Even as a young boy growing up in a small Texas town, Father Jim Sichko knew exactly what he wanted to do later in life.
“I would come home and play priest. My dog was the parishioner. I always say I was so delighted. I think it was in third grade that Pringles came out because they looked like the host that the priest breaks. And that always stayed with me, even in third grade,” he said.
The 59-year-old Catholic priest says he and his four brothers and sisters learned at an early age what it meant to welcome and help new immigrants to America. It was 1975,, and the Vietnam War was ending. Vietnamese refugees were moving to the United States.
“They came to this country in boats to a land where they knew no one, spoke no English, had no clothes and no job. My parents sponsored five families to live with us for a year. And what did my mom and dad do? They made us five sleep on the floor and give the beds to the refugees,” Sichko said. “My father took the men to his work. My mother helped the ladies with understanding of the cooking and all that. And I inherited, and my sisters and brothers inherited 5,6,7, other brothers and sisters, and they went to school with us.”
Father Jim credits those early life lessons in mercy and compassion with helping him in his current assignment that takes him around the world.
In 2015, Pope Francis named 100 Catholic priests in the U-S, including Father Jim, the pastor of St. Mark in Richmond, as Papal Missionaries of Mercy. The Pope wanted them to join hundreds of other Catholic priests outside the U-S to travel the world speaking about mercy and compassion to people of all faiths and cultures.
After a year, Father Jim combined the Pope’s assignment with an idea that came from Bishop John Stowe of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington.
“So basically, I have two assignments that mold together. Bishop Stowe assigned me as an evangelist for the Catholic Church, and Pope Francis said, incorporate that within your work as a missionary of mercy. None of my speaking engagements are assigned. I have no staff. They are all by word of mouth. And so, for nine years, 300 days a year, I travel wherever I get asked to go, and I do nonstop. I'm only in Kentucky, really, Thursday afternoon and Friday. The rest of the time I'm in the air at variety of places,” he said.
Father Jim has been to all fifty states and six continents. He calls his talks “60-minutes of Jesus.”
“What I normally do is I go into the church, and it doesn't have to be a Catholic church. I go into the church community. I preach at all of the masses. I encourage the people to make this an effort, to come for these three nights. Each night is a different talk for only 60 minutes, and the people come, and it doesn't have to be a Catholic Church.”
His message?
“That without God in our lives, we are nothing, and with God in our lives, we can do anything, but we have to be people of mercy, kindness and compassion, and I think that's what resonates with people. Because we're living in a world right now that doesn't have much mercy, doesn't have much compassion, and doesn't have much care. It's very interesting because as I travel around the world, I see more and more anger. I see more and more where we jump on the people who are down and out, instead of coming together and lifting them up and allowing them to be one with us.”
Father Jim has written two books about his journey. It’s a grueling pace, but Father Jim believes in his mission. Deacon Bruce Browning of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Harrodsburg says Father Jim is inspiring when he visits and speaks.
“Father Jim is an inspiration to everyone at our church, and everyone in the Diocese of Lexington, not only for what he does for the people, but what he does for the churches. And it means so much for him to come to a small church like Harrodsburg, and just to spread the laughter and the joy and all of the good cheer that he has for everybody, and it's such a pleasure for him to bring all of his goodwill to us,” Browning said.
True to his boyhood dream of being a priest, Father Jim remembers what he told a teacher in third grade when she asked what he wanted to do in life. “I want to be a priest. I want to do what I really feel in my heart God is calling me to do, and that is to preach the good news, to bring the sacraments to help the infirm and the despondent.”
As you read this, there’s a very good chance he’s flying off to another place to deliver that news.
