Father Todd Unger recently gave his last sermon as pastor of St. Thomas Catholic Church.

After celebrating Sunday Mass at parishes throughout Eastern Oregon for more than four decades, including 14 years in his hometown of Redmond, he has stepped down from weekly duties but is not hanging up the cloth entirely.

“It’s a lifetime commitment,” said Unger. “A priest never really retires.”

He will still fill in for sick and vacationing priests throughout the Catholic Diocese of Baker, which includes the 45 parishes and missions in Oregon east of The Dalles and Klamath Falls. But Unger’s weekly job as head of the local church and school has come to an end, and he has transitioned to senior status and pastor emeritus.

Redmond upbringing

Todd Unger was born in Redmond in 1956, the fourth of five children. His father, Bob, in 1949 moved to what was then just a small town 3,000 people to start a medical practice. His mother, a nurse, worked alongside Bob in the family business.

The Ungers were Catholics. They attended church most Sundays at St. Thomas the Apostle in downtown Redmond. Todd remembers one Sunday as a high school student, when an elderly priest encouraged the young men of the parish to consider the priesthood. It didn’t mean much to him at the moment, but the thought took root in his mind.

“That’s what priests do,” said Unger. “You plant seeds.”

The seeds of priesthood didn’t take right away. Unger left Redmond to attend Oregon State University and planned for a secular life, but nagging thoughts led him to transfer to the Catholic-affiliated University of Portland. For six years, Unger then lived and studied at the Mount Angel Seminary outside Salem, at first just considering the idea of the priesthood. He became a deacon and fully committed to a road to priesthood at the age of 24.

“Everyone said you’ll never be 100 percent sure,” he said. “But I wanted to be of service. And I felt God’s calling. It was something I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.”

Once he was ordained, Unger was dispatched into the far-flung parishes of the Baker Diocese. His first stint was in Pendleton, where he jumped into the town’s western ethos and threw himself into the Round-Up fun. He also become a reliable presence at the city’s Catholic-run hospital, St. Anthony’s.

Growing up as the son of a doctor, Unger said he always felt comfortable in hospitals and at the bedside tables of the sick and dying. He felt drawn to that kind of work and enjoyed visiting the infirm.

“Some people don’t like hospitals, but I was raised around a hospital so that wasn’t hard,” he said. “You have this instant pass … already you’re accepted and you’re valued for your wisdom.”

He said that, as a priest, he felt welcomed into people’s inner lives — often immediately. People who were strangers just minutes before would they ask him to pray for them or their loved ones. They’d tell him their worries and troubles and their fears, for this life and the next. Often, those relationships would only grow stronger through the years.

“You’re there when they get married, you’re there when they baptize their kids, you’re there when their kids get married,” said Unger. “You’re there at the good moments and then you’re there in the sad moments when someone has died.”

In difficult moments, Unger tries to ease suffering and fear by reminding Catholics of the immortal, pain-free afterlife that the religion’s adherents believe in. He said reminding people of their place in a larger system can impart a sense of understanding and acceptance.

Unger said that reminding mourners that “all things are passing” often brought peace.

He said hearing the fears and problems and internal struggles of parishiners never kept him up at night.

“Their troubles … you’re giving god those things,” he said. “Someone else’s troubles, you want to help them find the answers but they’ve got to find the answers. I’m not the answer man.”

Unger served as pastor in a variety of Central and Eastern Oregon communities, including stints in John Day, Madras and The Dalles. In each place he found ways to break out of the confines of the parish and into the wider, secular community. In Pendleton, he joined Kiwanis. In John Day, he was part of the the volunteer fire department. He did the same in Madras and The Dalles, where he drove an EMT ambulance. He liked having a job in which he was just required to follow directions, rather than be the leader.

But he said his favorite part of being a priest — and his favorite part of each and every mass — was that he was able “to give people good news.”

Brothers in the priesthood

Bishop Liam Carey oversees the Diocese of Baker from its offices in Redmond. Carey grew up in Prineville and when he was young, Todd Unger’s dad was Carey’s pediatrician.

“I’ve known him and his family all my life,” said Bishop Carey.

Carey said that Unger inherited his dad’s bedside manner, and the ability to make people feel comfortable and relaxed during difficult times.

“He makes you feel at ease in his presence,” said Carey. “I can’t help but see his father in him. He has that easy kindness.”

Carey also said he was appreciative of how Unger got involved in aspects of community life outside of normal church business.

“He is very much a social person in the best sense of the word,” said Carey. “The point of a parish priest’s life is supposed to be that you’re there and you’re there for everybody and he always was.”

Father Rick Fischer served in the priesthood alongside Unger for decades, as both took various posts at different Eastern Oregon parishes. Fischer was most impacted by how Unger cared for the sick, especially elderly priests at the vicarage. He said he cared for and prayed with multiple priests on their deathbeds.

“That just shows his heart,” said Fischer.

He, too, appreciated the variety of community institutions that Unger got involved in, including helping St. Thomas Academy get its primary school built and onto solid fooding.

“Todd can look back with great happiness at his service,” said Fischer. “He’s been a very, generous priest.”

A changing congregation

A lot has changed in Catholicism in Eastern Oregon since Unger was ordained. He learned German and Latin in seminary, but it was Spanish that would have helped in the most once he arrived in Madras.

“You need both languages,” he said.

At St. Thomas, nearly 40 percent of its congregants speak Spanish and Unger says at least one Mass a week in the language. He can give the sacraments in Spanish as well, and he said the halls at St. Thomas celebrate quinceañeras as often as weddings and funerals. He said people who grew up speaking Spanish often use it to think about spiritual matters all their lives, no matter their skills in English.

“That’s their first language, that’s their prayer language,” said Unger.

Last year, he attended Central Oregon Community College’s language immersion program in order to improve his conversational Spanish.

That’s just been one change he saw after returning to the congregation he grew up in — a place he and his family always wanted him to return to. Unger said his mother, especially, longed to have him return to her church. She died before he took the job in 2009, but Unger said he feels she had a hand in bringing him back home to finish his career.

“She had to get to heaven to pull the strings,” he said.