By Emilie Ng
STEPPING off a plane from Australia to the United States just over 20 years ago, Fr David Pascoe considered himself a humble man on a great adventure.
At the request of the Queensland bishops, Fr Pascoe put his Australian life on hold in the early 1990s to start post-graduate theology studies in Massachusetts, on America’s North-West.
“I remember when I went to the US for the first time, adventure was the word that came to mind,” Fr Pascoe said.
“I was venturing into something new.”
That adventurous feeling has never waned in the 56-year-old dean of St Stephen’s Cathedral’s 25 years as a priest.
As a boy growing up in Mitchelton, on Brisbane’s North, Fr Pascoe said the idea of the priesthood always returned to the forefront of his thoughts.
“But when I finished grade 12, I went to the teacher’s college for a year and tried a number of other things,” he said.
Fr Pascoe also worked in hospital administration until 25, the age he entered the seminary.
“I thought I needed to test something else so I pushed (the idea of the priesthood) away in the last few years, but it kept coming back,” he said.
Fortunately, friends who had joined the seminary had not forgotten Fr Pascoe’s recurring considerations.
“I was still friendly with men I knew in the seminary,” he said.
“One of them said to me, ‘When are you coming?’
“It sort of challenged me and stuck with me.
“I thought, I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a long time, let’s try it.
“So I was 25 and entered the seminary in 1983, and I stayed.”
Surrounded by a strong Catholic crowd, a faithful and dedicated family and many holy and exemplary religious men, the idea of joining the priesthood was never “weird”.
“I don’t think it was considered a weird option, but people were surprised that I went, and more some that I stayed,” he said.
Seminary days for Fr Pascoe were “a lot of fun” but were also filled with much questioning, something he learned later as a university theology professor to encourage in students, rather than repress.
“We’ve been asking questions about the Church from the beginning, and hopefully we continue to do that, that we deepen our understanding of the mystery that is the Church, of our God who created the Church,” Fr Pascoe said.
Fr Pascoe learnt that choosing to be a priest for life meant opting for a life of indefinite adventures.
For the first three years of the priesthood, Fr Pascoe was warmly welcomed into Maryborough’s Catholic community, where he served with Fr Harry Bliss.
While the country setting taught the young priest much about service, a study trip to America set Fr Pascoe on the path to teaching.
He spent four-and-a-half years studying his licentiate and then doctorate in theology at the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Belmont, Massachusetts.
Fr Pascoe said it was “a very significant time” in his early years.
“It was a highlight and a significant privilege to live in another country for four and a half years and be given an education,” Fr Pascoe said.
Returning to Australia in 1997, Fr Pascoe began teaching at the former Pius XII Seminary before working at St Paul’s Theological College as the assistant head.
When the Bishops merged St Paul’s Theological with the Australian Catholic University, Fr Pascoe remained faithful to his teaching apostolate as Head of the School for Theology.
“That’s been a wonderful time, watching lights come on in students, in class, and that sort of guidance, and feeling the energy the seminarians and other students had showed for theology,” he said.
After almost 15 years as a teacher, in 2012 Fr Pascoe found himself in a new position as dean of St Stephen’s Cathedral, at the request of Brisbane’s new Archbishop Mark Coleridge.
After two years watching over the city, Fr Pascoe said “the rhythm of prayer” at the cathedral “parallels with the movement of people” who eat, rest and socialise on the grounds.
“It’s alive and dynamic,” Fr Pascoe said.
“One of the keys for me is what’s the relationship between the Church and the city.
“We have a privileged precinct and position physically within the city.
“How do we engage in the city in all sorts of ways, through learning, teaching and through art?
“We are providing a space here, for example at lunch time. How are we hospitable to people we are neighbours with?
“I think I also have a responsibility for people who work in the precinct, for the Church, so it’s nice to be part of that movement.”
At the heart of Fr Pascoe’s ministry as a priest is the ability to deepen people’s prayer life.
“At its core, what I love about being a priest is leading people in prayer,” he said.
“Whether it’s presiding at Eucharist, sacraments and other times of prayer.
“And as a teacher, there is a dimension of being a priest which is to teach, and that I’ve emphasised for part of my way.”
Fr Pascoe won’t know if he will return teaching or continue pastoring the sheep in the middle of the city, but he knows the wisest decision is to just let God be in charge.
“I was sitting with a friend of mine, the parish priest of Ayr, Fr Michael Taylor, who was ordained with me, and we would never have thought this is where we would be after 25 years, so we’re not even going to be bothered to guess,” Fr Pascoe said.
“You have no idea where God is going to take you.”
