Jammin’ For Jesus: South Hills priest using music to influence others
By Eleanor Bailey
God threw the Rev. John Skirtich a curve ball on the way to becoming a renowned ESPN analyst. He felt he was called to the Catholic priesthood.
Today, 29 years after his ordination, Skirtich is the one with the change-up.
As a guitarist in a rock band called the Soul Searchers, he’s not only shaking things up in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, he’s converting nonbelievers and bringing fallen-away Catholics back into the fold.
“What I do, I call ‘subtle evangelization,'” Skirtich said. “By participating in sports and music and other community events, I try to be present with people in a way that builds a bridge. So that I, both myself as a priest, and the church in general become approachable and may be something they feel like they want to participate in.”
Through the band, Skirtich said he has introduced people into the Rite of Christian Initiative of Adults (RCIA) program. Folks have also returned to the flock, coming back to Mass and participating in church functions.
Skirtich says it’s God’s way of using his talents and gifts to work out his plan.
“Everybody is a different person and not just priests. We are all supposed to be active apostles,” Skirtich emphasized. “I think God uses each person, and hopefully me too, to do the things they do well so that we can help people. I am looking to evangelize and get people interested in the faith and (playing in the band) is one of the ways I do it.”
Skirtich has always been interested in music and sports, but he wasn’t always eager to evangelize. He was, after all, a normal youth.
One of Loretta and Joseph Skirtich’s five children, he grew up in Brentwood, where one swam at the community pool in the summer, played baseball in the park and basketball in the streets. He attended Elroy Elementary School and Brentwood Junior High. He played the trombone in the high school marching band at Seton LaSalle and in the pep band at Duquesne University.
“My two hobbies and my two avocations were sports and music. I love them both. They are both important to me. Now that I am older and my body hurts a lot more, I play more music,” said the 56-year-old Roman Catholic priest with a hearty laugh.
When he was more lithe and limber, Skirtich played intramural sports, including street hockey at Duquesne University. However, his broadcasting and journalism skills were keener. Nicknamed “Scoops Skirtich” for his penchant for breaking news on the bluff, he wrote columns for Duquesne University’s student newspaper The Duke, announced basketball games, aired on WDUQ radio, sold tape to UPI and submitted major reports for NPR.
“I like to tell people that if I had stayed in broadcasting I would be one of those guys on ESPN because I loved sports so much,” Skirtich explained.
Skirtich loved his social life at Duquesne as well. He belonged to a fraternity and dated his share of girls while he negotiated an academic tract. He majored in English and minored in journalism.
As graduation approached in the spring of 1985, however the “nagging thought of priesthood” persisted. It dogged Skirtich, never allowing him a moment’s peace.
“It was always on my mind. It simply would not leave me alone,” he said. “Here I am having the time of my life and I’m panicking, ‘what do I tell my frat brothers and what do I tell these girls’ because the priesthood was coming strong. It’s like your read in the bible and the prophets. It almost was a physical call. That’s why I knew I had to address this because I couldn’t move on with a career, start a job in radio or television, until I deal with this.”
That summer he told a priest he needed to try seminar. He entered St. Paul’s Seminary the following January and ended up back at Duquesne studying pre-theology. Of the intriguing semester, where he bumped into old frat brothers and girlfriends, he said, “It was interesting. I couldn’t tell people why I was back on campus. It really was hard to tell them what I was doing.”
From 1986-1990, he pursued philosophy studies at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emittsburg, Md.
Skirtich was ordained May 19, 1990. Immediately, he applied his acquired skills to his ministry.
“I am so grateful for my background,” he said. “A lot of skills I developed at Duquesne in my radio and print days are things you can use in priesthood. A lot of the skills translated very well into priesthood.”
Gift of guitar
By the time he accepted his assignment at St. Maurice Parish in Forest Hills, Skirtich had acquired additional skills. On his own, he learned how to play the guitar.
While he became better acquainted with churchgoers by playing on the men’s softball team, he started “jamming” with musicians, who belonged to the parish. Eventually, he founded the Soul Searchers, which today include Joe Navarro on vocals, Harry Carr on bass, Dave Thomas on drums, Gary Hill on lead guitar and Ernie Dipko on keyboards.
“With two things that I love, I can evangelize through them,” Skirtich said of music and sports. “I used that to try and evangelize guys who were already Catholic but didn’t go to church and try to get them to go to church. By playing rock ‘n’ roll, I meet people in a place where they are. It’s a subtle message, ‘if I can be here, then maybe you can be here with me when I say Mass.’ That’s my personal strategy and in many cases it has worked. It has made me approachable and it has made the church approachable.”
The Soul Searchers does not perform “Praise and Worship” music. It’s all rock ‘n’ roll. Anything from the Beatles to newly released music or classic to modern rock.
During a recent performance in Bethel Park, the band’s 28-song set included familiar fare ranging from “Wagon Wheel,” “Shut Up and Dance,” “Play That Funk Music,” “My Sharona,” “American Girl,” “Take It Easy,” “Footloose,” “Still Breathing,” “Rock the Cabash,” “Take it Easy” and “China Grove.”
“People usually don’t know what to expect and are pleasantly surprised,” Skirtich said of the band’s selections as well as their sound. “I’m playing with some pros. I am just a member of the band.”
Because Skirtich is a member of the band, the group does not play some songs because of content. If he finds a certain tune unacceptable, he says, the band usually agrees with that.
“If it is not something I would be able to support, not morally,” he stressed, “we don’t play it.”
The Soul Searchers do, however, play all kinds of venues. The band’s next gig is Sept. 21 at Evans City Oktoberfest at the community fire hall.
In addition to the summer church festival circuit, the group has played at Elks Clubs, Jergle’s Rhythm Grille in the North Hills, Hard Rock Cafe and the Gateway Clipper.
Through these public appearances, Skirtich says he has been able to reach out to nonbelievers. The clubs are different places for him to meet new people and the reaction is often very positive, he says.
“They thought it was cool a priest is playing in a rock ‘n’ roll band. I thought it was a bridge to very subtly evangelize people. In between sets people would come up and ask me to pray for them or tell me a need they had.
“I did get a couple converts,” he added, “that actually became Catholics because I met them through the band.”
Light in the darkness
While Skirtich says has received good reviews regarding his role in the band from his peers – some of his fellow priests “think it’s cool” – he feels his story is positive in light of the negativism surrounding the Catholic church today because of the recent child abuse scandal within the organization.
“With all the bad things that have happened in the life of the church the past year or two, I try to show a positive view of priesthood,” he says, “I think it is a valuable thing to see a priest in this light, a positive light. That I am a normal person just like everybody else with interests like they have such as sports and music. That I hope I can relate to them and they can relate to me.”
Skirtich admits it’s unconventional, but then he says he never did fit into the stereotypical way a person would view a priest. He has always been his own person.
“That is who I am. Some people may not like that. They want the priest to be just that (a priest),” he said.
Admittedly, he added he has been pleasantly surprised by the level of acceptance in regard to his role in the band and the level of success the group has experienced. He says he would love the Soul Searchers to take the next step and perform some original works.
“My hope is that we can keep entertaining people and maybe continue to get a little bigger and a little better. We want to improve and as I say, ‘it’s a subtle way of promoting the faith,’ but realistically, people just like listening to the music. They like to hear songs that they know. That’s what they want to hear,” he says.
Skirtich loves to hear people begging for encores, however, he says his schedule only permits limited appearances. The band performs between six and 10 times a year. The group always plays on a Friday or Saturday night so as not to interfere with Sunday Mass schedules.
“We pick dates for gigs that won’t affect my ability to do my job,” he explained.
Work release
Because of recent reorganization, Skirtich has been assigned as the administrator of the South Hills Catholics Parish Grouping 218. The grouping includes St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin Church in Whitehall, St. Valentine’s Church in Bethel Park, Nativity in South Park and St. Germaine in Bethel Park.
Of bringing four parishes together in the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s Church Alive initiative, Skirtich says it’s extraordinary challenging and it cannot be overstated how difficult the task is. Hence, playing in the band “relieves tension” for him.
“It’s a good outlet,” he said.
For those who would disagree and would rather see him invest his time and talents elsewhere, Skirtich says he reminds them Jesus went where the people were and some of those places were “scandalous” and shattered the cultural norms of the times.
“Jesus shocked people and they had a right to be shocked,” he said because he was eating with tax collectors, which wasn’t allowed then. “Jesus would shock you for a higher purpose. He went where the people were because he was calling them to a new way of life.
“I try to preach that. To me, ‘praise and worship’ is where all the holy people go and they are already converted.”
Skirtich says he takes pride in being a priest who is able to be confided in.
“I am the guy who goes out and gets the person that doesn’t want to go to church and doesn’t want to talk to a priest, but they can do that with me,” he said. “I can reach out to people where they are in their lives. I feel good about that because I feel like what I am doing is working.”
Skirtich says he has heard talk that he should be a “normal priest.”
“People think I should be that way, but that is just not me,” he says. “We reach a different audience. I like to think I reach people that may not be comfortable with church and faith in God and I try to make it that they can be comfortable with it. I like to think that I have had success. When God called me, he called me the way I am.”
Skirtich believes Jesus would agree. And, if he wouldn’t jam with the Soul Searchers, he might have an interest in their music, he says.
“If he wasn’t a guitarist,” Skirtich says, “then I think he would go to the concert and I would think he would enjoy it.”
In Barbara Bush’s opinion, The Soul Searchers should be headliners at rock venues such as the Key Bank Pavilion, Heinz Field or PPG Paints Arena. For now, however, she will settle for Peters Township Concerts in the Park, which are held from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays during the summer.
“I really want to talk to who books his band,” Bush said after the music group performed at the St. Valentine’s Sumer Festival in Bethel Park. “Then we could talk to the (PT) recreation department because they may be booking bands for next year.
“I just think he’s so wonderful,” Bush added of Father John Skirtich, who helped form the band 20 years ago when he was stationed at St. Maurice Parish in Forest Hills . “He’s fabulous.
“This is my opportunity to tell people how great he is because people from all over, not just Peters Township, come to these concerts.”
People, who attended the annual fair, not only came from the four parishes included in the recently organized cluster of St. Val’s, St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin in Whitehall, St. Germaine in Bethel Park and Nativity in South Park, they arrived from other South Hills communities. They also walked away with the same opinions Bush held.
Judy Del Re of Mt. Lebanon attended the festival because her “good friend” Gloria Capozzi encouraged her and told her about the band.
“So I came for the music,” admitted DelRe, who attends church at Our Lady of Grace in Scott Township.
“While this is not typically my music because I like oldies, I enjoyed it.
“They are very good,” she said of the band. “I think it is rather refreshing considering,” she added when informed the guy on the rhythm guitar was a Roman Catholic priest.
While Alana Cleary knew that, the news spread through the crowd like wildfire.
“Everyone was really excited for him to be playing. It was a really big deal,” said the 17-year-old Jefferson Hills resident
Personally, Cleary felt it was “fantastic” and she thought Father Skirtich was “amazing.” She also thinks his purpose and message are poignant.
“He’s amazing at it. So I think it’s very good,” she said. “Clearly, it’s a way for him to use his talents,” she added to bring people into the fold.
While her grandmother is entrenched at St. Germaine Church, Cleary had only met Father Skirtich a few times. She did now know him on a personal level until she caught a glimpse of him at the fair.
Cleary worked Alligator Alley. The fish pond-like carnival game was positioned right next to the stage where the Soul Searchers performed. The group played an array of music that appealed to all age groups, including her own. A few selections included Darius Rucker’s Wagon Wheel, Green Day’s Still Breathing, Matchbox Twenty’s Real World and Walk The Moon’s Shut Up and Dance.
“I personally had a great time, sitting over here and jamming’ out to his music,” Cleary said. “So I think it was really, really good. Everything was a little bit different and you could tell he was making it his own and I think everybody liked it. It was fantastic.”
According to Cleary, Father Skirtich is also doing a “fantastic” job as the administrator of the new parish grouping.
“He is doing absolutely amazing in bringing the four parishes together,” she said. “The bond has never been stronger. All four churches are united as one this whole time. He’s a fantastic priest.”
On that point, many, like Bush, agree.
“He’s fabulous. So wonderful,” Bush enthused. “Everyone loves him. He is just so gracious, so outgoing and so realistic. He’s a real, people person.”
Father Skirtich is also a priest that pulls them in with his music, grabs them with his guitar.
“Yes, I really think he does pull in a lot of people, which is good because that is what he’s trying to do. Get us all together,” Bush said. “He’s good for the community. He is open to everybody. Someone said to me, ‘we all pray to the same God’ and well, that’s so true. I am sure a lot of people came here, who were no Catholic, and they enjoyed his music and they enjoyed him.”
Father John Skirtich Bio Box
Occupation: Ordained Roman Catholic Priest
Age: 56
Parents: Loretta, Joseph (deceased)
Siblings: Paul, who works for FBI in Washington, D.C.; Roseanne, a retired Air Force Nurse who is raising four children in Florida; Ed, who is a trumpet player and writer; Pete, who is an engineer living in Los Angeles and working for Raytheon
Hometown: Brentwood
High school: Seton LaSalle
College: Duquesne University
Major: English
Minor: Journalism
Color: Blue
With whom would you like to have dinner: The Pope or an historical figure then St. Thomas Aquinas.
Besides the Bible what is the best book you’ve read: “I’m reading all the time. I love literature. Probably my favorite all-time was Lord of the Rings Triology.
Author: Ernest Hemingway.
Food: “All the stuff I’m not allowed to eat because I’m supposed to lose weight and I eat a ton of carbs. But I do love steak, hamburgers and pizza.”
Restaurant: “I love them all but I love where I live because it’s close to Caste Village and there’s Frisch’s. As a high schooler I worked at Carrick Poultry on Brownsville Road, which was owned by Jack Frisch and now he and his son now owns the store in Caste Village. So we have been reunited again after all these years. That is my favorite but I try to patronize several different local restaurants.”
Song: “I don’t really have a favorite. It changes all the time. I like discovering new artists and new music. My taste is always evolving.”
Artist: “That’s wide-ranging too. Beatles, Stones, Boston, Kansas was a favorite in high school. Bob Dylan’s also a big favorite. “Some of the bands I love but I don’t endorse al their songs or the messages of them.”
Style: Classic Rock. “I do love opera, classical and jazz, too.