St. Stephen's Parish welcomes new priest

WARWICK - In the words of the Rev. Michael McLoughlin, pastor of the Church of St. Stephen, the First Martyr, the good news was that for the third time in recent years the parish had an opportunity to welcome a newly ordained priest. The Rev. Robert J. Bubel, just ordained by Edward Cardinal Egan on May 10, was assigned as parochial vicar to St. Stephen’s parish in Warwick, effective May 24. McLoughlin added, however, that the bad news for the parish was that Bubel would be replacing the Rev. Patrick Buckley, who had been reassigned to St. Teresa’s parish in Staten Island. And, as one saddened parishioner told Buckley: “You’ve made too many friends here.” Reassigning new priests after four or five years has become commonplace in the Archdiocese of New York and elsewhere. The additional experience of serving in a different parish is often seen as a stepping stone to becoming a pastor. The Rev. Thomas Byrnes, for example, whose first parish was St. Stephen’s and who was reassigned in approximately the same time frame as his replacement, Buckley, is now pastor of Sacred Heart parish in Monroe. Bubel, 30, is the son of Maureen and Joseph Bubel of LaGrangeville in Dutchess County. The family attended Mass at St. Columba’s parish which Bubel said is very similar to his new parish and one of the many reasons he knows he will like the Warwick area. Before answering his call to the priesthood, Bubel, who had earned a degree in electrical engineering, was employed as a microprocessor test engineer with IBM in Vermont. He had a good job and an active social life attending parties and participating in sports including swimming (his father was a coach), skiing, snowboarding, hiking, boating, fishing and motorcycling. But the idea of the priesthood was ever present in the back of his mind. He recalled that one day he was sitting quietly in a church asking the Lord for guidance when an older woman, a complete stranger, touched him on the shoulder and said, “I love you.” Bubel said he believes this was a message from God, a sign of His love and a call to the priesthood. A couple of months later, when he announced to his family his intention to enter the seminary. “It was a beautiful moment and a great joy,” he said. In welcoming Bubel at the conclusion of Mass on May 24, Buckley, famous for his ardent support of the New York Mets, joked that the only problem for him was that he suspected Bubel was a Yankee fan. Bubel confessed: “Yes, I am.”