parish’s You Tube channel, “From the Rectory.” These 15- to 25-minute videos invite faithful from St. Luke’s as well as from around the world into the lives and parish home of the two priests, who live there now, Father Owen Moran, its pastor, and Father Alex Nevitt, who was called back to the Diocese from his graduate studies in Rome due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is clear that the priests are long-time friends, as they sit around their kitchen or fireplace, talking with great humor and insight about their families, childhoods, vocations, interests and faith — even as Father Nevitt makes a dessert on the stove and the Irish-born Father Moran teaches Gaelic words.

“Bananas Foster is the best — but not if you are watching your waistline!” said Father Nevitt, who like Father Moran, worked as a professional chef before entering the seminary. He mixes ingredients of the dessert into a saucepan, including butter, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Later, Father Nevitt pours the contents into one bowl filled with generous lumps of vanilla ice cream and one without for Father Moran, who gave it up for Lent.

Meanwhile in that episode, Father Owen teaches viewers a Gaelic word appropriate for the terrific treat: “Flaithulach” — or “more than you could possibly eat.” During their informal “chat show,” he also imparts a lesson for fasting in Lent: “Food is good but if we can say ‘no’ to something that is good for us, then that gives us control, so we can say, ‘no’ to things that aren’t good for us.”

St. Luke’s “From the Rectory” is one of many videos that parishes and clergy have been posting on YouTube or on social media to help their parishioners get through these difficult times with the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent self-quarantine in their homes. These videos — which range from talks straight into the camera and conversations between people to skits — offer viewers anything from a diversion from the fears and uncertainties of today — like St. Luke’s series — to dynamic pep talks to remind people to stay rooted in their faith and trust in Jesus that this virus will be conquered. In many instances, these videos have been supplementing the private Masses and other religious services that parishes already have been live-streaming online.

“The news about the virus is serious, but all of that can bring us down. ‘From the Rectory’ is meant to show the lives of priests and to be light-hearted to take people’s minds off the situation. Father Alex and I have a beautiful friendship — between a senior priest of 30 years and a junior priest of less than a year. It’s great to be able to share that fraternity with others,” said Father Moran, former pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish, East Hanover, where he first met Father Nevitt. “People are loving the show,” he said.

Every day, Father Nevitt sets up his camera and then hits “record” for an unscripted conversation with only a brief discussion about that episode’s topic beforehand. Some videos also feature St. Luke’s staff members as guests to talk about their respective ministries, said Father Nevitt, who is studying for a licentiate in spiritual theology with a specialization in vocational formation at the St. Peter Favre Centre for Formators to the Priesthood and Religious Life at Gregorian University in Rome.

In Madison, diocesan Hispanic Ministry has taken to social media to post videos to give Spanish-speaking Catholics some encouragement in the midst of the crisis with a series of two-minute videos called “Messages of Hope.” Local priests and lay leaders have been recording reflections that “include Scripture and are inspiring and positive,” said Ivannia Vega-McTighe, the Diocese’s assistant director of evangelization.

“We cannot receive the Eucharist right now but the Church can still fill people’s hunger for God’s Word and give people hope. Today we cannot see each other but we still need to be uplifted. Because the Diocese is small, viewers of ‘Messages of Hope’ will recognize some familiar faces [featured in videos],” Vega-McTighe said.

For the Feast of the Annunciation last week, Luis Carlos Mendez, a candidate for the diocesan Permanent Diaconate from St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany, recorded a message from his car on lunch break from work.

“With our faith in God, this too shall pass. We are all called to say ‘yes’ in difficult situations to be positive and encouraging to each other. We have to trust in God,” Mendez says.

Like St. Luke’s, St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Mountain Lakes went for some laughs with its video, “Quarantine at the Rectory,” a fictional day-by-day documentary of the rectory residents’ experience of self-isolation. It shows such made-up hijinks as Father Jared Brogan, pastor, and Sebastian Munoz, a seminarian there, trying to make some money by selling religious items found in the room of Father Michal Rybinski, parochial vicar.

“We are all doing well in the rectory. Our prayer is that you are doing well at home and with your families,” Father Brogan says at the end of the video, available on YouTube. “In as much as we are away from each other and ‘social distancing,’ I hope at this time, that we are able to draw our ear closer to one person in particular: God.”

In Rockaway Township, Father Giovanni Rodriguez, pastor of St. Clement Pope & Martyr Parish, uses his limitless energy to urge people to take up his “do not complain” challenge in “A Minute with Father Gio,” a video on the parish Facebook page.

“Our response [to the pandemic] as Catholics is to believe in God, Jesus. We need to be positive, because there is no other way to survive,” said Father Rodriquez, who invited faithful to join him for online Masses and rosary at St. Clement’s. “I believe in God. I trust in him. I know that we are going to be inside again [as he pointed to the church off- camera]. Let’s pray together to stay together as a family of God,” he said.