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A pastor of two worlds: Father Nicholas Ashmore’s dual ministry

Father Nicholas Ashmore, pastor of St. Catherine Parish in Emporia and chaplain to the Didde Catholic Campus Center at Emporia State Uni- versity, prays over sisters Catrina and Yuliana Rodriguez near the end of their quinceañera celebrated Sept. 21 at St. Catherine. A quinceañera celebrates the journey from girlhood to maturity and is typically celebrated around a girl’s 15th birthday. Sometimes, girls wait to celebrate it with a younger sister as was the case with these two sisters.

by Marc and Julie Anderson
mjanderson@theleaven.org

EMPORIA — A balancing act.

That’s how Father Nicholas Ashmore describes his priestly ministry.

As pastor of St. Catherine Parish in Emporia, he ministers to a unique Spanish-speaking community there. At the same time, he is also the full-time chaplain to college students at the Didde Catholic Campus Center at Emporia State University.

The ministries, he noted, are different but, in some ways, similar as well.

“One of the marks of campus ministry as the leader of the organization is that I am focused on the formation of the students to be themselves leaders,” he said.

He has not wound up doing as much one-on-one ministry as he anticipated. Instead, he said, he is empowering others in that capacity.

“What I’m doing . . . with my student leaders is seeing what they’re doing, making sure they’re supported in their work,” he said.

Father Nicholas Ashmore (lower right), pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Emporia and chaplain to the Didde Catholic Campus Center at Emporia State University, joins students from the campus center in a game of water balloon volleyball on Aug. 28. LEAVEN PHOTO BY MARC ANDERSON

The same is true at the parish.

“At a parish, a pastor is investing — or he should be investing — in his staff, because they’re the ones who have so much more contact [with parishioners] than the average priest,” he said. “A parish pastor is going to be doing a lot more team formation.

“The difference, however, is that people come to parishes very frequently. People don’t just show up at campus centers. Communication starts mainly [with] the center’s leaders, who then need to reach out and invite students and faculty to the center.”

Being engaged in two different ministries is often a balancing act, Father Ashmore said.

“The challenge is that I have to live in two worlds constantly,” he said. The campus center is mostly comprised of people of middle-class Americans, whereas many of St. Catherine’s parishioners are immigrants coming from absolute poverty.

“Those two human experiences demand two human responses, even though I have to be the same person in those two roles, he said. “That is a real challenge.

“How do I live in those two worlds?”

“Respecting the individual culture of each place is important,” he continued. “I can’t make St. Catherine’s run like an Anglo parish because that would not be in accord with how Hispanic people live and work and think in their worlds. But I also can’t let Didde run like anything other than a campus center. [Both places] need to be true to who they are. I need to bring order to them as far as I can and lean into their individual strengths.”

Father Nicholas Ashmore speaks to those gathered at a quinceañera celebration on Sept. 21 at St. Catherine Church in Emporia. LEAVEN PHOTO BY MARC ANDERSON

It is his leadership strategy that carries over.

“My students are more effective when I invest in their leadership. The same is true in a parish,” he said. “The temptation in a lot of parishes is that everything centers around the priest, and it’s not healthy for the priest and it’s not healthy for the people.”

Learning from both places, said Father Ashmore, has been a great joy.

“St. Catherine’s has taught me what true poverty is. . . . I’ve walked into places where I think this should be condemned, but it’s what the people have because they’ve been here for three months. They’ve crossed the border. It really softens your heart in a real way to the plight of people who are just trying their best to live in a real way.”

“That encounter with poverty,” he continued, “has helped give me a gentleness for situations that my heart would have been harder to previously. . . . It’s given me patience. It makes me more attentive to the way they’re suffering, and then they become part of my prayer.”

Likewise, Father Ashmore said both ministries have helped him to see the importance of the ministry of presence.

“Both of them have led me to see with a greater appreciation how important the ministry of presence is — just being with people. Both of them taught me how necessary that fatherly role is,” Father Ashmore said.

While there are similarities between the two ministries, there are some key differences, too.

“The church always has held up inculturation as being part of who she is,” he said.

Despite the fact that the rite, words, gestures, rubrics, etc., remain the same no matter where he celebrates Mass, some nonessential elements will change.

The musical instruments and the selection of songs are definitely influenced by the cultures he is celebrating for. And even that requires a delicate touch. The parish might be mostly Hispanic, but members come from different places, including El Salvador, Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

That delicate touch comes in just as handy at Didde.

A priest for five years, Father Ashmore said he’s learned that college students yearn for approval.

“What I mean is [they need someone to] hold up their sense of self, help them discover their sense of self and their meaning. . . . They need someone to help call out their gifts, to help them discover the love of God.”

“As priests, we’re not here to play the role of God,” he continued. “We’re here to help them discover that what they’re desiring can only be found in God. The more that we help them do that, the more they are fulfilled as human beings.”

What helps him fulfill the spiritual and emotional demands of the roles he’s been called to? Simple, Father Ashmore answered.

“Prayer. Prayer is what sustains me,” he said. “There’s no question there. The more I’m praying, the more peace I have.”

About the author

Marc & Julie Anderson

Freelancers Marc and Julie Anderson are long-time contributors to the Leaven. Married in 1996, for several years the high school sweethearts edited The Crown, the former newspaper of Christ the King Parish in Topeka which Julie has attended since its founding in 1977. In 2000, the Leaven offered the couple their first assignment. Since then, the Andersons’ work has also been featured in a variety of other Catholic and prolife media outlets. The couple has received numerous journalism awards from the Knights of Columbus, National Right to Life and the Catholic Press Association including three for their work on “Think It’s Not Happening Near You? Think Again,” a piece about human trafficking. A lifelong Catholic, Julie graduated from Most Pure Heart of Mary Grade School and Hayden Catholic High School in Topeka. Marc was received into the Catholic Church in 1993 at St. Paul Parish – Newman Center at Wichita State University. The two hold degrees from Washburn University in Topeka. Their only son, William James, was stillborn in 1997.

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