Fr. Dennis Budka, team member at Holy Family Parish, Fond du Lac, has written “Now You See It, Now You Doughnut, A Perfectly True Work of Fiction.” (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Arendt)

Fr. Paul Stanosz, pastor of St. James, Franklin, has written “The Struggle for Celibacy: The Culture of Catholic Seminary Life.” (Catholic Herald photo by Sam Lucero)

A superhero’s journey to greatness

By almost any measure — exposure, esteem, money — writing for comic books is often viewed as a step down for authors who are enjoying success in TV, films or fiction.

Try telling that to the big name scribes who have taken the plunge into the pulpy world of muscle-bound superheroes. Their successes surprise even them. And tell that to Fr. Dennis Budka, team member of Holy Family Catholic Parish in Fond du Lac, who at age 10 ignited his love for the written word by creating comic book stories.

A Milwaukee archdiocesan priest since 1984, Fr. Budka’s professional writing career began in 1985 through the mid 90s by sketching cartoons for your Catholic Herald.

Building on one of his earlier characters, Fr. Budka recently published his first book, “Now You See It, Now You Doughnut, A Perfectly True Work of Fiction,” a novel based on personal memories of a more innocent time of reading and writing comic books.

According to Fr. Budka, “Now You See It, Now You Doughnut,” published by Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, is a fantasy about a young boy, Bob Blob, who was born for greatness.

“By the age of 9, he was so great that he had already learned how to bounce,” he said. “This is the story of the family he mostly didn’t have and his adventures at Professor Wie’s School for Gifted Children (formally known as the Friendly Regimen Extra Ability Kids School).”

During Bob’s tenure at the school, he visits a secret superhero hideout, a space colony in the far future, and learns of the strange and magic country that his friend, Elf, calls home.

“Working with the 20 other kids at his school, all of whom have super powers, Bob shows himself to be brilliant, but naïve (and loyal to a fault),” Fr. Budka said. “His ability to get along with others proves just as important as his courage and strength. With a wry sense of humor (and an insatiable appetite for food as well as puns) Bob defeats his internal and external foes.”

Bob realizes that believing in oneself is more important than super strength. He found most important of all is his faith.

“For there is a hero hidden inside every man and woman, girl and boy, just waiting to get out and show the world what glory really means,” Fr. Budka explained. “Bob will be tested in the crucible of many trials so that he can ultimately reaffirm the confidence of people everywhere in the goodness to which we are all called.”

A native of Milwaukee, Fr. Budka attended Milwaukee Area Technical College, Saint Francis de Sales Seminary College and Saint Francis Seminary School of Pastoral Ministry. In addition to serving at Holy Family the past six years, Fr. Budka enjoys drawing, music composition and performance, writing and reading.

Released in September, early feedback declares the novel a winner – at least according to an area sixth grader and Fr. Budka’s mother.

“My mom likes it,” he said, lightheartedly, “and the other day the sixth grader said it was ‘cool’; it will be very hard to top that review.”

Making an impact upon priestly formation

While a doctoral student at New York’s Fordham University in 2000, Fr. Paul Stanosz began researching the sexual lives of Catholic priests for his coursework. He researched celibate and sexually active priests.

In writing his dissertation, Fr. Stanosz, ordained in 1984, and current pastor of St. James Parish in Franklin, focused on seminary formation after learning through numerous interviews that many priests felt ill-prepared by the seminary to live a celibate life.

“I was also aware that many Catholic priests did not live lives of celibacy and that intimacy and relationships were a source of struggle for many priests,” he said. “There was little sociological research on the sexual lives of priests – the field was ‘virgin territory’ when I began the research. All that changed in spring 2002 with the latest wave of the clerical abuse.”

Intrigued by his research, Fr. Stanosz put his findings into book form. In order to find time to write his first book, “The Struggle for Celibacy: The Culture of Catholic Seminary Life,” published in July by Herder and Herder, he took an unpaid study leave and attended school.

“Sociology as a discipline tends to de-mystify and debunk, and since 2002 there has been an increased awareness of the need for empirical studies of priestly formation and the lives of priests,” he said. “While seminary faculty members, bishops, and vocation directors privately bemoan the decline in intellectual aptitude and affective maturity of men entering the U.S. seminaries in recent years, they are reticent about saying anything publicly.”

Despite that, feedback on Fr. Stanosz’s research, book and articles has been positive from seminary faculty, as well as from Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, he said.

“People find the book balanced and the candor refreshing,” said Fr. Stanosz. “People are intrigued by my research and want more transparency from priests and church officials regarding the sexual thoughts, feelings and behaviors of their priests.”

While Fr. Stanosz’s research is important for the formation of future priests, he admits that many who read his research become upset and disheartened.

“My research saddens some because I am able to show how seminary formation works to inculcate clericalism, whether intentionally or not, in priesthood candidates,” he said. “I offer empirical data that documents problems with seminary formation and the declining caliber of candidates at seminaries like Sacred Heart and Saint Francis that points to a looming leadership crisis in the church. Not everyone wants to hear this, but it is up to sociologists to provide the data, even when their findings are unpopular or not ‘politically correct.’”

Released in June, “The Struggle for Celibacy” is receiving positive reviews, and Fr. Stanosz’s research is receiving national attention.

“I most recently presented at the Society for the Social Scientific Study of Religion and have presented on homosexuality to the American Sociological Association,” he said. “I have written three articles on clerical sexuality for Commonweal. I knew there was an untold story in the study of priests’ sexuality, but I had no idea how many priests were abusers and the level of episcopal arrogance and clericalism that made it possible for serial abusers to molest children in parish after parish.”