November 13, 2024

Editor’s note: Due to space constraints two stories from last week’s Vocations Awareness Week edition were moved to this week’s publication. The following is the first of those stories.

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

Father Amruta Kumar Pasala, pastor of the Catholic Community of Burke and Chateaugay, the Catholic Community of Constable, Westville and Trout River, and St. Mary’s of the Fort Church, said he’s seen the goodness of God throughout his life, and he feels blessed to share that with the people of the North Country.

“I always speak about what God has done in my life,” he said, smiling. “It’s the only thing I can say.

Father Pasala, from the Diocese of Cuddapah, India, said his early faith was inspired by a priestwho was in India as a missionary.

“I didn’t understand anything growing up,” Father Pasala began. “I realized there was a priest from Scotland, Father Francis Crumblish with Mill Hill Missionaries. Priests who did not know the language came to our place, and they would learn the language and begin to serve our people. (Father Crumblish) started a mission from scratch. He had nothing, had to buy the land – 60 acres of land. It was a cent for an acre. He would get around by bicycle. To buy the land, he had to sacrifice his bicycle. What a sacrifice that was for a priest who was not born in our place. He came all the way from Scotland and sacrificed his bicycle to buy land to establish a parish.”

Through the generosity of the local people and the efforts of that priest, Father Pasala said a parish was born, and that parish eventually became the center of the Diocese of Cuddapah.

Father Pasala said he was inspired by Father Crumblish’s trust in God and his willingness to sacrifrice.

“His faith and his vision for the diocese were so immeasurable,” he said. “He said, ‘someday, there will be priests from this place, religious sisters.’ Over 50 years, there have been 25 priests, 25 religious and one bishop from that parish. It’s the fruit of that man who sacrificed for our betterment.”

After he felt God urging him to the priesthood, completed his studies and was ordained, Father Pasala said he spent 10 years growing in his ministry before asking to go on mission like Father Crumblish.

“First, I was asked if I was interested in going to Spain,” he said. “I went for three months to Marbella, which translates to ‘by the side of the sea.’ I learned to celebrate Mass in Spanish, and I learned to read and write (in Spanish). I had hoped to be there for 10 years or more, but it didn’t work out. After three months, I came back (to India).”

He then asked his bishop if he could pursue mission work in the United States.

“In 2017, on the thirtieth of May, I landed in Alaska,” Father Pasala said. “It was not so much a cultural shock as a weather shock. For six months, you don’t see the sun, then the opposite. And it was 14.5 hours difference from India.”

Father Pasala said ministry in Alaska was challenging, with weather and geography limiting his access to some of the faithful. After two years there, he returned to India to aid his mother, who had contracted COVID and suffered a prolonged illness.

Once his mother recovered, he applied to come to the Diocese of Ogdensburg, which he had heard of through a friend.

“So far, so good,” he said of his experience here in the North Country so far. “It’s better than Alaska. Winter is not as bad as in Alaska. The communities here are amazing! There are some little things I think need to be changed. I come here (St. Francis of Assisi Church, Constable) every evening – some time to pray, time to spend time with the Lord and bring it to Him. If I do it on my own, I make a mess. I ask, ‘give me the wisdom to lead these people in the right way, not getting into division, making unity among three churches.”

Father Pasala says he also tries to share Christ with his communities.

“My charism is taken from Galatians 2:20,” he said. “’It is no longer I who live, but Jesus Christ who lives in me.’ We all need to take time to say that. Every thought, word, deed, we should want to become like Christ. Some days, I can say that like St. Paul. Some days – fail, fail, fail, and I don’t know that I can say that. It always takes time.”

In trying to live that, Father Pasala said it’s important to him to get to know the people of the parishes he serves.

“Everybody is important to me,” he said. “From the smallest child and infant to the oldest and homebound. Everyone is important to me, and I’m trying to learn names. I’m very bad at it. The church is not always receiving, like money. We also give.”

Father Pasala said he’s grateful for the warm reception he’s received from Bishop Terry R. LaValley, from his fellow priests and from the communities he serves.

He also said he’s glad he’s able to serve here in the North Country while continuing to serve his neighbors back home in India.

“I was born on the feast day of St. Monica,” he explained. “She’s closely attached to St. Ambrose of Milan. Through his preaching and teaching, God changed St. Augustine. I started the St. Ambrose Charitable Trust for nomadics, widows and orphans – ACT NOW. A tenth of my salary goes to that purpose – to feed those people and help them.”

Father Pasala said he prays he can continue to lean on God as he leads his faith communities moving forward.

“If I’m not doing the work of God with all my heart, my mind and my soul, I don’t think those endeavors will be blessed,” he said. “The bishop invited me here. I pray, ‘Lord, help me. Help me to help the people I can through my ministry. Everything is God. I have no regrets and no future plans.”