Dominican priest begins ministry at Juan Diego CHS

Friday, Sep. 30, 2016

DRAPER — Campus ministry at Juan Diego Catholic High School gained a regular priestly presence at the beginning of the academic year as Dominican Father Jacek Buda began his assignment there.

Fr. Jacek belongs to the Polish Dominican Province, which works with the Western Dominican Province in the United States, primarily in campus ministry. In Utah, three other priests from the Western Dominican Province minister at St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center in Salt Lake City. One of them, Father Dominic Briese, serves as the chaplain for Judge Memorial Catholic High School.

In addition, Dominican Father Denis Reilly is the parochial vicar at Saint John the Baptist Parish.  

Fr. Jacek arrived in Salt Lake City on Aug. 12. He was formed and ordained in the Polish Dominican Province, where he worked as a priest for five years before being sent to New York, where he was director of campus ministry at Columbia University. Other assignments took him to a Catholic high school in Minnesota, the University of Virginia, the University of Arizona and the University of Oregon.

Regardless of their location, college students “often are struggling with the same question of, first of all, figuring out the university, and secondly, more importantly, life,” he said.

Acknowledging that each campus minister has his or her own approach, and that much depends on the people and the university, Fr. Jacek said his vision is that campus ministry should offer a place where students can pray at any time; it should be a location that “explains itself to whoever comes that this is a place where God is.”

In addition, campus ministry should be a “religious Catholic think tank where all kinds of debate happens” on social, cultural and artistic issues, he said.

He finds it “a little disturbing that very often you have a very small percentage of students that actually are in [college] campus ministry come from Catholic high schools,” he said, adding that Juan Diego CHS is unique because administrators have the “courage to employ resources to work on building the identity of students with huge respect for the students’ freedom – which doesn’t mean lack of direction, lack of education, lack of respect, it just means with a deep conviction that whatever is worth it in life is built on human freedom.”

In addition to celebrating the Masses arranged by students in campus ministry at JDCHS, Fr. Jacek also tries to be an advisor, encouraging students and attending school events, he said, adding that he thinks along the same lines as Dave Brunetti, director of campus life at JDCHS, that their job is to help the students form their own ideas and put them into action. 

“The most effective ministry is the students meeting each other,” Fr. Jacek said.

For his part, Brunetti said having Fr. Jacek on campus every day is a blessing because “he brings with him the wisdom gained from years of youth ministry along with his smile and warmth. He quickly is finding his place at JD as he lives the Gospel just by being himself. He is a great role model for our students – Catholic and non-Catholic alike.”

At the Newman Center in Salt Lake City, Fr. Jacek leads the RCIA program and a young adult book group, and participates in the monthly Christ in the City program, which meets for adoration and prayer at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

Born and raised in Poland, Fr. Jacek originally wanted to be a fighter pilot, but in the sixth grade he had to start wearing glasses. He became a mountain guide, and joined the Polish Dominican Province because “it seemed that was the most challenging and the most radical thing I could come up with.” 

The men in his order “saw themselves as going to the ends of the world, and that struck me as very interesting, as very challenging. … My brothers from my country work in more than 20 countries at this point,” he said. 

Adding to the appeal were that the Dominicans are an old monastic community, but “at the same time they were men who were involved in the cutting edge of debates about politics in Poland. … They were writing fantastic things. They were very present in Polish intellectual life,” he said. “That seemed like something I wanted to be, if they would have me.”