BRINGING JESUS TO THE PEOPLE

Timothy Kilpeck can’t wait to be ordained to the diaconate

Timothy Kilpeck and his wife Cady are seen with their daughters, Becca and Maggie, after Easter Mass at St. Mary’s in Glens Falls. (Photo provided)

It should be no surprise that Timothy Kilpeck thought about becoming a priest in his late teens.

He grew up in a “very Catholic” family in a small town north of Utica called Deerfield. His father and brothers were Knights of Columbus, he had an uncle who was a priest, an aunt who was a religious sister and a cousin who was auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Syracuse.

“I had a couple priests come to the house (and talk to me), but at that time I don’t believe God gave me the final calling,” Kilpeck said. “He put it in my heart and soul to keep me interested but it wasn’t the final push that I felt at that time.”

But even when he moved to the area to work for Finch-Pruyn Paper for a few years and then for the next 20 years at General Electric as an environmental, health and safety manager and married and had children, the thought of a calling from God — although now not to the priesthood — never left his mind. And all these years later, Kilpeck, 64, is set to be ordained to the permanent diaconate on May 16 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. 

When discerning a calling to the priesthood, religious or diaconate, there are always people — sometimes priests, sometimes family members — that see that spark in you and are there for encouragement. Kilpeck said that Father George Gagnon, who was then-pastor at the former St. Alphonsus Church in Glens Falls, “sort of prompted me, he saw something in me, and he thought I should start pursuing it.” Kilpeck was also very active in the church when Father Thomas Babiuch became pastor after Father Gagnon died. 

“Father Babiuch, after a while said, ‘Have you considered (the diaconate)?’ ” said Kilpeck, who then started studying at the Kateri Institute in 2016. “He did it the second time and that is when the Holy Spirit gave me the push.”

Along with the two priests, this story — and his life — would not be complete without his wife Cady. 

“When I met Tim and was getting to know him, I learned that he was a faithful Catholic like myself, but my upbringing wasn’t as strong in the Catholic faith as his. I liked that he was Catholic and very committed to his faith,” she said. “Part of his history that he gave me was that he considered the priesthood when he was 18. Later, when we were committing to our relationship and starting our own family, he had come to me with the idea of pursuing the diaconate. … Through all these conversations, I realized it was a burning passion in his heart, so I wanted to support that.”

But with raising five children (Kilpeck has three children from his first marriage), Tim and Cady “decided together that it would be wiser to wait until our youngest girls were older,” she said. The couple, however, became extremely active in their new parish, St. Joseph’s in Fort Edward, where Tim would run faith formation for the high schoolers and Cady would do the same for the younger children. Kilpeck, who retired from GE in 2018 and now works at the Kesselring Site in West Milton, which is operated by Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, was also the parish’s coordinator for the food pantry that the parish ran with Village Baptist Church in Fort Edward. 

In 2020, with the children older, Kilpeck, who has also been with the Knights of Columbus for 47 years, was fully committed to the permanent diaconate. It is a choice that he is glad he made.

“The practicums that I have done have been so self-fulfilling and the formation process from when I started to where we ended, it’s just an incredible change in a person,” Kilpeck said. “This last year I was assigned to St. Mary’s in Glens Falls and the OCIA program, which brings new people into the Catholic Church, and that was just a phenomenal experience. My year with Father Scott (VanDerveer) was inspiring. His divine influence will always be with me. 

“Prior to that I was at Sacred Heart in Lake George and just being with the people and being there for the people, serving the people, it’s just great. The feeling of being Jesus for the people is unspeakable.”

One other service ministry that Tim and Cady will continue to do is volunteering at Mary’s Haven, a two-bedroom community home for the dying or persons with irreversible illness, in Saratoga Springs. In fact, the day they were interviewed by The Evangelist, that’s where they were headed. 

As the ordination nears, the excitement grows, after all the whole family including his children — Katie, Matt, JB, Becca and Maggie — will be there. But what is Kilpeck looking forward to the most?

“The really exciting part is being ordained by Bishop Mark (O’Connell),” he said. “We have met with him so many times and it is just going to be a great spiritual experience.”