YAKIMA, Wash. (Tribune News Service) — In his 90 years of life and 65 years as a priest, Monsignor John Ecker has seen a lot of changes — in the Catholic Church, at St. Paul Cathedral, where he first served in 1958, and in the Yakima Valley overall.

Through it all, one thing has remained constant: his appreciation and enjoyment of working with others. And at an age when most people have retired, he has no intention of slowing down.

"I like what I do. I like what I am and what I do," Ecker said during a March 20 interview in the parish offices at St. Paul Cathedral. "I look at my fellow classmates, there's only a few of us left. There were 61 of us ordained in the same ceremony on Feb. 3, 1958, and there's about seven of us left. They're all retired.

"I look at their lives and I say, you know, I prefer to be here doing what I'm doing now. I prefer to stay active with the people," he added. "I enjoy it, and they haven't thrown me out yet, so ..."

Ecker called himself "an active pastor" and his weekly schedule includes personal counseling, marriage counseling, Sunday Masses, baptisms, weddings, funerals and many other ministries.

During his interview with the Yakima Herald-Republic, he had his running shoes on, hoping to head over to Franklin Park afterward for one of his three-times-a-week treks around the blacktop track there.

His office, crowded with photos, mementos, books and piles of magazines, newspapers and papers, suggests a busy pastor with a unique organizational system. "Maybe we should take this picture in the church," Ecker suggested to a photographer.

With a fundraiser for the Msgr. Ecker Foundation approaching on April 14 (see adjacent story), the longtime Diocese of Yakima priest answered a few questions from the Herald-Republic.

You're originally from Boston, right?

Yes. I grew up in the city of Quincy, Mass., which is just south of Boston. Went to high school in Boston and attended the seminary there.

I came out here on loan for three years, right after ordination, in 1958. Ordained in Boston, at Holy Cross Cathedral. And then I came out here. The archbishop then, Richard Cushing, had a plan that said, "If they need you somewhere else, and you want to go, you can go off for three years. You can always come back." Here I am 65 years later, still here.

I started here at the Cathedral in 1958 and was an associate here, a curate, for the first five years. In 1963 I became a pastor/rector of the Cathedral for three years, until 1966. I went to (Queen of All Saints parish) in Warden, a little tiny place outside of Moses Lake, for a year.

They needed chaplains, so I went into the Navy as a chaplain, during the Vietnam era, back in 1967. I was at Norfolk Naval Air Station for a little less than a year. Then I went to Vietnam with the combat infantry Marines, 1st and 3rd Division. I was there in 1968 and '69.

Then in 1969 I was at the headquarters of the Marine Corps in Arlington, Va. I was there for three years, and then I went to the USS Ticonderoga, which was an aircraft carrier. They traveled all over the Pacific. Went to Manila and all those different places. From there I went to the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton down in California.

In 1975 I decided to come back here and I was pastor out at Holy Family, on the west side (of Yakima), for five years. Started a new parish in Kennewick, Holy Spirit, in 1980. In 1988 I came back here again (to St. Paul Cathedral), and I've been here ever since.

I know you've been involved with a lot of ecumenical efforts.

I'm the representative here of the diocese on the Ecumenical Interfaith and I've been very much involved in that, ever since the (Second) Vatican Council ended.

I was among those who started the ecumenical group among the pastors here way back in 1964. Ever since then I've been involved with the Association of Churches and the Association of Faith Communities, which succeeded that Association of Churches. I'm still an active member of that.

You mentioned Vatican II. When you were ordained, it was still the Latin Rite Mass. That had to be a huge adjustment, not just for the faithful, but for the clergy, too.

Sure. We had the traditional Mass in Latin. After Vatican II that changed into the vernacular, and I was really at the forefront of making those changes here at the Cathedral, and in the diocese too, because I was the head of the Liturgy Commission for the diocese at the time.

It was something I really looked forward to, though. It was something, even when I was a seminarian, we used to hope for what happened in the second Vatican Council. When we could worship in our own language, and the different traditions and customs that came out of it. I was very happy to make those changes.

What does being pastor of the Cathedral entail?

When you're a pastor of a parish, you're kind of in charge of all the people in the parish. And we have between 1,600 and 1,700 families here in our Cathedral parish. It's been here 109 years. It was built by the first pastor, who later became bishop of Sacramento, Bishop (Robert John) Armstrong.

I think I've been here longer than any priest that's been at the Cathedral. I was here eight years at the beginning, when I first came, from 1958 to '66. Then I was asked to come back by Bishop (William) Skylstad in 1988. So it's 35 years this time.

What's one of your favorite things about being a priest, and what's one of the more challenging things?

My favorite thing is probably associating with the great people of this area. The people are very warm and affirming. I find it a beautiful parish that encompasses the rich and the poor, the Hispanic and Anglo. The young and the old. I just find working with all those different people a joy.

I enjoy preaching, that's one of my favorite things to do, and celebrating Mass.

Challenging things? The problems that so many young people have with drugs and a feeling of alienation — that nobody really cares about them. I find that kind of heartbreaking. Suicides are something that goes along with it.

As someone who's not a priest, I would think that funerals would be one of the more difficult times.

Actually, I'd rather have funerals than weddings — they don't talk back! (Laughs) But no, I have a lot of funerals, probably the most funerals of any individual priest in the diocese, because I've been here so long. I've known generations of people, the grandparents and the parents and now the next generation, kids and then their kids.

So I'm asked to go and take part in and to celebrate a lot of Masses of Christian Burial. Which I'm always happy to do if I can. It's a great consolation, too ... I don't find that the hardest thing to do, no.

What role does your education foundation play in the community?

About seven or eight years ago, they moved St. Paul Cathedral school from here and put it out at Holy Family, because most of the kids lived out there, on the west side. Christ the Teacher School.

They established a foundation, it was for the old school, for Catholic education at St. Paul Cathedral School. Then when they moved the foundation out to Holy Family and changed the name, they asked me a few years ago if they could name it after me, because I was so involved with the school for so many years.

I was really flattered that they would ask me. I said sure, if I can do anything to help you, go ahead.

So the foundation has raised well over $1 million now. It's very much an active concern, and it's set up for Christ the Teacher School which is a successor of St. Paul Cathedral School.

There's an active board, they're independent of the parish or the diocese even. They do a great deal to help with tuition for kids that can't pay tuition, and to make improvements to the school.

It's specifically for that school. La Salle (High School) has their own, and so does St. Joseph/Marquette.

That's something that probably has changed during your time as a priest — the enrollment at Catholic schools.

When I came here in 1958, St. Paul Cathedral School was the biggest private school west of the Mississippi River, with 1,300 kids here. We had two buildings, one that's still existing. We're renovating it right now and restoring it after a major flood that took place a year ago ... we're in the process of restoring that.

It was the largest school. And we went down over the years, when I came back here, there were less than 150 kids, back in 1988. Now we've got over 200 out at Christ the Teacher.

If there's a young person out there considering a religious vocation, what would be your advice to them?

I tell them that for me, it's been a great, fulfilling and wonderful life. It still is — it's not just 'has been,' but it really is.

I have found that it's an extremely fulfilling and satisfying vocation for me, to be able to take part in so many people's lives. To be with them in their times of sorrow and joy. It's really a marvelous life.

But I don't try to — I encourage them, but I don't push them. They have to discern that themselves. I try to encourage them, I say that if you want to experience something like I've had, by all means.

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