Diplomatic Corps - Tracy Moran

Taking It to the Streets
Father Philip Scott

There was nothing memorable about the homeless man pushing his shopping cart down a Tampa street, until he opened his mouth and started singing "Glory to God." That's when Father Philip Scott noticed him. "I thought, 'Here's Jesus, and He's evangelizing us,' " Father Scott says. "I better listen because the Lord is passing by and He's making it clear." Such an encounter isn't unusual for the priest who lives and evangelizes among the poor in a part of Tampa called Ybor City, a place that "reeks hedonism."

"This is Satan's stronghold," Father says, "and it's where God wants us." Every day before he goes into the lions' den, Father gets on his knees to ask Jesus, "May we hear you and see you in the poor."

The Peruvian-born Father Scott, a graduate of Mount St. Mary's seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is a priest for the St. Petersburg diocese. These days, he's filled with an indescribable joy because his 15-year dream of starting his own community is finally coming to fruition. "This isn't an easy life," he says. "But I'm spoiled rotten. The joy of receiving the grace to live this is so fulfilling."

In April, Bishop Robert Lynch gave the 38-year-old priest permission to live and work among the poor as part of a community in formation. This community, called the Family of Jesus Healer, seeks to bring Christ's healing love to His Church. With an emphasis on contemplative prayer, the community chooses to live among the poor, in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi and Mother Teresa. Because the community is new, Father Scott is seeking priests, brothers, sisters and eventually lay people to join him. This, however, is not a calling for the fainthearted. One of the brothers likened it to the Marine Corps. The men live in a 75-year-old house, sleep on the floor, bathe from a bucket and have a German Shepherd, Moses, for protection.

"You hear gunshots," Father Scott says. "We're surrounded by the homeless, people who sleep next to rats. We walk into houses, crack houses, I wouldn't let my dog go into. You can smell the stench from across the street." Friday nights, members of the community head to the part of town where restaurants, bars and strip joints draw a yuppie clientele. There Father unfurls his 6-foot tall banner with the image of Divine Mercy — "our holy torpedo," he calls it — and prays the rosary in front of it. With Moses the dog at his side, he prays quietly to counter the surrounding noise. When people come up to pet Moses, Father hands them Catholic tracts and engages them in dialogue. Sometimes, he is frustrated by these meetings, particularly when he speaks with fellow Hispanics who know very little about their Catholic Faith.

"Many Hispanics are lazy," he says bluntly. "I challenge them that ignorance is no excuse." He sees them being "eaten alive" by the Protestants who proselytize them. "I tell the Protestants the advantage they have is not the truth but our ignorance," he says. He knows that only too well. As a 20-year-old, he became a Fundamentalist, convinced of the "errors" of Catholicism, thanks to an anti-Catholic brother-in-law. Father Scott even tried to talk his twin brother, also now a priest, out of the Church. "God was merciful," says Father Scott. "He sent three priests from Spain who answered my objections. They were well-balanced men. There was a beautiful humanity about them. They understood how grace builds on nature. They understood the process to become holy. They were compassionate but spoke the truth. They were totally in union with Rome and strongly Eucharistic."

Father Scott honors their memory by following their example. He teaches a weekly Bible study at a local café that draws upwards of 115 people, including Protestants, some of whom have "come home to Rome." "We're healing through evangelization of the uncompromised gospel of Catholicism," he says. "The healing is on every level — with doctrine, we're teaching Catholics to explain and defend the Faith. Second, there's healing through prayer, especially the sacraments. I've seen Jesus in the Eucharist literally heal the crippled and the blind."

Father himself has the gift of healing, which he first discerned on a 1983 trip to Lourdes, while still a seminarian. "Just before receiving communion," he says, "I sensed lightning hitting me. Silence enveloped me, a deep, holy awe. I heard a call on my heart, 'My son, heal my crippled children, for I am the healing gift within you.'" Not understanding the message, the young seminarian spoke with his spiritual director, who advised him to test it. Beginning with fellow seminarians, Father Scott would pray, lay hands on the sick, feel an energy leave him and they'd be healed.

The following year, he began to think about starting an order, but feared the idea was a temptation from the devil. He did a come-and-see with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity priests in the South Bronx, drawn by their orthodoxy and strong prayer life. But they did little street evangelization, something to which Father Scott felt called. "I wanted to teach Catholics to be Catholics full-throttle, with a dynamic orthodoxy," he says. He wanted to live the gospel radically, and while in prayer, the idea of starting a community became even stronger. "I had a deep peace, an infused knowledge about a community made up of missionaries of healing," he says. First, though, he had to be ordained to the priesthood. Then, his bishop had to agree. In the meantime, Father was given his first assignment — at a well-to-do parish. "That was God's doing," he says. He realized that to be effective, he needed to spend three hours daily before the Blessed Sacrament.

"If you're not inundated in prayer, you'll die," he says, "because there's too much out there, too much is offered. In these wealthy parishes, I was offered trips to the French Open and Wimbledon and given nice clothes by well-meaning parishioners."

Though he turned down the trips and gave the clothes away, he was not beyond desiring material goods. "I still wanted to look handsome, everybody wants to be beloved in someone's eyes. That in and of itself is normal, but it's what you do with it that determines whether it is God revealing yourself to you," he explains. "As we meet Jesus, He not only shows us who He is, but who we are, and often we find that those areas of light and darkness in us are very close together. Our deepest longing, and the only way to satisfy every longing of our human nature, is to be beloved in Jesus' eyes." Father goes to confession weekly, and one can't help but wonder what sins stain such a holy man. But in speaking about his life among the poor, a clue emerges. "I need to be with the poor," Father Scott says, "because I'm a sinner and the poor shake my cage. They challenge me. The poor keep you on your knees. I'm rotten, prejudicial, critical, judgmental. The poor raise up all that stuff and God uses it."

And the Lord uses the poor to speak to His priest, sometimes through a song like "Glory to God."



For more information about the Family of Jesus Healer community, contact Father Philip Scott at 813-248-3039, 2214 E. 9th Ave., Tampa, FL 33605.