Eye on the Ball: A match made in heaven
Father Peter at the Old Timers game Sunday, playing for Sweet Tomato’s, waiting his turn at bat.
Through the years, I’ve been on and off with religion.
I used to walk four miles every morning at 7 a.m. with priests from St. Gabriel’s Retreat House. I did that for at least 20 years and couldn’t quite get what faith was all about. Until about six years ago when I got to really know Father Peter DeSanctis.
Father Peter is a true priest. He doesn’t care what church you attend or your religious background. You can be assured that he is always the first one there when anyone is having a problem.
My admiration for him had to do with one of his rules with people. He felt that we all learn better from good example then spoken words. He never spoke to me about faith, going to Mass or anything else about religion, but he did set a strong example of how people should live.
He grew up in Manhattan, the oldest of five brothers. His mom and dad, Gloria and Peter DeSanctis, bought a house on Shelter Island about 40 years ago, which is when I first met him, when he visited his folks and made little side trips to the golf course.
As a boy in the city, Father Peter played baseball, handball, tennis and golf, continuing to play these sports for most of his life. Just this past weekend I had the opportunity to watch him play softball in the Old Timers game at Fiske Field. Father Peter played second base and I saw him hit a line drive over the shortstop’s head for an easy base hit.
Regardless of weather conditions, he still plays golf every Friday. By the way, don’t let him sucker you into a bet; the man knows how to play the game. Unfortunately, you will have to listen to him ramble as he continues to tell everything he has heard through the years about the game of golf.
Father Peter can also be found at almost every sporting event that is held on his favorite Island. I see him at all the basketball, Bucks and CYO games, golf matches and anything else involving the Island’s children. According to Father Peter, sports are a reflection of a vibrant parish life.
In spite of his fun personality and quirky sense of humor, he’s a serious man. Twelve years of Catholic education — including the good example of diocesan priests and religious men and women — supports the faith that his family cultivated in his youth. The seminary in Huntington taught him many of his lifelong habits, like practicing daily Eucharistic Adoration, to think Scripturally and to value a spiritual direction.
His experience in hospital work and the Army Reserve taught him many things, mainly that everyone wants to belong.
He has two earned master’s degrees and feels that children learn well from someone with his background.
He never lettered in a sport as a child, but still kept at it, believing in the power of sports.
The diocesan officials in his first assignments suggested he pursue some training in pastoral care of the sick. He spent nine years at Brooklyn’s Saint Savior Parish, which included responsibility for a 560-bed facility.
During the 1970s, Father Peter underwent basic training at Fort Dix and was commissioned for the Eighth Medical Brigade at a field hospital headquartered at Fort Hamilton. Anointing of the sick became his specialty.
Today, as a member of the Shelter Island Fire Department, whenever the pager sounds and the fire whistles go off, his memory returns to the red telephone that was beside his bed seven nights a week.
The next 11 years were at Our Lady of the Cenacle Parish in Richmond Hill. This parish encompassed an array of linguistic and cultural differences, where he couldn’t help but think that this was a superb education for a Catholic priest.
Father Peter’s assignment before coming to Shelter Island was at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament. This was during a time of great sadness in his life since his father, a battle-tested veteran of WW II, began to have symptoms of ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease. Eventually his dad had to be on a ventilator for the remaining 57 months of his life.
His background came in handy in the care of his parents. They both needed everything he could give. His parents are buried in Our Lady of the Isle cemetery, where their dutiful son visits almost daily.
Father Peter is overjoyed that his home parish is here, calling it “an unexpected dream fulfilled.”
I discovered that Father Peter is an example of “what you see is what you get.”
He’s spent a lifetime taking care of and praying for others. He remembers your name because he genuinely cares and worries about his friends. He will do almost anything to make you feel better, including telling you some of his off-the-wall jokes.
