MERRILLVILLE, Ind. — Americans work hard for everything they have, said Father Michal Bucko, the new administrator of St. Michael Parish in Merrillville, Indiana.
The 36-year-old Slovak priest said the American work ethic was the most significant impression he formed in his first year in the United States.
“I’ve seen the life of people in America and the American reality. People in America have a hard life. Life is harder here than in Slovakia,” he said. “Here, people need to work more to have goods and services that in Europe are normal to have, like maternity benefits.”
He was also impressed by the politeness of the people.
“It is a hard life (in the United States), but the people are polite,” he continued. “They don’t speak about their personal problems. They are more private. They are tougher. It is a different culture from what we have in Slovakia. In Slovakia, people complain a lot about their problems.”
Father Bucko said he was also struck by the importance distance plays in the pastoral life of the church in the United States. He gave as an example the “big distances” he has had to travel for sick calls.
“A lot of pastoral planning is based on distance: the distance between churches, the distance between church and people’s homes,” he said. “In Slovakia, everything is so close, so we tend to think small. Here, everything is so big, so people think big.”
Father Bucko was born in Jakubany, Slovakia, in the Archeparchy of Presov, April 6, 1983. After attending seminary, he spent a pastoral year with Father Marian Kuffa, a well-known Slovak Roman Catholic priest who has a ministry with the homeless.
Though he and his wife are from the same town, they met at the University of Presov, where Jana was studying in the faculty of education. They married Jan. 10, 2009. He was ordained a deacon five days later, Jan. 15, and ordained a priest for the Archeparchy of Presov only 10 days after that, Jan. 25.
His first priestly assignment was as vicar at St. Peter and Paul Parish in Poprad. The following year, he was named pastor of Nativity of the Theotokos Parish in the historic town of Zakovce, originally a German town, where he served for eight years. The parish roster had 200 people, though only about 100 attended regularly, he said.
He had succeeded an elderly pastor, who was thrifty and saved a lot of money, but the church and rectory had been neglected and were in need of much repair, he said.
Father Bucko laid out a church restoration project and a fundraising campaign. The project cost 200,000 euros and he managed to secure 120,000 euros in grants from the federal and municipal governments. The entire project took seven years, concluding in 2017.
Then, Father Bucko and his wife discerned a call to come to the United States and began their visa application process.
“Bishop Milan (Lach of Parma) needed priests and we felt people needed our help,” said Father Bucko, who was a classmate in seminary with Father Jan Cizmar, who also moved to the United States with his family from Slovakia, and currently serves as administrator at St. Emilian Parish in Brunswick, Ohio.
“In Europe, people think there are no problems in the United States, that everything is good,” said Father Bucko. “But we knew there are challenges.”
Father Bucko, his wife and three young children finally arrived in Cleveland in July 2018. Father Bucko spent his first 10 months in the United States assisting Father Marek Visnovsky with the liturgical schedule and pastoral care of parishioners at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Holy Spirit and St. Mary parishes in the Cleveland area. He and his family lived in Parma during that period and his two school-aged children attended St. Mary Byzantine Catholic School in Cleveland.
In addition to leaving behind family and friends, Jana also suspended her part-time studies and left her full-time teaching position to move to the United States, where her visa does not allow her to work.
Jana admitted that the first few months in the United States were challenging. Having worked in England for 30 months as a nanny and then in food production, she knew coming to a new country wouldn’t be easy.
“The first month, it was a cultural shock,” she said of her first months in the United States. “The second month, I was homesick. But now, it’s much better.”
This past spring, Bishop Lach assigned Father Bucko to St. Michael Parish in Merrillville, effective June 1. The family moved at the end of May, and Father Bucko celebrated his first Divine Liturgy at his new parish June 2, succeeding Father Andrew Summerson, who served as administrator ad interim, after the former pastor, Father Basil Hutsko, was placed on administrative leave last fall.
“We are glad to be here,” said Father Bucko. “We have a beautiful church and beautiful people. The people are very kind and they helped us a lot with our moving and with finding a school for our children.”
The Buckos are not living in St. Michael’s rectory. Rather, the parish rented a single family dwelling for them in Crown Point, Indiana, about six miles away, which has a stronger school district for the children.
“There is a lot of work to do at the parish, but of course we cannot do it all at once,” he said.
Parishioners welcomed their new full-time administrator, who wasted no time in “getting down to business,” said Debbie Laczkowski, a parishioner for 26 years. “He’s taking things one step at a time. People see this and are grateful.”
Laczkowski said he has already moved ahead with a major clean-up of the parish office and the installation of an alarm system. He is also helping parishioners with a plan to reinvigorate parish life in response to directives from the bishop to reflect on the state of the parish, she said.
“We’re very optimistic that we can do this,” Laczkowski added.
Father Bucko is open to discussing ways to maximize the large facility, she said. The parish is also back on its previous weekend schedule, with Divine Liturgy on Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
“People are relieved there’s a full-time priest now,” she said.
Caption 1:
Father Michal Bucko preaches his first homily as administrator of St. Michael Parish in Merrillville, Indiana, June 2. (Photos: Laura Ieraci)
Caption 2:
Father Michal Bucko, his wife, Jana, and their three children pose in front of the icon screen of St. Michael Byzantine Catholic Parish in Merrillville, Indiana, after Father Bucko’s first Divine Liturgy at the parish June 2.
This article combines two articles published in Horizons, Aug. 4, 2019. Sign up for Horizons digital newsletter.