The priest and the woman who always walked the walk

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

There is no facile textbook for this.

As the grieving St. Peter Parish community in Covington struggles to make sense of the inscrutable – the senseless murders of a beloved former pastor and a woman who gave her adult life lighting the spark of faith in those seeking connection to the Catholic Church – there are many more questions than answers.

Ultimately, the question boils down to this: “Why?”

And, the answer boils down to this: “God only knows.”

There are no human answers.

Father Otis Young, the pastor of St. Peter for the last 10 years, was such a faithful priest that when he was struck down in the COVID year of 2020 by a debilitating stroke – which weakened the left side of his body to the point he needed help buttoning his shirts and was forced to use a rolling walker to navigate himself to the altar – he poured himself into physical rehabilitation. He was determined to crawl his way back to his people.

Likewise, Ruth Prats, who for 30 years was the director of the burgeoning RCIA program at St. Peter, was a walking saint. Over and above her ministry to those adult spouses and children who wanted to become Catholic, she also devoted herself to those who wanted to become restored. In recent years, Prats worked with the recently incarcerated who needed an anchor and a life preserver, which, of course, she provided.

Deacon Dennis Adams was a lay Catholic in the pews in 2002 when his wife Ruth decided to investigate the RCIA so that she might become Catholic. Adams tagged along with her to the classes, which were overseen by Ruth Prats.

Prats was brilliant in her teaching methods. She likened the journey of someone desiring to enter the church to a couple’s meeting each other, dating, falling in love and then deciding to give their lives to each other in a covenant relationship.

“Ruth had been a teacher in public school, and Father Bill (McGough, the former St. Peter pastor) helped form her in running the RCIA,” Deacon Adams recalled. “She had a way of explaining the whole program like it was a couple’s progression. You develop this relationship to know the other person, and then you begin to love that person. And then you see God working in your lives together. Ruth brought the entire community together. Our Easter Vigil was always packed. Every year, we would have 10, 30, 35 people coming into the church. Over the years, she helped hundreds upon hundreds come into the church.”

Something else happened during the RCIA program that brought Ruth Adams into the Catholic Church. Her husband began to feel something stirring in his own soul at the Easter Vigil in 2002.

“All of a sudden, I realized God might be calling me to the ministry of the diaconate,” Deacon Adams recalled. “I shared that with Ruth (Prats) later. She made the RCIA special for everyone.”

For both Father Young and Prats, the Easter Vigil was the Super Bowl of Catholic life. Father Young loved to walk up and down the aisle during the sprinkling rite – during which Catholics renewed their baptismal promises – wielding the biggest green branch imaginable and dousing everyone in the pews with an ecclesiastic waterfall.

“He would soak you from head to toe,” Deacon Adams said, laughing. “I had water dripping off my glasses. He said one time he wanted to get one of those water cannons.”

Every September, Prats’ job was to speak at all Masses on one weekend and beat the drums for parishioners to encourage candidates to enter the RCIA program.

“She always told the people, ‘The No. 1 reason people do not come into the church is that no one asks them to,’” Deacon Adams said. “She called upon all the parishioners to be the evangelizers – because they are the evangelizers.”

Prats never invoked platitudes. Recently, she felt compelled to reach out to the previously incarcerated. A man who had been released from prison – who had no prior connection either to the church or to Prats – came looking for a spiritual home and a life mentor. Prats guided him through the RCIA program, into the church at the Easter Vigil and helped him get his financial affairs in order.

The man now has a job and a home. Ruth Prats did that.

A few months ago, Prats texted a friend regarding her amazement over what she feels God accomplished through her fidelity.

“His journey from prison release to (being) homeless to (being) a homeowner can only happen by extraordinary grace,” Prats wrote.

The man Prats mentored and helped get on his feet has absolutely no connection to the released prisoner Covington police say murdered Prats and Father Young on Nov. 27 in a random act of violence.

The man Prats helped save and restore to the fullness of life has the same question everyone else has: “Why?”

“He’s in tears,” Deacon Adams said.

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