James Windell
When Father Bob Flickinger saw St. Basil Church overlooking Lake Michigan, he knew he had found his dream parish. He lived that dream for 10 years as pastor of St. Basil.
Recently, Fr. Bob was recognized by South Haven Mayor Annie Brown, who presented him with a proclamation in honor of his 50 years in the priesthood.
The humble and self-effacing priest who will turn 81 this month says that he was truly honored by the proclamation which he says “captured a bit of my spirit.” In a recent interview, he said that the proclamation touched on the things that have been near and dear to his heart. “I have made a great effort over my life and in the priesthood to reach out to minorities and the disenfranchised – those who we sometimes forget are amongst us.”
Cited in the proclamation are his work over the last several decades trying to help those who indeed are frequently forgotten. The proclamation reads in part that Fr. Bob’s life has been “[a] challenge to all of us to reach beyond our homes to welcome the poor, the meek and the immigrants into our communities.”
The proclamation continues with a tribute to his mission work – both in western Michigan and outside of the U.S.: “Whereas, throughout his half century of being a priest Father Bob has been vital in expanding outreach to our Hispanic sisters and brothers throughout the Kalamazoo Diocese; and Whereas, Father Bob has been instrumental in growing the ministry to the migrant farmworker community, and expanding Masses celebrated in Spanish in the parishes he served, and serving the girls’ orphanage in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; and Whereas, Father Bob helped establish a sister parish in El Sitio, El Salvador, where he and a delegation of parishioners delivered school supplies, celebrated baptisms, weddings, and a Mass celebrated by the entire village for 25 years…”
This spirit of reaching out to the disadvantaged goes back to his youth. Born and raised in Grand Rapids, during his teenage years he was driving priests to their mission work in the Traverse City area. “When I was in high school, I worked with migrant farm workers,” he says. “I helped drive, but that was my first real entrance into a different community.”
But he also credits his mother with instilling in him a desire to be helpful to others. “My parents, but my mom, especially, was so service oriented. She was always looking for a way to help people.”
After graduating from Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids, he wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do with his life. But he soon decided that he wanted to consider religious life. At first, he joined the Salesians of Don Bosco in New Jersey. The Salesians of Don Bosco are a religious congregation of Catholic men. The aim of the congregation that dates back to 1859 was to help poor and migrant youngsters during the Industrial Revolution. With Don Bosco Fr. Bob did his novitiate and then he had opportunity to go to Ecuador in South America.
In telling about going to Ecuador now he laughs as he recalls how naïve he was. “I didn’t even know where Ecuador was or what language they spoke,” he says. “It was a real faith leap.”
However, he was assigned to a school in Ecuador to help out with their bilingual program. While working there, he met a Jesuit priest who was working with street kids. That was an inspiration for him, and he ended up living and working in Ecuador for three years. The priest he got to know in Ecuador asked him why he wasn’t studying for the priesthood. “I told him I didn’t think I was smart enough nor did I have the background,” he recalls. “That’s not true he said to me.”
When Fr. Bob returned to the U.S., he discovered he was smarter than he thought as he completed a six-year seminary program in four years. As a young priest he went to Laredo, Texas, to help start a new parish down there in a Spanish community.
When he returned from Laredo, he started his ministry in this area at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Kalamazoo. He also moved around to other parishes. And 25 years ago, he began a yearly visit to El Sitio in El Salvador in Central America. “For most of those years, we were taking adults and college students there,” he says, “but more recently we cut back on taking youth groups because it got a little more dangerous down there.” However, he and the adults who still go there deliver school supplies, celebrate baptisms, weddings, and conduct Masses.
After serving as Pastor at St. Basil starting in 2007, and now substituting at various churches in Western Michigan, Fr. Bob is uncertain about the future. “I hope I can continue to help once in a while, although I won’t be in a leadership role anywhere,” he says. “I like living here in South Haven and calling this my parish. I am a parishioner, but I’ll say Mass when they ask me.”
He adds that he hopes to continue working in El Salvador. “I would like to see El Sitio grow even more, and I’d like to be a part of that – if I’m physically able to do that.”
No matter what, though, Fr. Bob plans on helping whoever and whenever he can.
However he ends up helping others, he will, as Mayor Brown’s proclamation points out, be doing it with “selfless service, loyalty, and love for our St. Basil Parish and the South Haven community.”
“I want to be a good friend to people,” he says. “And to be helpful.”
