Circus priest, nuns foster faith under the big top

BURBANK >> The small hands were clasped together and a few gripped long white candles in a line that stretched to the Globe of Danger, three brightly-painted motorcycles and an idle fog machine.

The Rev. Jerry Hogan made some final adjustments on his red vestment adoed with cartoon giraffes, elephants and a circus ringmaster. Sister Dorothy Fabritze, in a slightly more conservative wardrobe of tan slacks and jacket, walked along the row of children and parents awaiting Catholic sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and first Holy Communion Thursday.

“Let’s focus on Jesus coming into your heart,” she said. “Are we good? Are we ready?”

They nodded. Hogan smiled. The nun took her place behind the tall red curtain.

Slowly, it opened. The stage lights streamed through the widening gap, bathing them in brightness. Two-by-two, they entered the round stage beneath the big top. The circus stars had made this entrance thousands of times to the cheers of the crowd. But this moing, the seats were empty. This moment wasn’t for the crowds. This was for God. And for them.

“It’s showtime,” Hogan said.

Circus priest

Hogan is a circus priest. Lest one take offense at that moniker, it should be noted Hogan’s Twitter handle is @circuspriest. He’s also the National Circus Chaplain — part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Circus and Traveling Shows Ministry that serves about 120,000u2009Catholics working more than 50u2009circuses and nearly 400u2009caivals in the United States.

His Burbank stop coincided with the Circus Vargas run that pulls up stakes Sunday and will begin a five-day stint in Ventura begiing Thursday.

Hogan flew out from Boston to shepherd the 11u2009performers and their children through the three sacraments; one baptism, six first communions and four confirmations.

“It’s a three-ring circus,” Hogan said. “Isn’t it wonderful?”

Hogan has been doing circus ministry for 22u2009years. He got the circus bug early when, as a child, he leaed his neighbor worked for Ringling Bros. and Baum & Bailey Circus. He said it was like having a professional athlete living next door.

When he got a call to circus ministry in 1994, Hogan didn’t hesitate. He hasn’t looked back.

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The ministry, he said, goes beyond presiding over Mass and administering sacraments, though.

“I do a lot of counseling, support and even helping them to get GEDs,” Hogan said. “These are people — not the stereotypes — that have spiritual needs just like anyone.”

During the Mass under the tent, he poured holy water on 1-year-old Bianca Marinelli’s head while her parents — a trapeze artist and an acrobat — smiled. He administered oil on the heads of Confirmation candidates. He gave out communion.

As the proud Catholics posed for photos after the service, Hogan packed the holy water, oil and a Bible in a rolling travel suitcase parked by a ladder leading to trapeze perches 32u2009feet above the stage.

It was finished.

Magical memory

The reception featured cold cuts and the tables were adoed with white table cloths beneath the multi-colored “Vargas” sign above the entry to the big top tent.

Andrea Torreblanca, a fourth-generation circus performer, said she received her first Holy Communion when she was 9 while her parents traveled doing trapeze work and magic acts. Torreblanca does rollerskating stunts for Circus Vargas and, in the second-half of the show, stands in the middle of the Globe of Danger while motorcycles whiz around her at 50u2009mph.

“I pray before, during and after,” she said.

Torreblanca said seeing her 7-year-old daughter Ivana Karamaitreva receive communion in the in place where she’s been performing for two decades was among the most gratifying things she’s seen under the tent.

“It’s different when you are performing. The people who come pay to see a good show and it’s our job to give them the magic,” Torreblanca said. “Today, the magic was for me.”