An engineer before he became a priest, (Vincentian) Father Kilburn now teaches furniture-making to Hopi men.High atop the Antelope Mesa overlooking the Hopi Reservation, Vincentian Father Clay Kilburn walks quietly among the dusty ruins of the ancient village of Awatovi.
…Father Kilburn came to work with the mesa villages of the Hopi Reservation in 1997 when his province of the Congregation of the Missions (commonly called the Vincentians because of their founder, St. Vincent de Paul) accepted an invitation to come to the Diocese of Gallup.
The bishop, Most Reverend Donald Pelotte, SSS, needed a pastor for St. Joseph Mission in Keams Canyon, Ariz., the only church on the Hopi Reservation.
The special charism of the Vincentians is dedication to the poor, especially the needy in remote and underprivileged areas of the world. Father Kilburn had worked with communities in India and Africa, but nothing could have prepared him for the journey of understanding and reconciliation that he would face in his work on the mesas.
….The Vincentian Father also has found inspiration for his own faith life from the people he serves. The Hopi Catholics he sees impress him as people of strong faith. “Their faith has to be very strong to keep it.” One family in his parish drives 40 miles each way to church.
“Hopi Catholics have to have a strong faith. Their culture involves everybody and when you choose something different, like being Catholic, it takes a lot of faith to stick with it,” says Father Kilburn. “I admire their faith.”
For the full story in Extension Magazine visit http://catholic-extension.com/magazine/contentview.asp?c=17180
