From youth group leader to seminarian
JASON BUCK
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
Come Aug. 20, SS. Simon and Jude Parish, West Chester, will lose its dynamic young youth leader Jason Buck. A year out of college, he will trade his civvies for basic black and head for St. Charles Seminary to begin the journey to priesthood.
The eldest of the three children of Janice and Edward Buck, he attended St. Agnes School in West Chester and Malvern Preparatory School before heading for Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. There he double-majored in marketing and computer science. But Steubenville does have a reputation for nurturing religious vocations, so it is not surprising he is now headed for St. Charles.
“It’s a truly Catholic college, centered on Christ and the Eucharist,” said Buck, noting other grads of Steubenville are already Philadelphia priests or seminarians.
If his vocational seed was watered in Ohio, it was planted long before that. There were home influences, of course, and while in sixth grade at St. Agnes he was introduced to the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which he found to be a life-altering event.
During his high school years, Buck founded Malvern Men for Life as well as Culture of Life, Inc., a non-profit pro-life group which continues to this day. While in college he spearheaded a drive which raised $50,000 to televise pro-life commercials in the Philadelphia area.
A former staff member of the archdiocesan Office for Youth and Young Adults, Buck has most recently focused on youth group work at SS. Simon and Jude. This past Sunday evening, Cardinal Rigali visited the parish to speak to the group during their weekly Holy Hour. The teens are mostly between the ages of 15 and 18, evenly divided between boys and girls and attend public, private and Catholic high schools, according to Buck. Eucharist and Adoration are of foremost importance to the group, which draws about 40 to 50 teens during the school year.
“Young people today want the truth and the Church is willing to give it to them,” Buck said. “They desire the beauty of the Catholic Church.”
A recent group activity saw 50 teens attending a June Franciscan University Summer Conference, according Buck. “The theme was ‘Witness,’ and it was a unique opportunity for high school teens to encounter Christ,” he said. Another recent event for the group was participation in the Philadelphia-area celebration of World Youth Day at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, coinciding with Pope Benedict’s visit to Australia.
Now Buck must put aside youth ministry to concentrate on his own formation at St. Charles Seminary. It was not a snap decision. Although he did many of the things his peers were doing, including dating, playing guitar and piano and participating in an Irish band, “Celtic Trinity,” the priesthood was always in the back of his mind.
With the encouragement of his mentors, especially Bishop Joseph McFadden, and his own parents, he made his decision.
“There is no better time to go than now. God is calling many men, it’s just a matter of answering the call,” he said.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.