“My vision of the priesthood as I was growing up and throughout my years of study … was simply to be a Parish Priest” wrote the Very Rev. John J. Backes upon his retirement earlier this summer.  Looking back on fifty years of priestly ministry, he was grateful that his formative vision had been fulfilled.  The “Very” in his formal title indicates his service as Dean, or Senior Priest of the area deanery, a position indicating that his fellow priests and the Cardinal Archbishop agreed with his parochial flock, that he is a skilled exemplar of priestly service and an insightful guide to his peers.

This Lutheran Care Center has particularly benefited from his priestly ministry.  In the dozen years since his appointment as pastor of St Stanislaus Kostka in Pleasant Valley, Father Backes has taken the Roman Catholic residents here under the wing of his parish.  Not only celebrating Mass regularly for them and offering ritual care to those at the end of their lives—patiently enduring the ever-changing pandemic protocols of recent years—he recruited and supervised Eucharistic Ministers and other volunteers to extend his work.  Having served parishes in Hastings-on-Hudson, Brewster, Hyde Park, Garnerville, and Dover Plains before coming to us, many LCC residents discovered that he was well acquainted with their spiritual journey from his first greeting.

Father Backes was a “lifer” in the archdiocese of New York, from Immaculate Conception Grammar School to Cathedral Prep and College to St. Joseph’s Seminary to priestly ordination by the late Cardinal Cooke at St Patrick’s Cathedral May 26, 1973.  As such, he represents an extraordinary generation of Roman Catholic clergy who, infused with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), found ways to engage with integrity and brotherly goodwill far beyond the boundaries of their own Catholic community.  Both residents and staff of the Lutheran Care Center, for nearly half of our twenty-five years so far, have been blessed by this “simple parish priest.”