Priesthood Sunday USA | October 26, 2008 >> Priesthood Sunday | Priest Heroes >> Priesthood Sunday | Fr. Soy

PRIEST HEROES:

FR. ESTEBAN SOY AS PRIEST HERO

Many of you who have been around Epiphany Cathedral Parish in Venice, Florida, for a while know Father Esteban Soy. He was the "head man" around Epiphany for quite a few years. Even before coming to Epiphany he had a full and busy life including assignments on the east coast of Florida, Arcadia, and Cape Coral , but he's originally from Girona, Spain. He built the existing church, St. Andrew, in Cape Coral and he built Epiphany. He was head of the building department for the diocese and also helped many other priests build their churches. But it's not about his pre-Epiphany years that I want to talk about.

Fr. Soy is a good priest, a really good priest, and I think an example to other priests and laity as well. But there aren't sounds of trumpets and beating drums with every good deed he does and most of the time his acts of kindness and service go unsung and unnoticed. He's quite an unassuming man. After his years at Epiphany, the shortage of priests, especially the shortage of bi-lingual priests, prompted him to come out of retirement, leave his native Spain and his family, and take an assignment in a small parish in the middle of the State. He now has about 100 families in his parish in Moore Haven, Florida and a similar number at his mission church in Buckhead Ridge. He could be sitting in a rocking chair on the shores of the Mediterranean, but he has chosen to spend his "retirement" years in service to the disenfranchised including the poor migrant population in Moore Haven. Undoubtedly, these people have bonded with Father Soy the way many parishioners did at Epiphany. If you know Father Soy at all, you know that he doesn't have a selfish bone in his body.

Many a time during his years at Epiphany he'd forego his day off to meet with a couple planning a marriage, receive an elderly person into the church, visit a sick parishioner, of take a funeral Mass if requested by the family. His people were always more important than anything he planned for himself.

He's a hero in the Diocese of Venice, a quiet hero.