By Alexis McLaughlin

DAYTON DEANERY - For Brad Duncan, professor of electrical and computer engineering and electro-optics at the University of Dayton, the road to the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program (LPMP) at the Athenaeum of Ohio began when he was a student at Virginia Tech.

COURTESY PHOTO

Brad Duncan working in Dayton's Twin Towers neighborhood with the towers of St. Mary Church behind him.

"My Catholic friends were the only ones who went to church" regularly, he said. One of his best friends was Catholic, and Duncan sometimes went to Mass with him.

On his way to a doctorate in electrical engineering, Duncan experienced a spiritual crisis.

"I could see the light at the end of the tunnel - that I would soon be finished with school," he said. "I had always been a student, but suddenly I was soul searching."

Eventually, he turned to a priest in campus ministry.

"Much to my surprise I discovered that he and I shared far more common ground than not," Duncan said.

Duncan soon began the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The more he learned about the Catholic Church and its teachings, the more convinced he became that Catholicism is "rooted in the one, single truth."

His "second conversion," a conversion to faith, occurred several years later when extended family members expressed serious reservations about participating in a Catholic Mass at his marriage to Rosa, a cradle Catholic.

"My parents were very supportive, but other family members voiced objections" to the Catholic belief that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, Duncan said. Unable to respond to their concerns, he had a faith "crisis" and, in true scholarly fashion, started reading apologetics to clarify his own understanding of church teachings.

Still dissatisfied with his knowledge of the church and its teachings, in 2002, Duncan turned to the LPMP at the Athenaeum, thinking it would be akin to a "weekly Bible study" that would enable him to teach the faith to his children -Gabriel, now 4, and Maria, nearly 3.

As part of the program, Duncan began a field study with Dayton's East End Community Services Corporation last summer, intending to observe the center's programming.

But by summer's end, he had coordinated a "big project," he said.

Huge old homes built in the late 1800s dominate Dayton's inner east side. "One family in the neighborhood risked being cited by the city because their home had layers of peeling, lead-based paint," Duncan said, and the owners did not have the means to paint it. East End decided to paint and repair the exterior of that one house, but soon two other homes were identified as being in need of emergency painting.

Duncan spent the summer asking for paint and supply donations as well as recruiting volunteers, which he admits was not an easy job. One indication of the difficulty of the task is that 17 paint stores said "no" to his request for paint donations before one finally donated the paint he needed..

On Aug. 12, 2006, approximately 60 volunteers spent 12 hours painting the three homes. Duncan recalled that a week of sweltering, humid, rainy weather, which would jeopardize the quality of the paint jobs, gave way to two days of milder, drier weather. After the paint dried, storms and hot weather returned. "God gave us just what we needed and nothing more," he said.

Duncan will return to East End Community Services this summer after he finishes the Lay Pastoral Ministry Program. He plans to continue and expand the project he began last summer in an effort to "reduce decay, raise the community up, and make the neighborhood a nicer, prettier place." His efforts will be aided by a grant East End Community Services recently received that supports the care and maintenance of blighted properties in the area.

Duncan and his wife also volunteer at the St. Vincent de Paul Center, making and serving meals to the homeless. He also makes "Ranger Rosaries" from heavy, nylon parachute cord to send to American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Other rosaries he has made have been given to UD students as well as friends and family.

He has also served as godfather and sponsor to many people at their baptisms and confirmations. One such person, Saffar Arjmandi, was Duncan's graduate student who also had terminal cancer. In an accelerated RCIA process, Arjmandi and his wife were received into full communion with the church and had their marriage blessed in the UD chapel. Two months later, Arjmandi died from his disease.

As priests anointed his friend three different times, Duncan felt that he was witnessing the making of a saint. Having watched Arjmandi fully embrace Christ and Catholicism, Duncan now considers "St. Saffar" the patron of all his graduate students and talks with him frequently. He said, "Ah, the communion of saints: one of the best reasons to be Catholic."

For more information or to volunteer at East End Community Services Corporation call 937-259-1898.