7/1/22

Hello Blog Readers,

The next phase of my job here in the Upper Peninsula has commenced, and it’s a fun one!

As you may know, I am the new Executive Director of Stewardship and Development for the Diocese of Marquette. It is a very exciting career that is equal parts traveling about, evangelizing, meeting with Catholic communities in various areas, understanding each community’s stories and needs, and working with staff, priests, nonprofits, endowments, and donors to meet those needs. The Diocese’s jurisdiction is huge, encompassing the entire Upper Peninsula. It consists of nearly 10 Catholic schools, over 90 churches, and several other Catholic institutions. As with other Diocesan reaches in the country, the area is split into ecclesiastical regions called “vicariates.” Here, we have 7 vicariates. Before this week, my travels in the UP were limited to the St. Peter Cathedral Vicariate, which makes up the regions around Marquette (the brown area on the map). Today though, work allowed me to travel to meet the Catholic community in another vicariate: The Most Holy Name of Jesus Vicariate. If you are not deeply entrenched in the Catholic world, then this place has a different name: the legendary Keweenaw Peninsula.

The Keweenaw is the narrow strip of land in the UP that juts north into the waters of Lake Superior. It is home to two colleges (Michigan Tech and Finlandia), Indian reservations, Russian Orthodox and Ukrainian monasteries, and several small towns that feel more like cities than villages, but that you soon learn are sparsely populated and largely empty (more on that later). The area also boasts some of the cleanest air and most impressive winters in the country. It averages an unfathomable 300+ inches of snow per year.

I never understood how Yoopers could call Marquette the ‘big city’ here in the UP, but now I understand. Living in the Keweenaw takes grit and a bit of an adventurous streak, as it is a place where you truly feel detached from the world (even cell service is a rarity in the area). You can walk for miles on its beaches and mountains without seeing a soul. But it is also a place where the people are immensely kind and just…happy and seemingly detoxified of the fast-paced stress that grips much of the modern world. In my short time there I feel like I have already started several great friendships. This may have been my first trip up to the Keweenaw, but it certainly will not be my last. I hope to be a regular presence up there over the years to come.

Of course, I was not up there just to travel and have fun, but to actually do my job. So this post might be better entitled “Catholic Churches of the Keweenaw,” because I traveled to a whole bunch of them.

My journey to the Keweenaw started in the Houghton/Hancock area. Houghton and Hancock are two towns (really just one town separated by a canal), and they are located right in the middle of the Keweenaw. The towns are home to Michigan Tech and Finlandia University, which add a whole lot of student population to the area and give the place a feeling that in many ways is even more refined and urban than Marquette. It is also home to many nice houses and vacation rentals that are nestled in the valley and that have their boats parked in docks on the canal. The canal separating the towns is called the Portage Canal, which provides a shortcut for ships that do not want to go all the way around the Keweenaw when navigating Lake Superior. Anyways, the area looks like this:

I was in Houghton for a meeting with Father Ben and his team at his Houghton-area parish, St. Albert the Great. Fr. Ben is a rockstar in our Diocese – a priest of intelligent and deep conversation (while also somehow remaining extremely pragmatic in his ways, sporting one heck of a beard and loving the outdoors); and he is also an excellent fundraiser, evangelizer, and encourager of vocations and campus ministry. His assistant and newly-minted director, Allison, is stepping up to the task of managing data and communications for Fr. Ben’s sprawling ministry, and her fiancé has also done a lot for evangelization and mission-based work in our Diocese. I can’t recall if this was my second or third time meeting with Fr. Ben and Allison, but it was my first time meeting them on their turf. Every time that we meet it is a fantastic and productive conversation, as Fr. Ben retains a laser focus on the needs of both his area and the needs of the Diocese in general. He carries a lot of insight in how best to reach the people, and I feel that I spend most of my time just listening to what he has to say. I almost wish that he and Allison were stationed closer to Marquette, so that we could have brainstorm meetings like the one we had all of the time, but it was still great getting to spend a morning sitting on St. Albert’s bucolic porch there in Houghton, enjoying the cool air, sipping coffee and talking shop. I wouldn’t have traded the hour conversation for the world.

Following our meeting, I headed across the Portage to Hancock to pick up Father Jubish, another priest in the Houghton/Hancock area, and we headed south to a town called L’Anse to attend the ‘vicariate gathering.’ The gathering provided an opportunity for Keweenaw-area priests and deacons to relax with a few parishioners, and offered great fellowship, conversation, and food. It was a good afternoon, and it gave me the opportunity to introduce myself to some of the locals. I am greatly thankful for the invitation to attend!

Next on my agenda was to travel to Calumet, which remained my home base from Wednesday evening to Friday morning. There I was meeting Deacon Jeremiah, who I am already happy to call a friend up here in Michigan.

I met Deacon Jeremiah under what many might call questionable circumstances. Recently, the Diocese sent out an email blast introducing me to the community. Shortly after the email blast went out, I received an email from Deacon Jeremiah. In it, he addressed me as ‘bro,’ which seemed like kind of a bizarre way for a deacon to address the executive director of his church, and then invited me to go hang out with him and some dudes at Presque Isle for some brews. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well and so had to decline that invitation, but when I was planning my trip up to the Keweenaw I reached out to him thinking we could grab a beer while I was in his neck of the woods. Instead, he insisted that I crash at his place while up there and promised that we would “broh down.” I shared the email with my assistant Ella, to get the dates on my calendar, and she found it hilarious.

Anyways, it turns out that Deacon Jeremiah and I share a lot of similarities in our life trajectories. He’s right around my age, just a couple years older than me, but like the version of me up to 2021, he opted for a life of humble service in his hometown. He never got married, lives in his childhood home that he bought off his parents, works as a historic archivist for the National Park Service in Calumet, and has been growing ever deeper in his faith over the years. That journey led him to formation and to recently becoming a deacon. Who knows, he may even become a priest one day. Time and God will tell.

As for his town of Calumet, it is a place that carries a ton of history that I knew nothing about (indeed, so much history that it is a National Historic Site and local regional office for the National Park Service). It was, for a long time, known as mecca for the copper mining world and even the native populations in the area had mined the spot for copper going back thousands of years. Fortunes you can only dream of were built here by east coast business tycoons. They sent much of their money back home, and their fortunes financed the development of Boston and her now elite universities, including Harvard University’s libraries and science departments in the early 20th century. Historic and tragic union battles were fought here, and over the long run the place went from being one of the great small cities in 1800s-early 1900s America with a population of approximately 40,000, to today having a population of only about 4000. It definitely is a surreal feeling going through the town, as you can see it as the bustling city that it once was…but now it is largely empty. For some reason I can see the place as being a prophecy of the long term trajectory of many, many American towns, and it makes me wonder what it is that we are actually trying to build or accomplish here in America. What sort of communities is it that we are chasing? I can tell you one thing: to build up places like these, ravage them for their natural resources and beauty, and then to abandon them is quite possibly the greatest of our American sins.

As for ‘brohing down’ with the good Deacon? The first night consisted of stormy weather, sipping bourbon, hot dogs, a pretty pathetic bonfire on an otherwise abandoned beach, a Ukrainian monastery in the distance, the majesty of Lake Superior at her most remote, and wonderful conversation about theology, philosophy, life trajectories, and what it’s like to be resolute in your faith in the 21st century. Excellent times in my book, and I was happy to make a new friend with a fellow old soul. The accommodations were pretty cool too and felt kind of like a museum because of all of the antiques and old books; I suppose that makes sense for a NPS archivist.

That was day one! Day two started with Deacon Jeremiah heading off to work and me heading off to Mass at St. Paul’s in Calumet. St. Paul’s is one of the most beautiful parishes in our Diocese and clearly a place that was designed with a whole bunch of copper money back in the day. Its exterior also looked SO familiar – it was almost identical to Sacred Heart back in Red Bluff.

The Mass was being celebrated by Father Gracious, a priest from India with whom I was spending the day. After Mass, we had breakfast and just enjoyed a day of fellowship together, seeing the different churches under his large pastoral assignment, stopping by the Monastery I kept seeing (the monks there make amazing jams and fruitcakes), and discussing life. He was actually a highly successful priest back in India and oversaw the building of a massive Catholic project back there (he was so successful, I wonder why he doesn’t have my job!). He came to America planning to start work on a PhD, but in the last moments was assigned up here. When he saw his assignment and schedule versus the schedule for the program he was hoping for, he realized that he had to give up on the PhD and just focus on his assignment. The story sounded almost identical to what happened to me with the Master’s I was hoping to work on at NMU!

Anyways, he said that the first year was very difficult. He felt defeated not being able to chase his dream, especially because his mother back home was sick and he could not be with her. But at some point he came to an epiphany: there is so much knowledge in the world, and so many today have advanced degrees. And yet, there are so few priests, and many of those who are doctors, lawyers, and professors in today’s world are not seeking each other for further knowledge, but are seeking out the priests for what has become rare in today’s world: wisdom. In other words, he did not need a PhD. He was needed just as is. Just as a priest. Just as someone who chases wisdom, not degrees. It’s a brilliant (and true) deduction that he got to through prayer and faith, and he said that now he is loving his assignment and loving working with and helping people on a daily basis. I had a great day with Father Gracious, and I feel that I made yet another friend up in the Keweenaw.

After saying goodbye to Father Gracious, I explored the local beaches a bit more and then grabbed dinner with Deacon Jeremiah and some parishioners in Eagle River. The restaurant had great bbq, apparently great whitefish (I’m allergic to it…), and sunset views of Lake Superior that were nearly indistinguishable from sunset views on the California coastline. I might have to take my parents here next time they are in the area. The Eagle River area also had some pristine wilderness and river views. It was a great time, and once again spent with some great company.

Finally this morning, it was Mass again at another beautiful, local church: St. Joseph’s in Lake Linden. From there, it was journeying home, back to Marquette. When I got back, Everyday Wines (our local wine shop) let me know that the Bussola wine I requested from Italy had arrived and that it was already becoming quite popular here in town (you’re welcome, Marquette!). I snagged a few bottles for myself, and now it’s time to gear up for Fourth of July weekend here in the UP. God is good!

Thank you to the Catholic community of the Keweenaw for going out on a limb and hosting this Diocesan bureaucrat! You have given me a new outlook on the depth of our faith and the ties in our various vicariates, and you will be in my thoughts and prayers. I promise to be back soon.

Cheers,

-Rob