Homick serves as deacon for pope
Brackenridge native Paul Homick expects Lent to be a powerful and prayerful experience.
He was not anticipating the start of this most spiritual season for Christians to be almost an overwhelming experience, too.
It would be for most people.
Homick, a Benedictine monk who will be ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the summer at St. Vincent, Latrobe, was chosen to serve as deacon for Pope John Paul II at Mass in the Basilica of Santa Sabina in Rome on Ash Wednesday. It was broadcast worldwide on television.
"It's a bit hard to put into words," Homick says from his residence in Rome, where he is working on two doctoral degrees in Canon and European Civil Law.
The 1987 Highlands High School graduate was a lawyer practicing in Pittsburgh before he responded to a call to the priesthood. He is scheduled to offer his first Mass at St. Mathias Church, Harrison, July 13.
In the Benedictine order, he has taken the name of Brother Cajetan.
By whatever moniker, though, he is stunned at the honor he was given Wednesday. Not many deacons have the opportunity to serve as a deacon for the pope.
Homick, 34, was seen on national television news programs Wednesday night as he helped the pope distribute ashes.
The deacon is the principal assistant to the celebrant at the Mass. Jozef Cardinal Tomko was the principal celebrant, along with several cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots and priests from throughout the world.
The pope presided at the Mass, delivering the homily and distributing ashes. Homick's responsibilities included giving the pope the Eucharist.
Several thousand people were in attendance, including government officials and 15 cardinals, as well as the pope's envoy to Iraq.
As Homick stood and knelt on the altar this week next to the pope, he says he was struck by the fact he was a link in a chain of tradition.
"It was really overwhelming knowing that it was first Pope Saint Gregory the Great to start this tradition of celebrating Mass at Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday around the year 600," he says, "and to have participated in that tradition, and with so many leaders in the church."
The Holy Father's message of prayer for peace is particularly important at this time, Homick says. "It really was a historical event, in many, many ways."
His mother, Pat Homick, in Brackenridge enthusiastically expresses her pride in her son. "I wish I could hug him," she says. "I'm overwhelmed that we know somebody that is so close to the pope."
His dad, Paul Homick, echoes those comments. "It is a great honor," he says. "When he decided to go to the priesthood, we felt honored. It was something he wanted to do as a child."
Homick has been in Italy since July of 2001. In addition to his studies in Rome, he serves as deacpm at the U.S. Naval base in Gaeta, Italy, on many weekends.
He has had the opportunity to meet the pope on a few occasions and to serve as a minor minister for him several times, most recently at the service concluding the week of prayer for Christian unity at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the walls in Rome.
"He is an incredible, holy man," Homick says. "One thing that always strikes me about him is the sharpness of his mind and his ability to speak to so many people in their native language, one right after the other." He recalls one occasion in which the pontiff conversed easily in at least six languages.
"The pope is the most visible person in the world, more so, I think, than the president of the United States. He is a truly holy person."
Homick finds Rome a wonderful city in which to live and study. "There is a great sense of history here. Every day I pass the coliseum and the Roman Forum. These buildings have been here for 2000 to 3000 years.
"One gets a great sense of history, not only of modern Western civilization, but also a great sense of the church and the importance that it be a beacon, not changing its principles of morality to 'modernize' them.
St. Gregory the Great (pope from 590 to 604) began the tradition of the pope celebrating Ash Wednesday Mass at Santa Sabina after he sought refuge in the church during a plague.
"The whole point of the Mass is to begin the penitential season of Lent, a time of fasting and intense prayer. If taken seriously, Lent can be a time of true conversion," Homick says. "This Mass is a time for me to pray that everyone takes this Lent seriously."
