I had the pleasure of interviewing Father Paul Besanceney this week and writing an article about him. You can read it here.
Father Paul is an 84-year-old Jesuit priest who teaches at a seminary in Sudan. He's from Toledo and has been in Africa 28 years.
I asked him why he went to Sudan in the first place and he looked at me like I had asked a dumb question: "Because my provincial sent me," he said.
What a great sense of trust and duty. The priest, who has a doctorate in sociology from Michigan State, knew his provincial must have felt there was a need for Jesuit educators and that his superior must have chosen him for a reason.
So he went.
Twenty eight years later, he's still serving in Sudan.
Father Paul was kind of quiet, very reserved and soft spoken in the interview. He walked with small but rapid steps through the hallways of the Jesuit Center at St. John's high school. It was an honor to meet him.
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I spent a great deal of time this week working on an article about First Unitarian Church moving from the Old West End to a small building in South Toledo. What started as a pretty straightforward story turned into a lenghty task in which I interviewed more than 30 people. A typical news story involves interviews with from one to five sources.
I ended up looking into the whole issue of aging urban congregations dealing with shrinking membership and rising maintenance costs.
In the end, I didn't use half of the stuff I got from all those interviews and had to really narrow the focus to fit the space I was allotted for it. But I think the story worked out fine and I'll file the extra info away for another time.
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Sylvania, Ohio
July 26, 2008