Sitting in the corner office of the Juneau Diocese, the Rev. Pat Travers points a couple blocks away to where he used to live and smiles.
Travers remembers the days long before he was a priest, when he worked at the federal building as a regional attorney for NOAA and was young and single, living in the Mendenhall Apartments. He was very involved with the church at the time, but enjoyed his job with NOAA, working in issues of marine fishery management.
Slowly, he came to realize that priesthood might be the route for him.
“It was a gradual process,” Travers says as he reflects. “I finally decided that unless I tried it, I would always wonder whether I should have, so I gave it a try and it worked out.”
Travers, who is now the interim Diocesan Administrator for the Juneau Diocese after the departure of Bishop Edward Burns for Dallas earlier this year, acknowledges that his path is different from the old-fashioned journey of a priest that most people envision. Instead of going to seminary during his adolescence as many priests used to, Travers went to law school and worked for years, not being ordained until the age of 41.
More and more priests are taking that route, Travers says, spending time in the secular world before entering the priesthood. He feels that it gives him more experience outside of what he calls the “cloistered” environment of a Catholic school or monastery that allows him to better aid families.
“When you’re talking about a profession in which you’re called to make a commitment of celibacy,” Travers says, “not to have any kind of experience outside of a monastic setting since you reached puberty is probably not the best preparation for serving people later on who are involved in marital situations.”
Travers, whose main job is as a pastor in Ketchikan, serves as an example of this new wave of priests who have secular experience prior to priesthood. This path has led to him being able to tackle the challenges of his job and relate to people in a distinctive fashion, which he’s doing in his current role in Juneau.
Staying down to earth
Lisa Lindeman’s first memory of Travers is of hearing his laugh.
Both of them were working in Washington, D.C., in the late 1980s. Lindeman was a legislative attorney and Travers was general counsel for NOAA. Lindeman vividly remembers walking down a hallway to Travers’ office and hearing him long before she saw him.
“Anyone who knows Pat will know it, the first thing that registered with me was his laugh.” Lindeman said. “That hearty laugh. He would laugh, I would laugh.”
That first meeting would spark a friendship that has lasted decades. Both of them ended up in Southeast Alaska, and Lindeman actually now works at NOAA, the section chief of the Office of General Counsel. Travers baptized Lindeman’s two daughters, and when he worked at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Juneau for eight years, he was a frequent dinner guest with Lindeman’s family. Though he’s now in Ketchikan much of the time, Travers has remained so close to Lindeman’s family that the two daughters both know that raspberry sorbet is Travers’ favorite dessert.
Travers’ past as a lawyer is clear in his writing, his analysis and his “ability to identify and explore nuances,” Lindeman says. She has noticed that despite his technical skills and intellect, Travers’ best quality is his ability to relate to and understand others.
“For all the challenges, the work challenges, the intellectual challenges, the church issues,” Lindeman said, “he can be a down-to-earth guy who can come to our house and laugh and tell stories like that. He’s very caring.”
Enjoying it while it lasts
Though Travers has spent a great deal of time in Juneau in the past, most of his time is now in Ketchikan where he’s the pastor at Holy Name Parish. When Burns left Juneau to become the head of the Dallas Diocese, the priests in the diocese held a secretive vote and elected Travers. The vote was finalized on the day Burns began in Dallas, so Travers started immediately.
His duties are largely administrative, as he’s not allowed to make any changes in local policy. His major role at the moment will be to work through the annual budget, which he says is a fairly easy task. Many of the tasks have been easy so far, with his background in law helping him stay organized.
The Vatican ambassador in Washington, D.C., will be selecting a new bishop for Juneau, but it’s unclear when that decision will be made. Travers said there was one search in the 1990s that went on for two years. Sitting in the corner office at the diocese, in front of a desk that’s totally clean save for two unopened water bottles, Travers doesn’t expect the search to take quite that long this time.
He’s enjoying it while it lasts, from reliving his memories in town to helping bridge the gap between bishops. Sometime soon, though, he’d like to return to his parish in Ketchikan full-time.
“So far it’s been a rewarding experience,” Travers says, his voice rising and the corners of his mouth stretching into a smile. “But I am looking forward to the arrival of the new bishop.”
He unleashes another one of his booming laughs, one that’s every bit as contagious as Lindeman remembers.
• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com or 523-2271.
Fr. Pat Travers, pastor at Holy Name Parish in Ketchikan, talks about being the diocesan administrator for the Diocese of Juneau, the bishop’s office in Juneau on Wednesday. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
