Priest Takes Religion on Road for Carnival Workers

His business card reads: “Phone 315-782-2468 for anything except to borrow money.”

It reflects the fun-loving spirit of the “business” he is in--carnivals.

Meet Msgr. Robert J. McCarthy, whose religious mission is to serve his congregation of “carnies,” the amusement company workers who travel from town to town, setting up Ferris wheels and ring-toss games.

Today and Saturday, “Father Mac--the Carny Priest” will be chaplain to the B&B; Amusement Co., operators of the rides, games and amusements at the Orange County Fair--his first chance to visit Orange County.

“The average person, and even most reporters, don’t know that there are 400 of these carnivals” traveling through the country, he said. “And they employ about 100,000 people.”

Although he technically is based in his native New York, Father Mac, 68, lives out of a suitcase, just like the carnies he ministers to. Just in from Syracuse, Father Mac will hop a plane Sunday afternoon for Cheyenne, Wyo. His trips are financed, in part, by carnival operators.

In his luggage he carries the necessary supplies to perform weddings, funerals, Masses, baptisms and just about any Catholic service--a portable church.

Father Mac will celebrate Mass at 11:30 today underneath a roller coaster, in a special service blessing the fair. “I set up wherever I can,” he said.

He does not, however, have a booth to hear confession. On Thursday, one repentant carny quietly confessed his sins to Father Mac, as the two stood next to carnival rides being assembled at the fair.

“Wherever it’s possible, even a parking lot,” he said.

Each December he holds a special service for carnies who have died during the year and who have been buried in one of 10 cemeteries in the country especially for carnies.

Although Father Mac is Catholic, many in his traveling congregations are not.

“It’s a privilege we get that’s pretty hard to get,” said Alex Freedman, a Jewish carnival worker for more than 50 years. “It’s a wonderful thing to have him come around.”

Freedman agreed that many carnies want to attend church regularly but are not able to because of their jobs.

But with only four Catholic priests in the country to serve the carnies, it’s a long time between visits. The B&B; workers are seeing Father Mac for the first time in three years.

In fact, few clergymen from any religion ever travel visiting carnivals and circuses, he said. He knows of a fundamentalist pastor with a similar outreach, but since he is married, it is even more difficult for him to travel, Father Mac said.

Pope John Paul II was so interested in Father Mac’s work that he granted him a rare private audience in his Vatican office in 1980. Then in 1981 he met the Pope again in a conference for immigrant outreach programs. Father Mac said he has been commended by the nation’s bishops, as well as many community groups.

But what makes his job even more enjoyable, he said, is the humble and charitable nature he has seen in carnival people that adds to the good nature of carnivals.

Reflecting a bit of his own good nature, Father Mac unbuttoned his black shirt to reveal a T-shirt with a beer company emblem. It’s one of several such shirts he wears beneath his clerical collar--a practice he admits not telling the bishops about.