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An Interview with
Fr. Jim DeBruyker

Last month I had the opportunity to sit down with Fr. Jim DeBruyker, St. Joan of Arc’s new pastor. He will start in December, with his first Mass being on December 4th, when he will both preside and speak.

Fr. Jim at the Friday night Cabaret
Our conversation began with a discussion on his years growing up in St. Paul. Jim grew up on the north end of St. Paul where his parents still live. Jim’s 4 sisters and 1 brother currently live in St. Paul. The DeBruyker family definitely has its roots in St. Paul, Jim is only the second person in his entire family to move out of St. Paul in the past 100 years. The Benedictines played a major role in Jim’s life growing up. He attended St. Bernard’s grade school and then went to Collegeville where he attended both high school (at St. John’s Preparatory) and college (at St. John’s University).

Once he graduated from college, Jim moved to Minneapolis where he worked for various telephone companies. He started out as an installer and then became a repair person. After 10+ years working for telephone companies, Jim got his calling to the priesthood.

In 1978, Jim entered St. John’s Seminary. He left there after a short time and joined the St. Paul Seminary back in his hometown. While in the seminary he spent 1 ½ semesters in Israel studying. In 1982, at the age of 33, he was ordained a priest. Following ordination, Jim served at Immaculate Conception in Columbia Heights for 5 years. He then became chaplain at Hennepin County Medical Center. In 1992, Jim was named pastor at St. Leonard’s, which is just 6 blocks north of SJA on 40th and Clinton. He continued his ministry at HCMC while being pastor of St. Leonard’s.

Once we finished the factual information regarding Jim’s life, we talked about his feelings regarding his move to St. Joan of Arc. The first thing he said when I asked him about coming to SJA was “I’m terrified”. The parish he is coming from is quite small in comparison to SJA. The only staff member other than Jim, is the part-time music director. It will be a huge change, coming to a parish and staff of our size. With that said, Jim is also excited about being at SJA. He has been attending weekly staff meetings for the past few weeks and attended his first Cabaret at the Friday night performance.

As we were wrapping up our conversation, Jim shared with me one of the technicalities of becoming pastor. In order to become pastor, he was to take and sign the “Oath of Fidelity” and “Profession of Faith”. I found both of these to be interesting, and a bit disturbing, but it gives us an idea of what is expected of Fr. DeBruyker, and all other pastors, in this archdiocese. The texts of both of these are here for your reading.

Jeanne Schaum has been attending SJA since 1986. She teaches Sunday School and is a member of the Stewardship Committee. Jeanne has participated in the Heartland AIDS Ride and the Red Ribbon Ride. In 2001, she graduated from the College of Saint Benedict with a degree in Social Work and then received her Master of Social Work in 2002. In her free time she enjoys hanging out with friends and family, reading, listening to music, going to sporting events, and playing softball.
In his free time, Jim is an avid reader and enjoys mysteries. He describes himself as being artsy-crafty and finds pleasure in drawing, building things, and working in his south Minneapolis house.

My initial impression of Fr. Jim is that he is down-to-earth, compassionate, has a great sense of humor, and is dedicated to serving others wherever he ministers. We are very lucky to have Fr. Jim join us at St. Joan of Arc.

Fr. Jim would like the following to be included in this story:

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