By Lisa Benoit

“I always loved writing a column,” said Father John Catoir. “I felt that my mission was to reach out to a wider audience than merely Catholics and to be a priest that would speak to their heart.”

Father Catoir’s 600 words of bi-weekly wisdom have appeared in the Hawaii Catholic Herald, and dozens of other Catholic newspapers nationwide, for nearly 25 years.

The New Jersey priest will be in Hawaii in person on Jan. 14 to speak at St. Pius X Parish, Manoa, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The title of his talk is “Joyfully Living the Gospel Day by Day.” The event is free and open to the public.

Father Catoir will also be the homilist, Jan. 15, at the 5:30 p.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church, Punahou; and on Jan. 16, at the 8:30 a.m. Mass at St. Pius X, and the 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Masses at Sacred Heart.

Father Catoir wrote his first column in the 1970s for his own diocesan newspaper in Paterson, N.J. Soon four other Catholic newspapers had picked it up.

His audience multiplied with the column he wrote as director of the Christophers, a nonprofit multimedia organization in New York City from 1978 to 1995. Called “Three Minutes a Day” and “Light One Candle,” it appeared in about 200 papers, both Catholic and secular, worldwide.

The idea for the Christophers, and the column, Father Catoir said, was that one person could change the world.

“You can make a difference,” he said in a telephone interview with the Hawaii Catholic Herald last week. “It was an inspirational column to encourage people to use their gifts and talents in the service of others.”

He said he sees his mission as reaching out to those searching for a connection to the divine – “a priest that would speak to their heart.”

There are 100 million unchurched Americans that have spiritual needs, Father Catoir said. Of them, 20 million are former Catholics.

“I try to be a friend that they can relate to and even identify with,” he said, someone with whom “they can keep some remote contact with the Catholic Church.”

Passing on great ideas

Father Catoir said that he builds his columns by supporting a great quote, often taken from the works of saints and mystics.

“I would always search for great quotes that captured a great idea and build the column around it,” he said. “That is what I am doing now.”

“I’m not taking credit, I am passing it on,” Father Catoir said. “The idea is not to come up with new ideas, but to come up the best material to touch souls.”

In addition to his bi-weekly column, now syndicated by Catholic News Service, Father Catoir has written 15 books including the best sellers, “Enjoy The Lord,” “World Religions,” and most recently, “God Delights In You: An Introduction to Gospel Spirituality.”

If there is a running theme through Father Catoir’s work, it is “joy.”

“Joy is the gigantic secret of Christianity,” he said, passing on an idea by the English writer G.K. Chesterton.

“It is an interesting idea because it is a secret,” he said. “The reason the church has survived through centuries of mismanagement and scandal and all of the bad things is that, at the heart of the faith, there is the joy of loving Jesus.”

“It is knowing that you’re loved by Jesus who gave his life for you,” he said.

Father Catoir said he gets “pretty heavy” mail in response to his writing. His website, www.messengerofjoy.com, receives about 6,000 hits a month from visitors who take in his daily and monthly meditations. Many of the letters come from people who have read his columns or heard his radio spots.

The priest once received a letter from a man incarcerated in a Hawaii correctional facility who asked 10 questions about prayer. Father Catoir responded, explaining that the secret to prayer is faithfulness — the will to give yourself to God.

The man wrote Father Catoir to thank him and to say that his response was the only one he had received from 30 letters he had sent out to priests.

Holy Spirit is co-author

Father Catoir said that, when inspiration strikes, he will write for three hours.

“I will have an idea,” he said. “The Holy Spirit talks to me before I get out of bed in the morning.

“I really believe that the Holy Spirit has written most of those columns,” he said. “We receive the Spirit in Baptism. It is a personal. It is actual grace. It is a light to the mind or an impulse to the will. It is God speaking to us.”

Born and raised in New York City, Father Catoir graduated from Fordham University School of Business in 1953. After two years in the U.S. Army, he entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, N.J., at age 25. He was ordained a priest in 1960.

Father Catoir earned a Doctorate of Canon Law from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1964.

Father Catoir is the founder and current president of the St. Jude Media Ministry, a national apostolate that uses radio and television to reach out to the millions of unchurched people in America.

For more information about his presentation, call the Manoa-Punahou Catholic Community (MPCC) administrative office at 973-2211, or visit the MPCC website at www.mp-cc.net. Father Catoir will have on hand his book “Joyfully Living the Gospel Day by Day” for signing.