Catholic Priest Committed to Serving Appalachian Community

The Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky -- its hard to imagine that such a beautiful place could be filled with so much sorrow. But Father Ralph Bieting of the Christian Appalachian Project has lived among the mountain people for over 50 years. Father Bieting and his ministry do what they can to relieve the suffering here. There are stories he will never forget.

"I was in Jackson County building a little church," he recalls. "I was giving this gentleman a job. He was 20 years old, he was married, and they were expecting their first child. He finally came to me and said, 'Its here. We want you to come and see it.'

"I get there and he comes in -- his name was Oscar -- and he says, 'I want you to come over and see the baby.' Then he put me over in the corner and said, 'Aint it a pretty thing?' I said, 'Oscar, its beautiful, but why do you have it in a cage surrounded by chicken wire?' 'Oh,' he says, 'so the rats wont eat on it.'

The Appalachian Mountains are among the poorest areas in the United States.

"We certainly have child abuse. We have spouse abuse. We have a lack of jobs and therefore poverty. We have a lot of despair. We are involved with poor housing, poor health care. We dont have enough physicians and doctors and hospitals. Were frequently at the bottom of the 50 states as far as education is concerned. But I think the biggest thing is that we have not recognized that the answer to all these things is Christ."

Father Bieting went to Appalachian at the age of 26 right after he was ordained as a Catholic priest. The year was 1950.

"I was appalled at the trash and the filth. Everything was dumped out -- old cars wrecked and junked on the side of the road, old refrigerators dumped out, and everything else. It just was awful. God has given us one of the most beautiful places on earth and weve transformed it into a garbage dump. Thats always been my greatest hope to plant a flower. I wanted to bring forth a tree that bore fruit, but that saddened me then and it saddens me today. By the time the summer was over, I knew I had fallen in love, something had happened to me. It was not merely the love of the mountains and the grandeur of the scenery, but it was the people and it was the challenge."

Unfortunately Father Bieting was not well received by the community.

"The Catholic presence in Eastern Kentucky was not something that was well accepted. Catholics were not very many. Most of them were foreigners that were brought in to work in the mines, and so there was a great deal of prejudice."

Father Bieting was attacked by dogs, shot at, hit by tomatoes and run off the road. His life was even threatened! But he was determined to show Gods love.

"These people can yell at me, they can shoot at me, they can do all kinds of things, and Im not going to get angry at them, because that isnt the way of Christ. Im going to be patient. You think to yourself, My god, all this struggle is worth it, all the sweat and all the aggravation and all the problems are worth it when you can bring Christ into their lives."

Father Bieting persevered, and through Gods love, a beautiful relationship was cultivated. Now the people ask, "Wheres Father Bieting?"

"Every once in a while, some of my friends and family that know me pretty well say, 'What really has kept you there so long?' And I said, 'I found if you could lose your mind early it was a lot easier.' I said, 'Ive done that very well.' I think in a very real sense theres more truth to it than just losing your mind, because as St. Paul said, 'It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Its no longer my thoughts, but His thoughts.'"

"Its easy to come in and say, 'This needs to be done. That needs to be done.' Father Beiting came in and did it, and put together a group of people that worked on faith, blood sweat and tears, to make these things a reality and to make the improvements that have been made," says Ben Prewitt, vice president of Christian Appalachian Project.

Through the Christian Appalachian Project and Father Bieting lives have been changed.

"Spiritually, they just gave me back myself, of who I want to be," says one grateful woman

Another woman adds, "They built my confidence up, and there is nothing that could get me down."

"I came from no self-esteem to fantastic self-esteem because of the help from them," says a third thankful woman.

"Jesus made the statement, 'He who is the greatest among you, let him be your servant.' And the greatness of Father Bieting is hes a servant," says Richard Ginn, chaplin of Christian Appalachian Project. "Hes the person that looks at servanthood as what God has called him to be."

Says Father Bieting, "What I would like to say to all the people that hear me or see me is come dream with me, come pray with me, come sacrifice with me, come grow old with me. The best is still to be. Lets take the road least traveled by, and well find sunrise and well find peace and well find joy."