The first time he considered a vocation to religious life, Deacon Timothy Banach was an engineering student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
Catholicism at UVA is heavily influenced by the dynamic witness of the Dominican priests at St. Thomas Church, and Deacon Banach felt compelled to consider life as a Dominican after breaking up with his girlfriend.
“My experience with the Catholic Church during college was very much through the lens of Dominican pastoral care,” he said. “I started to think about the priesthood. I visited them and decided that the order wasn’t for me. I still love the Dominicans, but it just wasn’t like a good fit and I put it on the back burner.”
With an engineering degree in hand and a professional career in high gear, Deacon Banach was living in Arlington in 2017 and seemed to have everything a young man could want. After settling in at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Arlington, he soon realized that he was being nudged to discern again.
“The thought never really went away,” said Deacon Banach, 31, who attended seminary at St. Charles Borromeo in Lower Gwynedd, Pa. “I just saw it in a new light when I moved to the Diocese of Arlington and got to know some of the priests and seminarians.”
He credits Father Donald J. Planty, pastor of St. Charles, for challenging him with his preaching and evangelical zeal. “I found it refreshing,” said Deacon Banach. “He is very intentional and he is not afraid to preach the truth and to preach the truth through charity. I thought it was just a clear presentation and something that was lacking in other parts of my life. I was a young professional at the time, so from a job perspective, it was sort of a hustle and I had to take a step back and really think, ‘What’s the purpose of all this?’ ”
Seeing young adults evangelized and energized to become evangelists themselves is a hallmark of St. Charles Church, and one of the main motivations for Deacon Banach as he prepares for the priesthood.
“Absolutely that is a mission,” said Deacon Banach. “That age group is especially important because people aren’t completely settled in and they’re ripe for evangelization. And once someone’s really bought into the faith, I think they just continue to live it.”
A native of Corning, N.Y., Deacon Banach is an avid outdoorsman who joins a small cadre of snow skiing priests in the diocese. “There’s a great opportunity for fraternity there,” he said. “Of course some things are going to change, my responsibilities will increase, and I need to be faithful to the parish responsibilities first. And the Bishop is always saying, ‘Don’t get hurt.’ ”
Bishop Burbidge has assigned Deacon Banach to serve as parochial vicar at St. James Church in Falls Church. “One great thing about the seminary is you get a whole bunch of different experiences and different types of parishes,” he said. “The church really attracts men and women of all different walks of life and personalities and I appreciate that. Something that becomes more and more apparent to me as we approach the date is just how much of it is all a free gift from God.”
