The end of a community

As the Rev. Charlie Prost prepares to leave St. Vincent de Paul Parish, the belongings he's packing away include warm memories of the church community he has served the past five years.

"The outreach ministries the church is doing here are really exceptional, just wonderful," he said. "I've met people in church involved in the ministries that a lot of Catholics -- and non-Catholics -- were really beneficiaries of this kind of generosity and sharing. I have wonderful memories I will take with me."

The parish expects more than 800 people to attend a celebration Sunday at the Arena Building to bid farewell to Prost and to honor about 170 years of work by the Vincentian order.

Those years are coming to an end because the Vincentians are leaving the local church. The Rev. Derek Swanson, the associate pastor, is already gone. Prost is the only one left to tie up loose ends until Aug. 11, when two new priests from the Cape Girardeau/Springfield Diocese move in. The Rev. David Hulshof and the new associate pastor, the Rev. Rahab Isidore, have already met with Prost and discussed ways to make a seamless transition.

"Things really won't change that much in what we do day to day," said pastoral associate Florence Harold. "We will continue to be St. Vincent de Paul Church. We will continue with that heritage."

Parishioners will continue the Vincentian tradition of social outreach programs -- to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and lift up those who are downtrodden.

Project Hope will continue its mentoring program, Harold said. The Horizon Enrichment Center will continue working with people with disabilities.

The church will continue serving a monthly meal, and its clothes closet will remain open. Those who come to Mass will continue bringing food to be distributed to food banks.

But gone will be the community in which the Vincentians live and work as brothers. There will no longer be the connections, Harold said, to other Vincentian activities, to the long Vincentian history in the St. Louis area, to the seminary at Perryville, Mo., and to a Vincentian seminary in Kenya and to various ministries.

"We will still be aware, but we will not be sharing the same leadership to all those places," Harold said.

Vincentian priests and brothers have had a presence in Cape Girardeau since the parish was founded in 1836. Two years before that, the Rev. John Timon rode from Perryville to Cape Girardeau on horseback to hold Mass.

Two years after the first Vincentian priest arrived in Cape Girardeau, the idea for St. Vincent's College was developed. For decades, Vincentian brothers taught at the school to prepare young boys -- Prost among them -- to enter the Vincentian priesthood.

Vincentians live in a community, but lately the local community has diminished. The college is long gone. Harold said it has been years since a Vincentian brother has worked in this area. Prost said earlier this year the Vincentians' three-part mission -- to serve the poor, maintain a common life among the priests and brothers in the order, and to grow in spirituality -- was becoming difficult. Both he and Swanson were busy with the first part but unable to work on the other two.

While Prost waits to be assigned a new job he will remain at the Vincentian community in Perryville, filling in as a supply priest wherever he is needed. It's also a chance for him to enjoy a much-needed vacation.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to regroup and do some of the things I've been wanting to do for awhile," he said.

Prost said he wants to catch up on some of his reading and exercise more.

He said he has no idea what lies in store for him after his assignment in Perryville, but wherever he is sent he will go willingly. It's part of the Vincentian mission to be able to move when needed.

"The service of the larger community in the spirit of God at work will work out, and wherever I end up is OK," he said.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160

Want to go?

What: St. Vincent de Paul celebration

Where: Arena Building

When: 10:30 a.m. Sunday, followed by a short slide presentation of Vincentian history, followed by a catered lunch of kettle beef, chicken and dumplings.