Rev. Enrique Cadena is the pastor at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Holley. His priorities include building up the size of the congregation and continuing the parish’s outreach efforts. Photograph by Robbi Hess.

Pastor’s religious path leads to Holley church

For Father Enrique Cadena, life has been a series of journeys – both spiritual and physical. Now that journey has brought him to the Village of Holley as the pastor of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.

From the time that he was 15, Father Cadena knew that his calling was to spread the word of the Lord by reaching out and helping the people who needed it the most. Even though he was embroiled in one of the most controversial spiritual revolutions in Rochester’s recent Catholic history and was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church, his faith and his dedication to the people who needed him never wavered, he says.

Heeding the call
Cadena, who was born in Mexico City, said he first knew he wanted to become a priest following a trip with a missionary group. “When I was 15, I was part of a youth group who went on a mission,” he explained. “For a young boy, it was an opportunity to have a week-long adventure while helping the priests.” But the idea of the mission being only an adventure and a chance to be away from home for the first time changed for him following a trip he took with a nun. “We went to visit this old woman and she was so receptive to us,” he said. “When she looked at the nun the relationship seemed as if she truly believed she was in the presence of the Lord, just from seeing us.”

Becoming a priest seemed the next logical step for Cadena following his experience on the mission. “I could feel the presence of God and the priesthood has been my vehicle to deliver that message,” he said.

That visit had a profound effect on the rest of Cadena’s life. “I went home and told my mother that I wanted to become a priest,” he said,” … and at 16 I began my religious training.”

It was an 11-year journey to complete his training for the priesthood after which he joined the Mission Holy Spirit Order. Cadena’s spiritual path took him from his hometown of Mexico City to Vancouver, Canada to Rochester. Prior to his ordination, Cadena was sent to work at a church in Canada while he studied theology and learned English. “I went to Canada to learn English and my dream was born to come to North America and be a pioneer for our mission.”

Once his ordination was complete in 1982, he was sent to the southern part of Mexico to serve as a missionary. “It was a great experience. I was one of five priests who were ministering to the congregations of 112 churches,” he said. “I had 24 churches to oversee and some of those churches had congregations of up to 800 people.”

It was during that time that Cadena said he saw the need for a change in the priesthood. “We needed to work more closely with the people to try and build a leadership within the laity.”

Coming to Rochester
While Rochester was many, many miles from Mexico physically, it was spiritually where Cadena saw himself. “The Catholic Diocese had a mission from Rochester in Mexico. There was one priest and three lay people and they were sent to a very harsh, remote area,” he said. “It was so hard for them so I traveled to talk to them and I became the person they came to when they wanted to bounce ideas off someone.”

That experience led him to consider furthering his education by pursuing a master’s degree in family counseling. “It was Father Jim Callan (the priest at Corpus Christi Church) who invited me to come and stay with him if I found a university that offered the course I was seeking,” he said.

While Cadena was pursing his degree, he became involved in the needs of the Hispanic community through the church at which Callan ministered. “The church was also open to the idea of women serving as priests; there was an openness to all who wanted to receive communion, the church was also open to mixed denomination marriages, was inclusive to gays and was also open to the possibility of marriage for priests,” he explained. While Cadena said he knew those tenets were against the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, he felt himself being drawn into, and becoming part of a revolution that would challenge Rochester’s Roman Catholic Corpus Christi Church.

Cadena’s stay in Rochester was interrupted by a call back to Mexico by his Order. “I had to wait to be released from my order before I could come back to New York,” he explained. “It was difficult to accept the consequences of leaving my Order, but I felt my spiritual path was in North America.”

Changes within the church
Within the ministry of Corpus Christi Church, changes were occurring as the priests attempted to be more inclusive. The changes that took place at Corpus Christi caused Cadena, the Rev. Mary Ramerman and Father Callan to be excommunicated. When that happened the three continued their ministry under the auspices of Spiritus Christi Church. “We were no longer under the umbrella of the Catholic Church,” Cadena said. “We could still perform all the duties of a priest but they were considered ‘illegal’ under the laws of Catholicism. We joined the Federation of Christian Ministries and were legally recognized in the United States.”

Cadena’s split with Spiritus Christi came when he felt the church elders were still following the dictates of the Roman Catholic church and not necessarily following the ideals discussed when the “revolution” occurred.

It was in early 2002 that Cadena announced that he wanted to get married – to one of the Spiritus parishioners – an announcement that caused a further rift in his relationship with Callan, Ramerman and the newly formed church, he said.

New beginnings
During all of the religious turmoil he experienced, Cadena said leaving the religious path was nothing he ever considered. “Leaving the church was never an option,” he said. “I began pursuing ordination with the Episcopal Church because theologically the differences between this religion and the Catholic church are minuscule.”

One of the biggest changes – both personally and spiritually – was getting married. “I’d been single for so long that it has been a learning experience but it is not an opportunity I would have given up,” he said. “It’s an opportunity I never would have had with the Catholic Church.
He and his wife, Lisa, met while he was a pastor at Spiritus.

The tenets of the Episcopalian faith are closely aligned with the Roman Catholic ideals but Cadena said because of the church’s structure he was allowed to get married and almost as important – he was given the ability to work with, and answer to, his congregation – rather than the bishop. “In this faith we are governed by a board made up of members of the parish,” Cadena explained. “In this church I am more able to connect with my parishioners and tend to their spiritual needs.”

Jane and Don Bauch, members of St. Paul’s vestry who have a combined 20 years of service to the church, say that Father Enrique (as his parishioners call him) is an excellent fit for their congregation. “We were a long time without a priest at our church (other than a supplied priest for Sunday services) and we feel like Father Enrique came into our lives at a time when we really needed him,” Jane said. “I think we came into his life at a time when he was searching and it all came together.”

Members of the vestry, Jane said, didn’t follow the traditional path of going through the diocese for their pastor. “We [the vestry] took the bull by the horns, worked up the figures and made him an offer,” she said.

The Bauch’s agree that their parish has always been small but that they do “tremendous amounts” of outreach.

Don said that he is pleased with the ideas that Father Enrique has brought to the parish and for his work with the Spanish community. “He is a warm spiritual person who is bringing good ideas to our little parish,” he said.

In the future
Building up the membership of his church is a priority. “We have 40 parishioners on the mailing list but only about half of them attend services,” he said. “We are working on being a missionary church and putting ourselves out in the community to connect with the people who are members of the church.”

In addition to a 10 a.m. worship service, Cadena also offers a noon service which he delivers in Spanish. “Not many of the Hispanic community have heard about us yet so I am taking my ministry to them,” he said. “I offer religious services at the various migrant camps.”

St. Paul’s Church, at 2 Jackson Street, also plays host to a weekly soup kitchen in which other churches in the area also participate. “It is a family atmosphere,” he said.

The soup kitchen is on Saturdays from noon until 2 p.m. Prior to the meal, the church offers a children’s activity from 10 a.m. until noon. Many of the children who participate in the activities also help out with the serving of the meal.

Cadena said he would also like to see the church open its doors to host courses on spirituality, a men’s and women’s group and possibly become a meeting place for support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

“I always listen with the ears of faith,” Cadena said. “I sense there is something else in the future within the church that will be calling me. I sense something bigger.”