SCJ’s vocation journey began at the top of an electrical pole in Wyoming and took him to the streets of San Antonio

“What happens after this life?”

That’s what Fr. Nick Brown, SCJ, asked himself when he was at the top of an electrical pole in Sundance, Wyoming. It was a beautiful spot; from his perch Fr. Nick could see the Devil’s Tower natural monument. But instead of enjoying the gorgeous view, he started to ask himself “What if…?”

“I started thinking about how one of my climbing hooks could come out of the pole and I could fall into a hot wire,” he said, “or what if I accidentally touched one of the wires?

“I put my tools back in my belt and looked at Devil’s Tower for a long time thinking about that question: ‘What happens after this life?’ and finally decided that either something happens or nothing happens. I wanted to find out more about that ‘something’ that I believed in.”

He started talking to a priest about his questions, and read articles about vocations to the religious life and priesthood. Fr. Nick wrote to several communities “but the Priests of the Sacred Heart were the only ones who answered,” he said.

In 1964 he entered the seminary, continued to question and learn about that “something” he believed in, and eventually professed his vows with the Priests of the Sacred Heart in 1967. Fr. Nick, 74, was ordained in 1976; he celebrates his 40th anniversary of priesthood on October 30.

His first assignment was at St. Lawrence parish in San Antonio where he ministered for four years. It was while he was there that he learned of the need for a “street minister.” The minister was to be part of a downtown outreach program.

After training with a person who did such ministry in Chicago, Fr. Nick headed out the door to his new “street church.” That was in September, 1981. It was a ministry of presence, sometimes simply offering a listening hear to those who needed it, and letting people on the fringes of society know that someone cared about them.

It felt like the right thing to do, the ministry to which he was called, but it wasn’t easy. A few weeks after he began Fr. Nick remembers sitting in his office and hearing gunshots.

“I went out and there was a man stretched out, face down,” said Fr. Nick. “I could see the bullet holes in his back. When the EMS [Emergency Medical Services] came and turned the body over I saw a hole about the size of a 50 cent piece with his heart pumping out blood  until slowly, his heart stopped.”

More than once Fr. Nick has had a knife drawn on him. He calmly talks about pushing a potential assailant’s arm away from him, knife still clenched in his hand, and then simply walking away.

“I liked to talk with the street kids whenever I got the chance,” said Fr. Nick. “Sometimes I would buy them something to eat. And several times they saved me. One time two men were giving me a rough time and I was wondering why they weren’t beating me up until I looked behind me and saw that the kids were standing in a semi-circle around me. The men who were hassling me stopped.”

After a few years the organization with which Fr. Nick was affiliated refocused its work. Basically, Fr. Nick was out of a job as a street minister.

“But I continued to walk downtown on my own for about another 20 years, helping as I could, just being present to people,” he said.

His “day job” was as a chaplain, first at the San Antonio State Hospital, then the Fort Sam Army Hospital and the Audie Murphy VA. Since 1993 he has served at the San Antonio University Hospital and at St. Luke’s Baptist.

In 2001 he stopped doing street ministry. “So much had changed; I still miss the early days, the people who I would see,” said Fr. Nick. Just as a pastor talking about the families he has come to know from his years in a parish Fr. Nick remembers those he has spent time with on the street.

“One of the girls down on the street was about 15 when I met her and she is a grandmother now,” said Fr. Nick. “She has four children. I baptized her children and married her and her husband in the cathedral. I have had funeral services for her husband, his brother and their mother. I consider them close friends.”

Knowing that he has made a positive impact on the lives of others, whether it be in the streets, in a hospital room, in a jail cell or in a church, is what makes Fr. Nick glad that he decided to find out more about that “something I believe in.”

“I’m an extremely happy priest,” he said. “San Antonio has given me many memories. My work is something I like doing; I’ve done it for many years. It is good to walk into a room and have a patient say to me, ‘I know you, or someone who looks like you. There used to be someone who walked down on the streets for many years. I used to see him over here and then over there.’

“I tell the person, ‘That was probably me; I used to do that.’ I see people whom I’ve known through the years. Not long ago I had Mass down at the jail and afterwards I heard confession and one of the guys who came in for confession said to me: ‘You saw me when I was a patient at the hospital you work at.’ There are so many connections.”

One of the most difficult things that Fr. Nick has faced in ministry is seeing children suffering. “I told the guys at the jail –– prisoners –– that one time I had to go into the children’s area and there was a little two-year-old boy with a big bandage behind his head covered with blood; he had apparently been thrown to the ground or hit behind the head with something very hard. He died. I told the men that I wish people who have done such things could see the grief they have caused.”

But once again Fr. Nick spoke about his vocation, how happy he has been as a priest, how he has been grateful for his almost 40 years of ministry in San Antonio.

“It’s a long way from that tower in Wyoming,” he concluded.