Feeling nostalgic I did some online digging about St. Thomas the Apostle '62 grads and  BKHS '66 grads. n the Pioneer Class website you have Rev. William Young listed with a NYC address. I checked and that address is St. Charles Boromeo church in East Harlem, NY, but no Bill Young is currently listed there.  With a little more sleuthing I think I found where he is now. I uncovered the following article written in the Albuquerque Journal:

 


Sunday, March 27, 2005
Priest Requested Transfer to New Mexico
By Paul Logan, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

If you can make it in Questa, you can make it anywhere.

A twist on the "New York, New York" song applies to the Rev. William Young Jr. The New York state priest spent more than five years working at the small northern New Mexico parish. At the time, Young was on leave from the Archdiocese of New York to help with the priest shortage in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. He returned to a New York City parish in 2002. But, Young says, "I never really felt comfortable back in New York. I kinda felt I'd left home by leaving here."

Last summer, Young received permission to return permanently to New Mexico. He became pastor of Estancia Valley Catholic Parish in October (2004). Young serves Edgewood and Moriarty, almost suburbs of Albuquerque; Estancia, the county seat; and tiny Tajique.

"I think probably the biggest challenge is to give attention to the particular needs of each community," he says.

And then there's the Torrance County Detention Facility with nearly 1,000 inmates, he says. Many only speak Spanish. Young knows what he is saying when he celebrates the Mass in Spanish, but he admits needing work to become fluent in conversations.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., Young was in the Army for 11 1/2 years and left as a major. He was ordained in 1990 and spent his first 3 1/2 years working in a parish in Harlem.

"I think some people have an idea of New Mexico as 'the sticks,’ but there's places in the Archdiocese of New York— believe it or not— that are kind of rural."

Young had vacationed in New Mexico a number of times, so he welcomed being sent to help out here in 1995. Now, he says, he's happy to be here to stay.

"He's the soul we needed," says Adan Encinias, mayor of Moriarty. "I think he's doing really well."
 
Encinias describes Young as a people person who is kind, patient and laid back. He says Young gives exceptional sermons.

Young enjoys photography. His black-and-white, close-up photographs of the hands and feet of a copy of Michelangelo's Pietá— the Virgin Mary holding the body of Christ— are mounted on his office wall.  He also cooks for himself.

"Sometimes red, sometimes green," says Young of his chili preferences. "When I make chili, I make red mostly."

Working at Questa's St. Anthony Parish and its handful of mission churches, as well as Rio Rancho's St. Thomas Aquinas Church, were great experiences, Young says.  The same is true for his stops in New York City and places like Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

"People are pretty much the same no matter where you go— Harlem, New York, the Bronx. People are people— the same virtues, the same vices. They just express them differently."

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Rev. William E. Young is no longer at the Estancia Valley Catholic Parish, but is now pastor at Queen of Heaven Church, 5311 Phoenix Avenue, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110. You can actually listen to some of his homilies on the website. The voice sounds the same.

When I saw this picture from QofH 1st Communion 2015, I felt sure this was the right William E. Young.

Another BKHS '66 alum makes his mark in the world! It was all interesting to me, especially the 11 1/2 years in the army followed by ordination in 1990 at age 42.  Maybe it will be interesting and inspirational to other BKHS '66 grads also.

Mike Moffatt