Fr. Pat is originally from Nothern Kentucky where ALL of his family still resides; 5 siblings, 18 nephews and nieces as well as 9 or 11 great nephews and nieces. Fr. Pat has served in the Diocese of Lexington since its founding. He has been a priest for 45 years and has had the privilege of being Pastor of Pax Christi for 5 of those years.
If Fr. Patrick Stewart hadn’t become a priest, he probably would have been a teacher. “I taught religion at the high school level for five years at St. Henry Catholic School in Elsmere, Kentucky,, and I really enjoyed it,” he says. “There came a time though when I had to make a choice whether to become a full-time priest or a full-time teacher, so I went with becoming a priest.”
Ft. Pat says he always found the priesthood interesting and after graduating high school, he attended seminary at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland. He was ordained on May 13, 1978, and Pax Christi is the seventh parish where he has served.
One of Fr. Pat’s hobbies is watching and attending auto racing events such as the Indianapolis 500. During the past four decades years, he been a spectator in the stands at almost every Indy 500. “In its early days, ESPN claimed it was the world leader in motorsports coverage, and they covered a lot of auto racing that I watched,” Fr. Pat says.
In his 45th year as a priest, Fr. Pat says he’s glad he followed the calling to become one. “I love being a priest!”
Favorite Bible Passage: Ephesians 3:14–21: “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine, by the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”