Bishop Robert Fedek brings missionary heart to new role

Auxiliary Bishop Robert Fedek hopes to bring a missionary heart to his episcopal ministry in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Bishop Fedek, 45, will serve as episcopal vicar of Vicariate V, which includes parts of the Southwest Side and southwest suburbs.

He came to the Chicago area as a seminarian, leaving Poland to come to a city he had once visited on a summer trip to stay with relatives — two of his grandmother’s uncles settled in Michigan after World War II, and his mother’s sister also moved to the Midwest.

His family traveled when he was young, he said, and his mother had two long stays in the United States when he was a child. Those experiences helped him develop an adventurous spirit. When the opportunity came to finish his seminary studies in the Archdiocese of Chicago, first at Bishop Abramowicz Seminary and then at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary, he didn’t hesitate.

“I always wanted to go see new places,” he said. “It was a challenging time because you had to leave behind basically everything, your family, your home, your friends, and with one suitcase come to Chicago and start fresh. The desire to be a missionary, to do something new in the new land, with new people, was strong and helped me to pursue the dream and the mission, and I continue to have this missionary spirit.”

Now, after 20 years of priesthood, the archdiocese is his home. His first assignment as a priest was as associate pastor of St. Mary of the Annunciation in Mundelein, under the pastoral leadership of the late Father Ron Lewinski.

“I would say those five years were very crucial for me because they really helped me to discover myself as a priest in America,” Bishop Fedek said. “The theory that the seminary provides is important, the books and how things should work, but then the life teaches you the real story. ... I was very lucky to have good mentors, the priests and the laypeople who helped me to define what is needed of a young priest in America.”

Lewinski had Bishop Fedek work in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults with Kathi Barrett, a lay minister. Lewinski told him, Bishop Fedek said, that he understood that in Poland, priests wouldn’t have been used to collaborating with laypeople, especially laywomen, in ministry, and would not have much experience working with people coming into the church, since nearly everyone there is a cradle Catholic.

“Poland is a very traditional, still Catholic country,” he said. “People did the same things — went to the church on Sunday, celebrated the same holidays. So it was just easier, because the whole culture and the family was supporting Catholic upbringing and culture.”

Barrett ended up becoming once of his best friends.

“He was absolutely delightful to work with,” Barrett said. “He claims he learned a lot from me, but I don’t know about that. The way he looked at the process and asked questions, and the way he treated our candidates and responded to them is what you would hope for from any priest. He walked with them instead of walking ahead of them. He has a way about him of feeling like he’s one of you.”

In 2010, Bishop Fedek became pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish on Agatite Avenue, now part of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish.

After seven years at Our Lady of Victory, he became pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish (Talcott Avenue), where he served as pastor for three and half years. Then he was appointed administrative secretary to Cardinal Cupich.

It wasn’t easy to leave pastoral ministry, Bishop Fedek said.

“I love the people. I have a pastoral heart to accompany them on a journey of life,” he said. “My heart was to be with the people, to love them, to assist them, to accompany them, to bring love and hope into their lives. I knew that I would have to put that dream aside, at least for the moment, and serve in a different capacity, but it’s needed. I was raised well by my parents to be humble and work hard, and if they ask you, you step in and do what you need to do.”

Bishop Fedek’s immediate family was small, just his parents and him and one brother, all of whom remain in Poland.

Like most boys of his age, Bishop Fedek was an altar server. That was when he started thinking about a vocation to the priesthood. Those thoughts faded for a bit while he was in secondary school, but when it came time for college, he found he had a choice to make.

“That was a crucial moment, because my initial dreams were to continue studies in finance, in economy, banking, management,” Bishop Fedek said. “But at the same time, the little desire to become a priest became more a visible towards the end of the high school. I reflected the following way: If I don’t try now, if I immerse myself in other studies, probably the chance of becoming a priest will just pass away. I need to give myself a chance to see if there’s a vocation for me.”

He applied and was accepted to the seminary in Krakow, the same one that St. John Paul II attended, and decided to go and see whether he was really called to priesthood.

“So I went to the seminary and tried to see how things would go, and the longer I stayed in the seminary, the more I liked it,” Bishop Fedek said.

He was in the seminary when he heard about the opportunity to come to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Having relatives in the United States made it feel familiar, he said, especially coming to stay with them for a summer in high school.

“I came to Michigan, and we drove to Chicago. I fell in love with the architecture and the skyscrapers. I couldn’t believe how tall the buildings can be when they took me to the Sears Tower at that time. I fell in love with this beautiful city and the lake and the culture and knowing that there are Polish people here, and Polish culture and churches and music and food, it really felt good.”

Now Bishop Fedek is looking forward to being more of a pastor again. He hopes especially to connect with young people, he said, and to support the pastors because he knows how challenging their ministry is.

All of his experiences, plus the mentorship and example of Cardinal Cupich, will help, he believes.

“It’s part of my missionary spirit,” he said. “As a missionary, you come to a new country in order to serve the people and you have to get to know them, you have to listen to them. You have to gain their trust, they have to accept you as their own. Finally then, when you build a trust, when they see that you love them, care for them, they open their hearts and let you be part of their family and take care of them. 
So all those experiences help me to fulfill my vocation well. Most of what I’m looking forward is to continue to assist the people, to shift from this administrative role to hopefully be more pastoral. Still I will have to do the administrative portion, but I will be more out there with the people at the parishes when I go to visit, to accompany them, to bring the hope for a better future that comes from the love of Jesus, which is promised to always be with us.”