This past Friday, May 29th at 10:30 a.m. I interviewed one of the most unique Catholics I've come across in my travels, Fr. Stan Fortuna. Fr. Stan is a founding member of the Franciscans of the Renewal in the Bronx, New York. The year I graduated high school, my Dad and Jim Burnham piled a bunch of Saint Johners into my blue Club Wagon 15 passenger van. We drove across the country to a youth conference taking place in Ohio at Franciscan University of Steubenville. The conference theme was, "Out of the Jungle and into the Life in the Holy Spirit" - I think the title was a riff on AC/DC's song 'Welcome to the Jungle'. In any case, we were treated to a weekend with several hundred other young people hosted by the rapping Franciscan Fr. Stan Fortuna. He was lively, outside-the-box, off-the-cuff and eminently quotable. He was straight outta the Bronx and had the attitude to match. He was authentically himself which was at once refreshing, surprising, and entertaining. Yet for all his fun, he made Jesus the unabashed center of all his presentations - even Church teaching on chastity. He had a message -he had an attitude - and it was hard to ignore. It certainly wasn't boring!
Fast forward twenty years and now I am a Catholic priest. I'm asked to interview Fr. Stan on a Zoom call for the group called Saints in Training. I'm like 'Ok' and I'm thinking, "This shouldn't be hard, Fr. Stan is one of the most spontaneous people on earth - so that means I don't have to prepare...so no sweat!" (I didn't start to panic until the night before!) I was nervous, but when Father Stan mentioned ice cream in his opening remarks I was like, "Thank you Jesus, that is confirmation!" Once I heard that my eyebrows shot up in the air and I was like, "Ok! Game on!" I was able to ask him about his love of ice cream then about more serious questions as the interview went on, and I think it went very well. Fr. Stan is unashamed of Jesus - that's one of the things that makes him really unique. He seems to have a fire within that is wild and yet contained. With his unconventional style and deep love of Catholic doctrine and the saints - Father Stan is certainly a sign and contradiction. He sees love as being the gift at the heart of the Church, the Mass and the adventure of sanctity, the pursuit of holiness - its about love. We hear that kind of thing regularly but it seems vapid most of the time. The call to love comes across differently with Fr. Stan. Perhaps that's because he's not trying to live at the center of his life - he's given that place to Someone else. He's given his heart to Someone else. Fr. Stan Fortuna claims that this has made all the difference. Who am I to argue with a New Yorker from the Bronx?
- Father Aaron Knox
