Diocese embraces retirement community
On day seven of his year-and-a-half long orientation as chaplain, Father Steve Hoyt anointed several Pennybyrn residents, praying and making the Sign of the Cross on their foreheads and hands with the Oil of the Sick. (Photos by Troy Hull | Catholic News Herald)HIGH POINT — Anyone would be a bit wide-eyed on day seven of a 547-day transition toward taking over spiritual leadership of a 71-acre retirement community and prayer center. Even the veteran Father Stephen Hoyt.
A priest for 31 years, Father Hoyt has held assignments in Africa, New York, New Jersey and North Carolina, but for him, there’s no place like Pennybyrn – a retirement community in High Point founded in 1947 by the Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God.
Humble of heart, Father Hoyt – or “Father Steve” as they’ve taken to calling him – is quiet as he absorbs everything the current sisters seek to teach him about the residents, staff, mission and culture of Pennybyrn.
His demeanor, however, is not to be mistaken for trepidation. When he came to anoint several senior residents on July 26, he took command of the room in the welcoming way a captain takes charge of his ship.
As his purple stole went on, the presence of Jesus was palpable. Father Steve warmly welcomed the six residents, who sat in a circle on chairs and wheelchairs reverently – and gratefully – watching the priest, waiting for their turn as he said special prayers and called down the Holy Spirit in the laying on of hands for each person.
As he moved from one person to the next, Sisters Gabriella Hogan and Loretta O’Connor assisted, speaking out the name of each resident. They did the same once more as Father Steve, a conduit of God’s grace, went around the room a second time anointing the residents, making the Sign of the Cross on their foreheads and hands with the Oil of the Sick.
When Father Steve learned that the next day was resident Don Mulligan’s 100th birthday, he congratulated him and referenced the anointing, saying, “This is the best birthday present I can give you.”
Later, Father Steve said the goal of his new ministry at Pennybyrn, and overall, is to help those in his care to be “constantly aware of the Lord’s presence in all aspects of life.”
In conversation at Pennybyrn’s iconic, on-site Irish pub, Father Steve and Sister Lucy Hennessy, S.M.G., Pennybyrn’s mission leader and chair of the board of directors, talked about Father Steve’s year-and-a-half long orientation, which he is just beginning.
“Father Steve has met the sisters, learned more about the mission and how steeped we are in the mission, and has been introduced to various households where our people who need the most care are,” Sister Lucy says. “This part now is all orientation. Every day.”
Father Steve says, “I’m looking forward to discovering more of the charism of the sisters here that has made Pennybyrn all that it is today. As I learn more and more about the mission, I’ll know how to build upon it.”
Father Steve’s assignment from Bishop Peter Jugis marks the next step toward transferring spiritual sponsorship of the community of more than 450 residents from the Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God to the Diocese of Charlotte. Pennybyrn and the bishop announced the change a year ago, assuring all concerned that a careful effort to preserve the culture and values of Pennybyrn would follow.
It is time now for the sisters to return to London, called home for their own retirement by the mother house after decades of service in the High Point area. The sisters are doing everything they can to ensure their beloved retirement community retains its faith-based mission and culture when they depart in 2025.
Grappling with the immensity of the task at hand, Father Steve said this assignment is quite different than becoming pastor of a parish, and he prays he’s up to the task.
“Something like Pennybyrn doesn’t just happen – to have such a beautiful community as what we have here. I’m very interested in discovering the charism that’s making this possible,” he says. “I feel like I have big shoes to fill as I try to continue that Christian life to the full.”
Bishop Jugis pledged to the sisters last summer he would honor their legacy and keep alive their ministry as the diocese gradually assumes its role in guiding Pennybyrn. He appointed Father Steve to take the lead, in part because he has been faithfully serving as a member of the board and has a heart for Pennybyrn’s mission.
“Father Stephen Hoyt seems an excellent fit to provide for the comfort, spiritual and sacramental needs of the wonderful seniors at Pennybyrn,” Bishop Jugis says. “We are committed as a diocese to carry on the special environment of caring established by the Sisters, and Father Hoyt has the full faith of the diocese behind him.”
Pennybyrn features a 24-hour Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, 173 independent living apartments, 49 independent living cottages, 24 assisted living apartments, 24 assisted living memory support beds, 125 skilled nursing care beds and a new transitional rehabilitation center.
Besides its 450 residents, Pennybyrn also includes more than 450 full- and part-time employees who staff the facility around the clock – all of whom Father Steve has been gradually meeting over his first weeks at Pennybyrn.
As he offers the sacraments and meets everyone, he learns by osmosis Pennybyrn’s charism and mission: “Demonstrating God’s love for the lives we touch.”
“There’s a lot to it, but it’s very doable,” says Sister Lucy. “Father Steve has a natural warmth and eagerness to learn. His personality fits what we’re trying to do here.”
Father Steve, who most recently served as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Lenoir, says he couldn’t imagine having more support and encouragement from everyone at Pennybyrn and is grateful for that during this change in his ministry.
Sister Lucy adds that Father Steve’s presence has been reassuring to residents and staff. “The more he talks to people and interacts with them, I think that fear will fade away, and the transition will be seamless in the end,” she says.
Peace also comes from the lengthy orientation period, Father Steve’s obvious spiritual gifts, and knowing God will take care of the rest.
“It’s where the Lord is calling me to grow at this time in my life to serve Him and the Church in this particular way in a specialized ministry,” Father Steve says. “I’m looking forward to learning more about it and using my gifts to minister effectively.”
— Annie Ferguson. Photos by Troy Hull
Seminarian Spotlight
Seminarian Elijah Buerkle (back row, second from right) poses with his parents, siblings and cousin on the day his eldest sister, Sister Maria Jacoba, entered the convent. Buerkle played tennis at Belmont Abbey College, earning the Elite 23 postseason award in 2022 for achieving the highest GPA among the top eight teams in the conference. (Photos provided) CHARLOTTE — With a strong biblical name and a faithful Catholic upbringing, it might seem like a foregone conclusion that the young Elijah Buerkle would one day discern the priesthood. Yet, it almost didn’t happen.
As the second of 10 children – the younger brother in a set of twins – Elijah was homeschooled through high school. His mother leads the family’s academic formation while his father, a professional tennis coach, leads the physical aspect for their children aged 6 to 23. Days full of activity are balanced with praise and thanksgiving as his parents, David and Maria, come together to lead the family in prayer and tend to the spiritual formation of their children.
Elijah took to tennis naturally, becoming one of the top 15 high school players in Georgia and winning two state championships in the doubles tournament and runner-up in singles play in the level 2 state championships.
After high school, he chose to follow in his parents’ footsteps and attend their alma mater – Belmont Abbey College – where he would play tennis just like his father.
He earned a spot in the Honors College program and was majoring in philosophy, politics and economics, with his sights set on a law career. While competing in tennis at the collegiate level, he received top marks in his classes. Elijah had spent three successful years as an undergraduate, but a nagging question that first arose in high school began to surface again: “Is God calling me to be a priest?”
Meanwhile, his oldest sister – now Sister Maria Jacoba – had started discerning a vocation to religious life with the Benedictines of Mary Queen of the Apostles and his twin brother, Gabriel, was preparing for a secular career in the grocery business. Both were good paths, but where was he called to be?
Soon Elijah started taking steps to discern whether he was being called to the priesthood. He sought spiritual direction from Abbot Placid Solari, chancellor of Belmont Abbey College, who was an immense help to him.
Then, after going on a FOCUS mission trip and receiving some additional sage advice, Elijah had his answer.
He recently shared with the Catholic News Herald what he’s learned along the way:
CNH: When did you first feel a calling to the priesthood?
Buerkle: My senior year of high school. There was a Polish priest who became the pastor of my parish in Georgia, and I was really inspired by his example and virtue. He was the first priest that I encountered that I really looked up to as a man, so I was really drawn to that and drawn to his vocation. It was his holiness and love for the Lord that drew me to him. He spent a lot of time in prayer. He was very adamant about the need to spend time in prayer, to receive the sacraments, especially confession, so it was his discipline and strength as a man, but then he also spent a lot of time investing in my family and in me when I needed help. That led me to really continue to grow my faith over the next three or four years. I continued to meet more great priests I’m really inspired by as I look more and more into it and that slowly led to me finding out about St. Joseph College Seminary.
CNH: How did your upbringing influence your vocation?
Buerkle: My parents are devout Catholics and so that was very formative growing up. The faith was always part of our family life. We’d always go to at least Sunday Mass, if not also daily Mass once a week when I was growing up. We always try to pray the rosary every night. It was the family prayer. We were all homeschooled, and so we had a very Catholic curriculum and were encouraged to do a lot of reading both from classical literature and Scripture but also the lives of the saints. All of that was just very formative for my sister’s vocation and mine, and the younger ones are still on their way. My dad teaches tennis for a living, and so we’re all tennis players. He played at Belmont Abbey before me and so that was kind of the physical aspect of the formation. My mom spearheaded the homeschooling, what I see as the internal part, and then my dad would spearhead the external, ensuring we were all trained and disciplined.
CNH: How would you describe your life at the seminary?
Buerkle: I was taking a rosary walk when I started reflecting on the first three weeks of seminary and it just kind of hit me: I have everything here required for my own personal sanctity. It’s really up to me to use that. The people there – the seminarians, Daughters of the Virgin Mother and the priests – are all so holy, and they’ve really thought of everything. Father Matthew Kauth and the other fathers have really thought that program through.
I have spiritual fatherhood, motherhood, sisterhood and brotherhood there. It’s an incredible place that has helped me foster devotion to Our Lady and be instructed in very sound theology and philosophy. Looking back, I thought I was pretty solid when I was coming in, which I was, but how far I’ve come with the level of virtue in the past year and a half – simply by going through the formation program – has really blown me away.
CNH: What are the blessings and challenges of being a seminarian?
Buerkle: The thing that surprised me the most is that it’s not difficult. Obviously, you must be willing and desiring this vocation, but a lot of people think of seminary life as you’re sacrificing these goods of the world, that you’re not allowed to date anyone or you’re just not allowed to do whatever you want, but I’ve found being at seminary you receive so much more.
We have this beautiful familial atmosphere at the college seminary with the fathers, the sisters, and all the seminarians. It’s just such a beautiful house to be in, and we’re all very close-knit.
There’s a lot of laughter and a lot of fun and games. Then we’re all working hard, but it’s for this greater good of glorifying God, and it becomes so tangible when you’re living it. There are sacrifices, but it’s all so properly ordered toward God. Attending our “family meals” is one of my favorite things. Multiple times throughout the week everyone in the seminary family gets together for a wonderful meal, usually cooked from scratch by the Daughters of the Virgin Mother. I am notorious at the seminary for inviting people to come join us during these meals because they are such a joy – you should come sometime!
CNH: What is your advice for other young men discerning the priesthood?
Buerkle: On a FOCUS mission trip in Cincinnati, I heard a priest say the biggest mistake people make in discernment today is that they want to figure it out before they do anything, and so they will “wait and see” what they feel like draws them most. The problem with this approach, he said, is that everyone has a natural vocation to marriage, which means that 100% of the time they’ll be drawn to marriage because that is just what is natural. However, a person who does that never actually properly discerns if they have a “supernatural vocation” to the priesthood or religious life. The priest told us that the only true way to discern this is to actually go try it by entering seminary or a religious order. That hit me really hard because that had been me for the past two years that I’d been at college. By the next year, I entered seminary and knew almost immediately that God made me for this life. I love to be in the sanctuary offering prayers to our Lord and, of course, that is the vocation of the priest.
— Annie Ferguson
About Elijah Buerkle
From: Albany, Georgia
Age: 23
Home parish: St. Mark, Huntersville
Parents: David and Maria Buerkle
Siblings: Gabriel, Sr. Maria Jacoba, Anna, Isaac, Tobias, Matthias, Kolbe, Lilliane and Chiara
Status: Began studies and formation at St. Joseph College Seminary in 2022, expected to transfer to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology in fall of 2025
Favorite Bible verse: “When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (Jn 19: 26-27)
“This passage stands out because I just completed St. Louis de Montfort’s ‘Total Consecration to Jesus through Mary.’ As St. Louis says, Christ earned the grace needed for our salvation on the cross, but we only receive it by the hands of Mary, our Blessed Mother, through Holy Mother Church. All of this is revealed to us at the scene of Christ’s crucifixion when He gives His mother to the Church represented by St. John. Thus, if we wish to be saved, we ought to take Mary our mother into our homes, just as St. John did.”
Favorite saint: St. Martin de Porres
“St. Martin de Porres was my confirmation saint. I chose him for his humility. He was this young boy living amid serious poverty whose father had left the family. He had such a heart for the poor to the point where he would give his own money to people who were poorer than he was. He didn’t feel worthy when he entered the Dominicans. He always took the last place and through that humility, attains such an incredible level of holiness. I look to him and try to learn his humility, take that lowest place, and to practice the charity he had.”
Interests and hobbies: Tennis, bass fishing, backpacking and reading