Hello St. Boniface Parish!

Hopefully, you have all heard by now that you are getting a new pastor. I am sure that you are all sad to see Father Kevin go and are probably feeling a bit apprehensive about “the new guy” and what kind of changes he will bring to the parish.  In order to alleviate some of the uncertainty inherent in any changeover, I would like to introduce myself.

First of all, to quote the opening scene of “The Good Place”:
Everything is Fine.
Relax!
Take a breath!
It’s going to be ok!

I am not here to turn your lives upside down.
I am not here to “fix” St. Boniface and tell you everything you’re doing is wrong.
I am not here to drag you back to the dark ages.
(Yes, I have heard some of the rumors).

I am here first and foremost to celebrate the sacraments, to preach the Gospel, and to be a part
of this faith community, growing together in our love for Jesus Christ and His Church. This is
why I became a priest!

My name is Father Josef Norys and as of June 29th, Bishop Barres has appointed me to be your
new Pastor. I am grateful to the Bishop for entrusting me with this sacred responsibility and am
very excited to be here at St. Boniface!

I come from a small family, with just one brother, who is 15 months younger than I. My parents
are both Catholic, 100% Polish, and they were born and raised in Chicago. My dad’s brother
(my Godfather) was a permanent deacon. I have never lived in Chicago and, sadly, I don’t
speak any Polish.

My father was a Naval officer, so I grew up all around the world. That’s why I have a hard time
answering the question: “Where are you from?” I was born in Kenitra, Morocco, 56 years ago on
a naval base and we moved every couple of years my entire childhood. From Morocco, we
moved to Rhode Island, then Hawaii, San Diego, Japan, Norfolk VA, Frederick MD, and finally
Fairfax VA, where I went to high school. During our travels, we managed to visit almost every
US state on cross-country road trips in between assignments. I learned how to make friends
quickly, but never really experienced having roots and never saw much of my extended family.

I went to the University of Virginia and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

While I was at college, my father retired and my parents moved to Johnson City, Tennessee,
where they have lived now for over 30 years. After college, I got a job in Bristol, VA, at an
electrical distribution equipment manufacturer and in 5 years worked my way up to Engineering
Manager. A friend from UVA called and told me that his company was sending him to Australia
to take over a renewable energy company and that he needed an Engineering Manager. He
asked if I would be interested. I said, “buy me a plane ticket and I’m there!” So, I spent a year
living in a nice condo on the beach in Perth, Australia, flying around and inspecting our wind and
solar power installations.  In one year, I managed to see most of Australia and also traveled to Hong Kong, Malaysia, Borneo, and even spent a month in Saudi Arabia. When I got back to the States, I moved to Mclean, Virginia, and started my own business doing computer consulting.

This is where my vocation story begins. After working for several years as a computer
consultant, flying around the country, and making good money, I realized that my life was
empty. My father had done his best to drag my brother and I to mass every Sunday as we were
growing up, but after high school we both drifted away from the Church. It had been years since
I regularly attended mass and when I realized that my life was empty because I had abandoned
God, I had a powerful conversion experience and decided it was time to get my spiritual life in
order. I went back to my high school parish and talked with the Pastor about coming back to the
Church. That began a two-year process of re-learning my faith, reading a lot of theology,
attending mass regularly and getting more and more involved with the parish. I jumped in with
both feet and before long I was in the men’s club, the Knights of Columbus, lectoring at mass,
teaching a first-grade CCD class, and volunteering weekly at a homeless shelter.

It got to the point where I was feeling like my work was getting in the way of my spiritual life and
so I started to think about how I could better unite the two. I considered working full time at the
shelter or with some other Catholic organization or maybe teaching and then I remembered
something my father used to say to me as I was growing up: “When you are trying to figure out
what to do with your life, don’t rule out being a priest. Your mother and I would be very happy if
you decided to go that route.” At the time, I thought he was crazy, because I was not
particularly interested in Church, but I guess he saw something that I didn’t.

My first thought was, “surely they wouldn’t want me,” which is common to just about every
vocation story, but I figured, why don’t I let them decide. So, I went and talked to my priest about
it, and he said he was wondering how long it was going to take me to realize that was the
direction God was leading me. He sent me to talk to the Vocations Director and in a very short
time I found myself at St. Charles seminary in Philadelphia studying for the diocese of Arlington,
VA.

After my second year at St Charles, Fr Elias (who was a Parochial Vicar at my home parish)
asked if I would be interested in joining a religious order in Austria with him and a couple priest
friends of his. The goal was to spend a few years in Austria and then come back to the US and
found a house here. I prayed about it and was convinced that this was where God wanted me,
so I hopped on a plane and within a month I was accepted to the novitiate and living in
Klosterneuburg studying German and getting ready to be a novice for the Canons Regular of St
Augustine at Stift Klosterneuburg, Austria.

Fr. Elias and Fr. Clemens joined me there in August and on the 28th of August 2002, we began
our novitiate. That first year was difficult, but I was absolutely certain that this is where I was
meant to be. After making simple vows the next fall, I went to Rome to study theology at the
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). Among many other amazing
experiences in Rome, I had the great privilege of standing in St. Peter’s square when the
election of Pope Benedict was proclaimed.

In the fall of 2006, I made my solemn profession and was ordained to the Diaconate. Shortly
thereafter, Fr Daniel and I were assigned to take over one of our largest parishes in Vienna – St.
Leopold in Donaufeld. The next spring, in April of 2007, I was ordained to the priesthood at the
monastery, and Fr. Daniel and I continued working together at Donaufeld, he as Pastor and me as Kaplan, or Parochial Vicar. In 2011, Fr. Daniel and Fr. Elias came here to Glen Cove to found our long-awaited Priory and I took over as Pastor at Donaufeld, where I worked for another 10 years.

Two years ago, I asked our Provost for permission to come join the guys here and he approved my transfer. I moved in last January (2021) and have spent the last year and a half helping out at St. Patrick, St. Rocco, and St. Hyacinth and have been acting as temporary Director of Religious Education for the three parishes.

My couple-year journey to Austria turned out to be almost 20 and now I am happy to be back in
the USA and am very much enjoying working in Glen Cove. I hope to be here for a long time to
come and I am very excited to see what God has planned for me here at St. Boniface and what I
can do to help it flourish.

I look forward to meeting each and every one of you as we begin this faith journey together. To
this end, we have planned a “Meet the Pastor” reception this Sunday, July 3, after the 12:00
mass. Please stop by for a cup of coffee and say Hi!

Fr. Josef