Health struggles have taken Glenmary Father Vic Subb out of the missions. But he continues to strive to be a missioner every day. By Theresa Nguyen-Gillen
At 72 years old, Glenmary Father Vic Subb has spent his priesthood in a ministry of presence. He’s built churches, taken parishioners to doctor’s appointments, and helped migrants apply for green cards. But the mission field looks different for him today.
Earlier this year, medical struggles forced him to take a step back from his most recent assignment in Washington County, North Carolina. Today, Father Vic spends his days in a rehabilitation center in Cincinnati, near Glenmary’s headquarters.
“That sense of being a missioner,” says Father Vic. “I ask myself here—I’m in a nursing home now. How can I be a missioner today? How can I be a missioner to those whom I meet?”
A humble experience
It started in March of this year, when Father Vic began to lose the ability to walk. He has used a cane for several years due to a rare spinal cord disease, but this was different. The doctor didn’t have an explanation for the cause either. “It may be a combination of many things,” he had been told.
Father Vic was the pastor of St. Joan of Arc, where he had been since 2023. Glenmary Father Cavine Okello, who was the associate pastor at the time, was away in Kenya celebrating his ordination to the priesthood.
“I wanted to be there for the people for Ash Wednesday, so they would have a priest there,” Father Vic says. So he stayed in North Carolina instead of returning to Cincinnati for medical attention.
“By the time Ash Wednesday came, I couldn’t walk anymore,” Father Vic says. He needed help with simple tasks like standing up or getting dressed. “It was very humbling.”
When Father Cavine returned to the parish, Father Vic made the trip to Cincinnati. Since then, he’s been in rehabilitation centers to heal wounds and regain the strength in his legs. He hopes to be able to walk again someday.
“It’s another chapter in my life,” he says.
Listen, pray, visit
After years of being a pastor, Father Vic knows the value of listening to each person he encounters. “It’s important to lift other people up,” he says. “Even as a pastor, I lead the people, but it’s their church. And I have to listen to them all the time.”
That mentality hasn’t changed even though his scenery has. After nine weeks at one rehabilitation center, he recently moved to a different place. “One of the ladies said—when I left she said—‘Well, when we felt bad, we knew we could come to you, and we would feel better.’”
And as he settles into this new place, he surmises that he has new people to meet, to listen to, and to hear stories from.
“And yes, there are sometimes I get down,” Father Vic admits. “I see something on the other side of the room, and I can’t get that; I’m in my bed.”
“But I pray here,” he says.
Another thing that gives him joy is connecting on the phone with friends and former parishioners. He’s had visitors from Lafayette and Celina, Tennessee, where he was pastor for many years. Others want to come from Alabama and farther, but Father Vic objects that it’s too far for them to travel, so they visit over the phone instead. “People come to visit and support me, and it’s just amazing,” he says.
“I wish I could be with them,” says Father Vic, “but I definitely have been in prayer for them.”
Continuing ministry
Another milestone that Father Vic has reached is receiving senior membership in Glenmary, which was granted to him this summer. “It feels so funny being a senior member,” he says. “But that’s what I am; I can’t do ministry in our missions.”
Although he won’t be physically in the missions, at least not anytime soon, he is still involved in plenty of ministries. He’s currently on three boards or committees to share his wisdom and expertise: the Glenmary Challenge board, the student formation committee, and the committee for Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation.
And he continues to bring the Glenmary spirit to everything he does—even if he’s confined to a bed in a rehabilitation center. “I think that’s so important: the ministry of presence,” Father Vic says. “Being there. So, I continue that even now. I can’t leave anyway, but I do that now. Try to be present to people and to listen to them and lift them up.”
