Print Issue: May 2, 2002

'It's Social Security,' Father Dan Stack Shares 'The Good Life' By Supporting Vocations

By Dorothy Humanitzki, Special To The Bulletin

CARTERSVILLE - For Father Daniel Stack, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Cartersville, supporting young men in their study for the priesthood is a way of guaranteeing his own future. "If I want to rest when I'm 70, I have to make sure there will be other priests to take my place," he says. "I call it another Social Security," he added with a laugh.

Father Stack enjoys the priesthood, "It's been a good life," he said, and he is eager to share it with others.

He first became involved with Catholic Near East Welfare Association's seminarian sponsorship program about 12 years ago. (CNEWA is a papal agency supporting the churches and people of the Middle East, Northeast Africa, India and Eastern Europe.) Father Stack was assigned a seminarian, P. Victor, who was studying for the Diocese of Varamasi, near Delhi. The young man was ordained in 1995, and Father Stack traveled to India to share the joy. He also took the opportunity to meet his new seminarian, Varghese Kodithara of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in Kerala, in southern India.

Young Varghese's parents were members of a Protestant congregation, the Church of South India. They were attracted to the Syro-Malankara Church (an Eastern Catholic body in full communion with the Church of Rome) by observing the missionary spirit of its priests. That spirit encouraged them to join the church with their family.

Father Stack returned to India last December to attend Father Kodithara's first Mass in the mission chapel at Kadappanamoodu, a small village where he had grown up. The small church could not contain the many people who were eager to attend the Mass celebrated by the young man they had watched grow up. A platform had to be erected in front of the church to accommodate the overflow. It was a gala occasion, Father Stack said, with Father Varghese's pastor presiding over the festivities that followed the Mass.

The priest from the United States was impressed with the young Indian. "He had changed," said Father Stack, "from being a country boy into a serious young man ready to serve his people."

Born some 48 years ago in Hialeah, Fla., Father Stack considers himself a "child of the South." He attended public schools there and was graduated from the University of Florida in 1976, with a specialization in building construction. He worked for a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps before applying to the Archdiocese of Atlanta for admission to its seminary program.

He studied at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, and at the Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach, Fla., and was ordained in 1982. He describes his experiences at the Josephinum as one of "culture shock." Though he had been reared a Catholic, he was unprepared for the other young men whom he describes as "culturally Catholic." By this he means that they were more immersed in the history and rituals of the church.

His first assignment was to the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, for three years. Other assignments followed: Holy Family Parish in Marietta; St. Bernadette's in Cedartown; St. Joseph's in Dalton, and St. Anna's in Monroe. He was transferred to St. Francis about a year ago.

He has enjoyed his various appointments in Georgia parishes and is quick to point out that Dalton is the broadloom capital of the United States. Many of the mills of the northeast, he said relocated to the south because of cheaper labor. There also have been demographic changes affecting his own ministry. The Latino population is increasing, he observes, and most of the newcomers are Mexican. He sees the church in the United States moving away from its Italian and Irish roots toward a new frontier of serving Spanish-speaking congregations.

With the inroads many evangelical churches are making among Latinos, he said, the next few years will be crucial if the Catholic Church is to maintain its presence among these traditionally Catholic populations.

Father Stack's support of seminarians continues. Aware of the need to encourage vocations among Latinos so this growing population can be better served, he is currently sponsoring Ramiro Tomas from Guatemala, who is a third-year theology student at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y.

Father Stack equates his "investing" in seminarians with investing in the stock market. "What is safe? What is the best return? I cannot imagine any investment that would have given me a better return."

Summing up his interest in fostering vocations, Father Stack said, "It's an expensive hobby but it's cheaper than golf."

Miss Humanitzki is feature writer at CNEWA.