On February’s episode of Meet the Priest, Father Archie Tacay, pastor at St. Eugene in Wendell, shares how his family, home and upbringing led him to become a missionary priest with the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Listeners will laugh along as Father Archie, with humor and grace, talks candidly about how his dad first found out his intentions to becoming a priest (let’s just say it was a surprise) and what it was like to move from the bustling metropolis of San Antonio to the friendly community of Wendell.
Father Archie has no shortage of stories from his life and travels, stories that he often will use in his homilies. One story he shares on February’s program is about the year he spent with a family who scavenged the local trash heap to make a living.
As a seminarian in formation, he was sent to live with a family whose profession was to scavenge through the local trash heap. He lived with a family in a room so small that the mattresses had to be tied to the roof each morning, so there was room to sit and walk in the home.
Behind the scenes, Father Archie shared that it was, in part, tragedy that led his mission to begin sending seminarians to live with scavengers. In 2000, a mountain of waste collapsed. More than 200 people were confirmed killed and with the number of people considered "missing," most believe that the death toll was over 300.
Seminarians are sent there not only to learn charity and humility, but also to bring another side of life, and maybe hope for a way out, for children caught in a poverty cycle.
From that year, Father Archie cherishes two great lessons: the inherent dignity of the human being and how much we take food for granted.
“The crumbs were very precious … here we have food fights; we throw food in the garbage,” Father Archie said.
Meanwhile, in the year he spent with scavengers, the food was solely dependent on what treasures they could dig from the trash, and how they would be valued.
The year also deepened his passion for what first made him consider the priesthood, the desire to "walk with people."
He recalled an experience he had when he was young and saw a Missionhurst missionary priest. He said, “We were driving toward the city and I saw him, he was mingling with people and taking public transportation …. The simplicity of his life attracted me. It really imprinted in my heart and in my mind … how he walked with people … Like Jesus, he walked with people, he entered into the deepest longings of the people.”
To this day, the idea of walking with people is what brings Father Archie great joy. That and riding his bike around beautiful Wendell, which, with its green landscape, reminds him of his hometown in the Philippines.
You can find the interview with Father Archie on Divine Mercy Radio’s website: www.catholic540AM.org. Select "Listen" and then "Local Programs" to hear this and other Meet the Priest programs.