(RNS) A Catholic priest who was pulled from ministry after a furor over denying Communion to a lesbian at her mother's funeral insists he did the right thing and criticized the Washington archdiocese for disciplining him.

“I did the only thing a faithful Catholic priest could do in such an awkward situation, quietly, with no intention to hurt or embarrass,” the Rev. Marcel Guarnizo said of his decision to withhold Communion from Barbara Johnson during a Feb. 25 funeral Mass for Johnson's mother.

Guarnizo, who issued a statement to conservative Catholic news outlets on Wednesday (March 14), explained that he left the altar for a few minutes during the funeral and did not accompany the family to the cemetery because a migraine attack had left him “incapacitated.”

While both sides offer differing accounts, Guarnizo said he learned moments before the funeral at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, Md., that Johnson was a lesbian and was attending the Mass with her partner. Guarnizo refused Johnson Communion when she approached the altar during the liturgy.

The Archdiocese of Washington said the priest's action was a violation of church policy because he had not spoken in detail with Johnson beforehand to be able to make a proper determination of her status. The archdiocese later placed Guarnizo on administrative leave, citing “intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others that is incompatible with proper priestly ministry” in unrelated incidents.

In his statement, Guarnizo accused archdiocesan officials of treating him unfairly, and said “the lack of clarity on this most basic issue puts at risk other priests who wish to serve the Catholic Church in Washington, D.C.”

Guarnizo said that he denied Communion to Johnson — a baptized Catholic — on the same basis that he would have denied it to a “Quaker, a Lutheran or a Buddhist,” or someone who “had shown up in my sacristy drunk, or high on drugs.”

(RNS) Last Sunday (March 11), Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman appeared for apparently the last time before some 800 people at the morning service of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif.

For members of the extended Schuller family who had built and shepherded the iconic megachurch into the spiritual home for 10,000 members, so much had changed:

– Faced with staggering debts and a bankruptcy filing, the glass building was recently sold to the local Catholic diocese, but can remain Protestant in the short term.

– The staff had dropped from 350 to 200, including the recent firings of Coleman’s sister, husband and brother-in-law, who had all worked on its “Hour of Power” broadcasts.

– Just the day before, her parents, Robert H. and Arvella Schuller, had departed the ministry they started more than 50 years ago, citing a multimillion-dollar fight with its board.

As members of the Schuller family head in new directions — Coleman and brother-in law Jim Penner plan to start a new church this Sunday — the famous glass-walled church offers a cautionary tale of the potential pitfalls facing family-run ministries.

“If you have a family ministry, the health of the relationships within the family is key to whether the governance of the ministry is going to work well or not,” said the Rev. Wes Granberg-Michaelson, a former board member and former general secretary of the Reformed Church in America, the denomination of the Crystal Cathedral.

Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller, left, parted ways with his son, Robert A. Schuller, right, over the future direction of the “Hour of Power” television program in 2008.
Religion News Service photo courtesy Crystal Cathedral.

Granberg-Michaelson said the turning point for the ministry came when the family disputed who should take the reins of leadership as Robert H. Schuller prepared to step back as the public face of the ministry. Initially, Schuller wanted to see his son, Robert A. Schuller, take his place, and passed on the mantle of senior pastor in 2006.

Within two years, the younger Schuller left after he and his father could not agree on the ministry’s future direction. The next year, Coleman was chosen to handle administrative duties.

“I think that Robert A. could have carried that ministry and could have continued it,” said Granberg-Michaelson. “I also think that it would have been possible to find a person from the outside that would make that a mission-driven ministry and essentially a ministry that moved beyond the family. But neither one of those things happened.”

Miriam Carver, an Atlanta-based nonprofit governance consultant, tried to help the ministry in 2008. She advised the board that it was inappropriate to have board members who also were staffers and family members. “You can certainly see that phenomenon, but it’s really bad practice because it’s a conflict of interest,” she said. The board declined to implement her recommendations.

The lessons from the downfall of the Schullers’ ministry can be taught to a wide array of organizations, experts say.

“There’s always been a caution against nepotism in all kinds of work,” said Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Washington-based Ethics and Public Policy Center. “Why shouldn’t it also extend to Christian ministries?”

Part of the reason Catholicism embraced priestly celibacy was to avoid “complicated inheritance issues” that surfaced in medieval times when priests were allowed to marry, said Christopher Bellitto, a historian at Kean University in New Jersey.

Family domination of a church has become increasingly rare, said Dave Travis, CEO of Dallas-based Leadership Network. His church think tank finds many of the first-generation pastors of large churches are taking a different approach. “They’re not family-controlled churches, for the most part, and they don’t necessarily aspire for their children to follow them into the ministry or into the ministry in that same church,” he said.

To be sure, some inherited ministries can work, even thrive — Jonathan and Jerry Falwell Jr., Joel Osteen and even Franklin Graham have all taken the reins of their ministries from their famous fathers. Travis said the family problems were only a part of the downfall of Crystal Cathedral, which also was affected by the focus on its TV ministry and its imposing building.

(RNS) Sunset at Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. RNS file photo courtesy Creative Commons Website.

“They put a lot of stock in the building where they were,” he said. “As the neighborhood changed, they were kind of stuck there.”

Now located in a far more diverse area than the predominantly white one it was decades ago, the Crystal Cathedral finds that its Hispanic congregation is one of its most thriving ministries. But that, too, is changing: On April 1, it will begin meeting at the Anaheim Convention Center.

As the remnant of the dwindling Crystal Cathedral congregants contemplate their next steps, remaining leaders are urging them to stay put — and note that they will shun the contemporary flavor that Schuller’s daughter and son-in-law had supported.

“We invite everyone to join us next Sunday for worship in the Crystal Cathedral,” said John Charles, new chairman of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries’ board of directors, in a statement. “Since sharing this news with our congregation, we have received an outpouring of assurance and encouragement from numerous members of the congregation about their excitement over the return to the traditional worship style on which the ministry was founded.”

Whatever happens, the California church appears to be a shadow of its former self, when people across the globe would rave to Granberg-Michaelson during his travels about how they were helped by viewing Schuller’s “Hour of Power.”

“It touched countless people,” he said. “To see this come unraveled, it’s just a deep tragedy.”

A Catholic priest who allegedly denied Communion to a lesbian at her mother’s funeral has been put on leave pending an investigation of unrelated “intimidating behavior toward parish staff and others,” the Archdiocese of Washington said.

The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo, a priest from Moscow who has been serving in the archdiocese since last March, lost his assignment at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg, Md., on Friday.

Guarnizo made headlines when Barbara Johnson, a lesbian attending her mother’s funeral at the church, said he denied her Communion. At the time, the archdiocese said “issues regarding the suitability of an individual to receive Communion should be addressed by the priest with that person in a private, pastoral setting.”

Guarnizo’s removal is related to other issues and not the Communion incident, a diocesan spokeswoman said. The archdiocese said an official had received “credible allegations” of Guarnizo’s behavior that were considered “incompatible with proper priestly ministry.”

He was placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

“Given the grave nature of these allegations,” the archdiocese said, “Father Guarnizo is prohibited from exercising any priestly ministry in

the Archdiocese of Washington until all matters can be appropriately

resolved with the hope that he might return to priestly ministry.”

In a statement reported by The Washington Post, Johnson’s family said it understands the most recent events do not relate to the funeral but they hope the decision about Guarnizo “will ensure that no others will have to undergo the traumatic experiences brought upon our family.”

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is laying off 10 percent of its staff as it shifts resources to make online evangelism a priority.

Some 50 people on the 500-member staff will lose their jobs between mid-March and this summer, said Brent Rinehart, a BGEA spokesman, on Thursday (March 1).

About 20 of the affected staffers work at the association headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Others have worked as field staff across the globe or at The Cove, the BGEA’s training center in Asheville, N.C.

“It’s definitely not a reflection of the financial health of the organization,” Rinehart said. “It’s really more redeploying resources to focus on those areas of great impact.”

One of those areas is SearchforJesus.net, a website the BGEA launched last April that includes a real-time count of “decisions” people make to become Christians.

The ministry laid off 55 people in 2009 during tough economic times that affected numerous religious and nonreligious organizations.

Famed evangelist Billy Graham remains the chairman of the association he founded in 1950. His son, Franklin, runs the day-to-day operations as the CEO and president.

The ministry operates festivals, training and the Billy Graham Library in addition to its online outreach. The BGEA’s revenue dropped from $126 million in 2005 to $85.7 million in 2009, Rinehart said. In 2010, it totaled $91.6 million.

Imagine becoming an orphan at the age of 12. Then imagine that you were orphaned because your step dad murdered your mom in a drunken rage with your baseball bat.

Though this scenario seems like it could have come out of a novel, it really happened to Dean Eric Smith.

His mother’s death in 1986 left him empty inside and with an intense hatred of his stepfather. He began doing drugs and drinking to hide his pain.

Eventually, Dean became a Christian, and as amazing as it seems, with God’s help he was able to put aside his pain and hatred to forgive and even love his stepfather.

Dean’s amazing story was captured in the documentary Live to Forgive.

Recently, I got a chance to sit down with Dean and discuss the movie and his ministry.

TO: Whose idea was the documentary? Why not just forgive your step dad without the cameras rolling?

DS: We were friends over the phone for over a year and talked about how powerful it would be for the others to get into our world to see what God can make possible. I was already a minister at the time. I had a vision of capturing our reconciliation.

So, I did forgive Bob years before the documentary, but the time we filmed, it was like reconciling with a friend who the world would find interesting. We knew it would bring God (not us) a lot of glory and that’s why we did it.

TO: Is it hard for you to watch the documentary?

DS: No, God had given me peace and comfort long before I travelled to Tennessee and filmed the documentary.

TO: God prompted you to forgive your dad. Can you tell us a little about that exchange? Did God tell you in a dream? A series of circumstances?

DS: I especially felt God’s prompting as my life got so bad, so low, and I was in so much misery, I realized that forgiveness was the only way out of a life spiraling downward.

TO: How has this film been received? What have other people been saying? Has anyone contacted you telling you how the film has affected them?

DS: Yes, hundreds of people around the country have contacted us about how the movie has inspired them, and motivated them to boldly choose to begin the process of forgiveness

TO: How have you changed since you forgave your step dad? How about since making the documentary?

DS: I have broken free from oppression, addiction, and loneliness. Since the documentary, I’ve been blessed to have a radical impact on others so it has been extremely fulfilling.

TO: Have you established any kind of relationship with your step dad since you made this documentary?

DS: We were friend for 1-1/2 years before the documentary and that has continued since.

TO: In your opinion, why is forgiveness important to you? To God?

DS: It has set me free in countless areas of my life (spiritual, emotional, relational). Forgiveness is essential in receiving God’s best and being in His will. The whole purpose of the life and death of Jesus Christ was around our forgiveness.

TO: Now that you have forgiven the person who you probably felt who did you the most wrong, is it easier to forgive people for the things they do?

DS: Absolutely! The more experience and practice we get with forgiveness, we more clearly see the benefits and therefore are more prone to want to do it in light of the fact that the forgiver is the one who reaps the most reward. Also, being in God’s will (by forgiving) brings God’s best into your life.

TO: What advice would you give people struggling to forgive someone who hurt them?

DS: Pray to God and say, “God, please help me to forgive.” Talk to a pastor or someone who has experience with true forgiveness and learn from them quickly. The faster you forgive the faster you can be free from the past. I’d recommend people watch Live to Forgive to get the inspiration they need.

TO: It seems as if this documentary turned into a ministry. Tell me about your ministry. Tell me a little about the resources you offer on your website.

DS: I actually founded Live to Forgive Ministries a year before even thinking about the production of the movie. This is because in 2007, I was having a phone relationship with Bob (the man who murdered my mom).

I was also a Christian minister and felt God leading me to help other people find Christ-inspired forgiveness like I had. The ministry actually turned into a movie, which thereby helped promote the ministry.

To learn more about Dean’s ministry and the documentary, visit livetoforgive.com. Purchase the DVD from Amazon. 

As new students wandered onto the campus of Concordia Seminary last September, they were joined by another group of theological rookies — mostly midcareer types — joining the school’s program that allows students to train for the ministry online.

As the consultants, electricians, farmers and entrepreneurs in the Specific Ministry Pastor Program met up before reconnecting online from hundreds or thousands of miles away in the coming weeks, one student’s story truly rocked.

David Ellefson was an honest-to-God founding member of the legendary thrash metal band Megadeth.

Ellefson’s studies at Concordia illustrate why distance-learning seminary programs are increasingly popular nationwide as the convenience of online education brings new candidates to divinity schools who don’t have to uproot their lives to attend.

But for Ellefson, his new quest for the ministry is also about a peculiar foray through the apparent contradictions of rock and religion that began in his childhood.

Ellefson grew up in the church. Each Sunday, his family drove from their farm in southwest Minnesota to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, where David attended Sunday school and was confirmed at age 16. His mother sang in the choir; his father was active on the building committee.

Just a few years after his confirmation in the summer of 1983, Ellefson moved to Los Angeles. Within a week, he had formed a band and named it Megadeth for the unit of measurement equal to the death of 1 million people by nuclear explosion.

Soon, he was playing bass on stage in front of thousands of heavy metal fans in New York with other bands like Metallica and Slayer. In 1985, Megadeth released its first album, “Killing Is My Business … And Business Is Good!”

In the 1980s and 1990s, Megadeth gained a reputation for an intelligent take on heavy metal, earning several Grammy Award nominations, and was known for its album covers, many of which depicted a character named Vic Rattlehead, a skeleton whose eyes, ears and mouth were fused closed with metal.

But by the time Ellefson was 25, the rock star lifestyle had caught up to him. In a 12-step recovery program, he was reintroduced to his faith and embraced it. He moved to Arizona, married and had children. He eventually landed at Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran Church, a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod congregation in Scottsdale.

“I came from a good family, not a broken home,” said Ellefson, 47. “That became a model for me, and I saw church at (the) center of it.”

The Rev. Jon Bjorgaard, pastor of Shepherd of the Desert, asked Ellefson to start a contemporary worship service. Ellefson began to use lyrics from the Old Testament as a springboard for song writing, penning praise music and worship songs with a soft-rock hook.

“For a Christmas service, I remixed some classics, not quite in a Megadeth fashion, but in a pretty heavy rock fashion,” Ellefson said.

Combining his musical abilities and his faith led Ellefson to a deeper exploration of Christianity, he said. And it led him to start a new music ministry within the walls of Shepherd of the Desert.

He called it MEGA Life, partially a play on Megadeth. But it’s also a reference to a verse from the Gospel of John: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

MEGA Life became so popular that Shepherd of the Desert bought a new space for the ministry. Last year, Bjorgaard asked Ellefson and MEGA Life director Jeremy DaPena to enroll in Concordia’s Specific Ministry Pastor Program.

“Most people want to become a rock star,” Bjorgaard said. “David’s a rock star who wants to become a pastor.”

After two years at Concordia, Ellefson will be eligible for ordination, something he hopes will happen. “People take you more seriously when you’ve gone through the proper training to be able to help them,” he said.

David Wollenburg, director of Concordia’s distance learning, said more than 100 students are enrolled in the program, which is limited to students who have been sponsored by someone already working in the ministry. Classes include “Lutheran Distinctions,” “Preaching I & II,” “Introduction to Worship” and “Scripture and Faith.”

Wollenburg said students are as young as 35 and as old as late 60s, and their interests are just as varied — from church planting to inner-city ministries. Students return to campus every so often for “residential retreats.”

The trend of distance learning at divinity schools “is definitely growing,” said Eliza Brown of the Association of Theological Schools, the accreditation body for U.S. seminaries. But there is some debate about its merits, she said.

“Some feel you can’t be adequately formed as a church leader unless you’re engaged in a residential program that has serious face-to-face formation components,” she said. Despite that concern, 124 seminaries accredited by the organization offer some form of distance education.

As Megadeth kicks off a new tour with Motorhead, Ellefson plans to tackle his studies during down time on the Megadeth tour bus with his laptop and some books. He’s under no illusion about how difficult it will be.

“This is going to be the acid test,” he said.

Classes begin each Monday, and on Tuesday nights, Ellefson and eight other students wired in from around the country sit in on a two-hour live session with a professor teaching from a Concordia classroom. Once a week, he meets with Bjorgaard to discuss that week’s work. Finally, late in the week, he uploads his homework for the professor to grade.

“It makes higher education possible for me,” he said. “As a guy my age, to be involved in any kind of higher learning is a great thing. And so far, it’s worked.”

Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments has threatened to arrest church leaders if they carry out evangelistic activities and do not comply with an order for churches to provide their names and contact information, Christian sources said.

The warning in a Jan. 3 letter to church leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) arrived a few days after Sudan President Omar al-Bashir told cheering crowds on Jan. 3 that, following the secession of largely non-Islamic south Sudan last July, the country’s constitution will be more deeply entrenched in sharia (Islamic law).

“We will take legal procedures against pastors who are involved in preaching or evangelistic activities,” Hamid Yousif Adam, undersecretary of the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment, wrote to the church leaders. “We have all legal rights to take them to court.”

Sources said the order was aimed at oppressing Christians amid growing hostilities toward Christianity.

“This is a critical situation faced by our church in Sudan,” said the Rev. Yousif Matar, secretary general of the SPEC.

Another church leader said the order was another in a series of measures by the government to control churches.

“They do not want pastors from South Sudan to carry on any church activities or mission work in Sudan,” he said.

Sudanese law prohibits missionaries from evangelizing, and converting from Islam to another religion is punishable by imprisonment or death in Sudan, though previously such laws were not strictly enforced. The government has never carried out a death sentence for apostasy, according to the U.S. State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report.

Christians are facing growing threats from both Muslim communities and Islamist government officials who have long wanted to rid Sudan of Christianity, Christian leaders told Compass. They said Christianity is now regarded as a foreign religion following the departure of 350,000 people, most of them Christians, to South Sudan following the July 9, 2011 secession.

Sudan’s Interim National Constitution (INC) holds up sharia as a source of legislation, and the laws and policies of the government favor Islam, according to the state department report. Christian leaders said they fear the government is tightening controls on churches in Sudan and planning to force compliance with Islamic law as part of a strategy to eliminate Christianity.

As he has several times in the past year, Al-Bashir on Jan. 3 once again warned that Sudan’s constitution will be more firmly entrenched in sharia.

“We are an Islamic nation with sharia as the basis of our constitution,” he told crowds in Kosti, south of Khartoum. “We will base our constitution on Islamic laws.”

His government subsequently issued the decree ordering church leaders to provide names and contact information of church leaders in Sudan, sources said. Christian leaders said the government is retaliating for churches’ perceived pro-West position.

Muslim scholars have urged heavy-handed measures against Christians to Al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Hostilities

Christians in (north) Sudan celebrated last Christmas amid several threats from officials in Khartoum, and some followers of Christ were arrested for their faith, sources said.

Yasir Musa of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC) was arrested along with two other church members by national security agents in Khartoum on Dec. 23; they were detained because they were Christians and therefore suspected supporters of southern military forces. Released shortly afterward, they said authorities threatened to arrest them again if they did not comply with orders not to carry out Christian activities in the Islamic nation.

SCOC leaders said they have complained to the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments and were told that the three were arrested for security reasons.

In another case, sources said that Islamic militias loyal to the government in civilian uniform abducted a church leader and two church members as they were returning from a worship service and demanded $1,000 in ransom. They were released after two days, according to Christian sources in Khartoum.

Christians in Khartoum increasingly fear arrests by militias loyal to the Islamic government, the sources said.

Security agencies in Khartoum have also ordered local Christians not to organize Bible exhibitions, as some churches have done annually, the sources said.

The pressures on Christians come as war in Sudan’s South Kordofan state has led leaders there and in North Kordofan to incite hatred against Christians, with officials in both states calling for holy war against the predominantly Christian Nuba people.

The cash-strapped Crystal Cathedral’s pending transformation from a Protestant megachurch to a Roman Catholic cathedral should teach pastors not to spend millions on ornate buildings, a megachurch scholar says.

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday (Nov. 17) approved of the sale of the iconic cathedral to the Catholic Diocese of Orange, Calif., for $57.5 million.

“They don’t want to sink countless millions into building larger and more elaborate buildings,” said Scott Thumma, a sociologist of religion at Hartford Seminary.

Thumma said the huge debt that led officials of the Southern California ministry to accept the sale of their 35-acre campus reflects what happens when a prominent pastor, a television ministry, or an iconic structure becomes the focal point. Leaders retire and die; television gives the congregation an unrealistic larger-than-life image; and buildings become a drag on finances.

After a bidding war between nearby Chapman University and the Diocese of Orange, the judge agreed with the cathedral board’s choice to take the diocese’s offer—even though it was $2 million less—to ensure that the campus continues to have a religious purpose.

The diocesan deal permits worship to continue on-site for another three years and other religious activities for 18 months. Senior Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman said the decision “breaks my heart.”

“If it’s God’s will for us to move, we believe it will be where he needs us most. It does not mean that our ministry will be diminished,” the daughter of founder Robert H. Schuller said in a statement. “Crystal Cathedral church is not a building.”

Bishop Tod Brown of the Orange diocese acknowledged the “difficult circumstances” facing the ministry founded by the elder Schuller in 1955.

“Those challenges have now enabled the Diocese of Orange to protect this wonderful structure as a place of worship and will soon provide our Catholic community with a new cathedral, pastoral center, parish school and more,” Brown said in a statement.

Known for its “Hour of Power” television broadcasts and elaborate holiday pageants, the glass-walled Crystal Cathedral has been mired in family, leadership and financial turmoil in recent years.

Thumma said the trend of large churches using multiple satellite sites instead of one large edifice is validated by the outcome of the bankruptcy deal.

“To fill this space and maintain this space takes over the effort to spread the gospel and to live out the Christian mission,” he said.

With a stairwell for a confessional and a folding table for an altar, the lobby of the DCU Center arena here, about 40 miles west of Boston, doesn’t look especially holy ― until a band of circus workers gathers for Mass.

That’s when the Rev. Jerry Hogan dons a colorful chasuble festooned with images of big tops, lions and zebras. As he administers the Eucharist, off-duty performers help sanctify the space by kneeling on the marble floor, praying and breaking spontaneously into Portuguese song. The event is no act, even if it is associated with a three-ring circus.

After months of living together on a train and performing hundreds of shows a year, these 50 Catholic circus workers and their children are a beaming bunch as they hug the priest and nuns who’ve prepared them for this day. “This gives me a way to know Jesus and to be protected,” said trapeze artist Ingrid Silva as she prepared for the sacrament.

The Circus and Traveling Show Ministries of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops provides the spiritual lifeblood for about 4,500 Catholics who work in North America’s 41 traveling circuses, as well as thousands more who work in carnivals, rodeos and auto racing.

Since the workers’ lives are too transient to allow many of them to get to church, the church instead comes to them. Now the ministry is being reformed to depend less on religious professionals and more on laypeople.

For years, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus employed nuns as teachers for circus workers’ children; they led religious programs for adults on their own time. Circus employment has now ended for Sisters Dorothy Fabritze and Bernard Overkamp, who are leaving to travel with other circuses, staying a few weeks to train workers to serve as religious educators and relying on donations to sustain their ministry.

“We’ve had others come forward, in this circus and other circuses by the grace of God, and say, ‘We want to do what the sisters are doing,’” Fabritze said. “We’ll help them organize classes and find out what people are asking for.”

As the ministry gets revamped, circus workers are pausing to give thanks and consider the importance of church outreach. Call it the high-wire effect: something bad could happen any night, and they want to be right with God if it does.

Consider Paulo Cesar, a 27-year-old Brazilian dwarf who rides a motorcycle in a death-defying loop-de-loop. A few hours before showtime, he availed himself of four sacraments ― confession, baptism, confirmation and first Communion ― as he grinned widely. “Anything can happen on the motorcycle or the trampoline,” he said. “But my job is good because I have Jesus in my heart.”

For some, the ministry also helps build much-needed virtues. Hungarian national Sandor Eke, 35, has been on the road as a fire-juggling clown for 14 years. He’s needed to develop patience, he said, for living out of a 6-by-10-foot room in a train car. He married a fellow circus performer, but after they divorced, he had to work every night with his ex-wife until she left the circus two years later.

“Here, in a train, you have to work with (your ex-wife), you have to dance with her,” Eke said. “It’s a lot more difficult than in any other relationship … The sisters teach us to read the Bible, to analyze it, to ask what would Jesus do. It just helps me to calm down.”

The Circus and Traveling Show Ministries have evolved with the industry since taking root in 1928, when a monsignor started blessing the train. Soon after, Boston priest Ed Sullivan began officiating at weddings for circus workers. Hogan, who’s been fascinated with the circus ever since he went backstage as a child, has been president and chaplain since 1993.

Today’s circus is an international display of talent, with many performers hailing from Latin America and Eastern Europe. “I smile in a lot of languages,” Hogan said. But behind the smile is admiration for the sacrifices circus workers make in order to give audiences a couple of hours of enjoyment.

“When they’re performing, the arena is a sacred place,” Hogan said. “It’s their temple. It’s where people come to be entertained and forget about what’s going on in their life … My job is to help enhance their skills with a support system.”

As part of his traveling ministry, Hogan takes brief breaks from his full-time priestly duties at St. Michael parish in North Andover, MA. He travels on a shoestring budget, often staying with priests or monks. When the circus comes to the Northeast, he invites workers to his parish, where some park their circus vehicles for several days. If they need a mechanic, a dentist or new eyeglasses, he steers them to merchants who won’t take advantage.

“If their car breaks down, a guy could be shady and say, ‘Oh, you’re with the circus?’ and charge them an extra $200,” Hogan says. “You’re always dealing with these subtle prejudices. So they say, ‘Father Jerry, can you get me a mechanic?’ And I do.”