c. 1996 Religion News Service

ALPENA, Mich. _ At first glance, the St. Hubert Hunt Camp looks like a typical backwoods settlement: a cozy building tucked into woods dotted with tree stands and shooting shacks.

The camp’s living room is furnished with tired old armchairs and the requisite card table. The coffee table is stacked with Audubon Field Guides and Woods-N-Water News.

But one book seems slightly out of place in a building associated with joke-telling, card-playing and beer-drinking: the New Testament.

That’s because all 14 members of the St. Hubert Hunt Camp are Catholic priests.

“Our lives are very busy, and when we get there we need to be away from all our other troubles; our time there is for nurturing our own souls,” says the Rev. Charles Donajkowski, pastor of St. Mary’s in Lake Leelanau and St. Wenceslaus in Gills Pier.

The camp was established in 1958 by parish priests from all over Michigan. It was named after the patron saint of hunters: St. Hubert, who died in A.D. 727 in Belgium.

The Rev. Isadore Mikulski, 71, a founding member, said the guys went out on a limb to buy the place.

“Everybody went in debt,” said Mikulski, who recently retired as pastor at Sacred Heart in Oscoda. “We were all young 40 years ago, so we went into hock and borrowed the money.”

The priests operate it as good hunters would, cutting timber from time to time to regenerate the woods and feed the herd. Members pay dues and are assessed for capital improvements. Should the time come when there aren’t enough priests to keep the camp going, the property will be donated to the Mission Society, a Catholic charity.

But membership hasn’t been a problem. Current members range from age 33 to octogenarians. Younger priests help with maintenance. Membership is limited to 14, largely because that’s the number of bunks crammed in the sleeping quarters.

“It’s good private time for us when we can enjoy the fellowship of each other yet at the same time have a degree of anonymity in where we are and what we’re up to,” said Donajkowski, the youngest member. “St. Hubert has been kept very secret as to where it was _ that’s just so we can get away.”

The camaraderie _ a big part of all deer camps _ is especially important.

“We need each other,” Mikulski said. “That’s a great benefit of belonging to a hunting camp with men with similar vocations. There’s a great buddy system among priests, a great fraternity spirit. And a hunting camp like this is a perfect place for this to come together _ it’s like a class reunion every year at deer season.”

But a lot of it has to do with hunting, too.

“When we’re up there for the first few days of the rifle season, we hire a couple of cooks to come in and take care of meals because we’re all out there hunting,” said the Rev. Jack Johnson, 52-year-old pastor of Blessed Sacrament in Midland. “Nobody goes into town unless they need to use the telephone or something like that.”

They do well, too. Their tote board showed a 64 percent success rate over 30 years on bucks.

One wonders if there isn’t a little divine intervention at work. Donajkowski says a little prayer doesn’t hurt.

“Oh, of course, we pray for deer,” he said. “Not only deer, but big deer.

“Just like any camp there’s always a little competition, a little side wager on who’s going to get the biggest. We pray for deer and we thank God when we have a good season and a safe season.”

Priests are required to say daily prayers. They do so privately _ in the morning, at night, sometimes in the woods.

“It’s nice to pray in the woods,” Donajkowski said. “It’s certainly quiet time. But you have to be careful that when you’re reading your psalm a big buck doesn’t go by.”

The priests celebrate Mass on Sundays, often attended by Catholic hunters from nearby camps.

They agree there is a spiritual side to hunting.

“Hunting is a virtuous thing,” Donajkowski said. “It’s good for your spirit. It certainly gets you in touch with the simpler things in life _ nature itself, just taking time, slowing down, having time to think about what things … are important in life.

“At the same time, we need to eat and utilize the goods that the Lord provides through the Earth. As long as we do that prudently and harvest the goods in an appropriate way, we’re simply being good stewards of the gift the Lord has given us.”

And the deer? There’s always venison to go around.

“We’re long past the stage where getting a deer is the important thing,” Mikulski said. “After a period of years with fantastic success, you’re no longer a deer hunter _ you’re turned into a philosopher.”

MJP END GWIZDZ