Pope John Paul II, head of the church, is a former actor who writes poems and plays.
Bishop George H. Niederauer, head of the diocese, is a man of letters and a champion of the arts.So the Rev. James A. Janda -- local poet, playwright, actor and author -- should be feeling pretty much at home.
At the moment, the Rev. Janda is the parish priest at Blessed Sacrament, though few parishioners there know of the treasure trove of literary works he keeps tucked away in the rectory.
"My focus here is the pastoral work," he says. "And then on the side I think about writing. Being in a definite parish is new to me. I've helped out in parishes before, but in other places I've been involved in theater work and other things."
In recent months, however, back pain has forced him to abandon many of his rounds. So to take his mind off his miseries, he has gone back to writing, at times kneeling at the computer because of the agony. But in classic "lemonade from lemons" style, the Rev. Janda is slowly turning his pain into pleasurable reading. If you want a one-word description of author "J. Janda's" work, "delightful" is a good one.
"Talking is so easy," Jesus says in one charming snippet of verse. "Why don't you do more with me? Waste some time with me."
The Rev. Jim Janda does talk to Jesus.
He also talks to us.
And over the years, those words have shown up in a dozen works. He has published seven children's books, including three still in print (available locally at Mancuso's). His spare, gentle poetry has appeared in many publications and his theatrical work has been mounted around the world -- from off-off Broadway to productions in Australia, England and Canada.
"Julian," his one-woman play about the British mystic Julian Norwich, has been performed regularly for 27 years now. British actress Roberta Nobleman did 500 shows herself.
"Julian of Norwich was the first woman who wrote in English whose work still survives," he says. "And I've found something strange about my play. A lot of the people who do it aren't Catholic, they're Episcopalian, Lutheran and other religions."
Currently, when parish duties allow, the Rev. Janda is working on a musical for children and a compilation of ethnic poems he has written from his unique and challenging assignments. For, truth to tell, his life is every bit as interesting as his work.
Born in Wisconsin, young Jim Janda was in premed when he was struck by the caring of the Jesuit priests at the hospital where he was working.
"I'd be studying in the basement of the hospital when an old priest would bring me a cookie and ask how my studies were going," he says. "I was impressed by his humanity. Also, what I saw at the hospital was that some who were sick and dying were peaceful while others were terrified. And that's when I decided to become a 'physician of the soul.' I fought it at first. I told myself, 'I'll join the Jesuits for six months just to prove that God was wrong and I'm right.' But I stayed for 25 years."
During that time, the Rev. Janda worked as a teacher on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was a tutor in a St. Louis ghetto and ministered to Hispanics in New York. Each port of call broadened his sense of people and fueled his desire to bring them all together.
And at each stop, he became more convinced of the desperate need people have to "connect" with each other and also convinced of the wonderful role art can play in melting the heart and allowing it to blend with others.
"When I would read Emily Dickinson, Hopkins or Shakespeare," he says, "They touched me so deeply that I'd say, 'I wish I could do that for somebody.' As one director told me, human beings all have an emotional core. My big desire has been to touch others deeply through the fine arts."
He will surely get his chance in Utah. Already, a local software company, "Q Vision," is marketing two of his children's books -- "The Legend of St. Christopher" and "The Legend of the Holy Child of Antocha" -- for personal computers. And his self-published book of verse, "in embrace," will soon be making the rounds.
In short, the Rev. Jim Janda's bad back, it seems, is about to bless a lot of lives.