When Father Brian Junkes SVD reflects on his journey to the priesthood, he often returns to moments of encounter—moments that challenged him to see the Church not as an isolated institution of power and wealth, but as a global community where the voices of the poor and marginalized must be heard.
For Father Junkes, remembering the global south is not a political slogan. It is a spiritual imperative.
Father Junkes grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida, in a family shaped by service. His mother is a home healthcare nurse, and he witnessed firsthand the importance of caring for others with dignity and compassion.
One pivotal moment in his journey came recently at his grandmother’s funeral, where he served as a deacon, planned the funeral Mass and delivered the homily. The experience deepened his understanding of pastoral ministry and affirmed his call to religious life.
Before entering the Society of the Divine Word, Father Junkes traveled on a pilgrimage to Poland. While praying in a church in Krakow and wrestling with whether to join the order, he asked God for a sign that was divine.
Later, the tour guide explained that the very place where he had prayed was where Pope John Paul II often prayed. Father Junkes took the coincidence as confirmation.
Father Junkes served as a transitional deacon at St. Teresa of Avila parish, a historic parish founded in 1896 by Chicago’s German Catholic community and later shaped by French expatriates. There, he has developed confidence in preaching and parish ministry while engaging deeply in community-building work.
One ministry especially meaningful to him is Koinonia, an Ignatian spirituality-based practice centered on prayer and reflection.
“We get to know one another and grow spiritually as a community,” he said.
Participants reflect on Gospel passages by imaginatively placing themselves within the biblical scene, using the senses to deepen spiritual understanding.
Father Junkes also works with children in a program called Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, where he noticed similarities to SPRED, a religious education model emphasizing sensory learning and inclusion of people with developmental disabilities.
“When I started, I picked up similarities to SPRED,” he said. “Kids use their senses to learn about places and stories in the Bible.”
His ministry at St. Teresa also includes helping prepare meals in a soup kitchen that serves people experiencing homelessness.
These experiences, combined with his academic work at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) in Chicago, have shaped a theology rooted in solidarity.
Father Junkes graduates in May with a Master of Divinity degree and studies focused on systematic theology and disability theology. His work includes a thesis and comprehensive exams examining the Church’s call to inclusion.
Yet perhaps the most transformative experience in his formation came thousands of miles away in Chad.
As part of the Society of the Divine Word’s Cross-Cultural Training Program (CTP), Father Junkes spent two years in the central African nation, learning French and serving pastorally at St. Arnold Janssen parish in Laramanaye with Father Huy Tran SVD.
He taught karate to local youth as a way of building trust and eventually discussing faith. When girls in the village asked to participate, he ensured they had the opportunity to learn as well.
Together with other SVD, he participated in a tree-planting initiative at a local university. The experience profoundly shaped his understanding of climate justice and the relationship between the global north and south.
In 2024, Father Junkes traveled to Rome as part of a CTU class called “Synodality and Laypeople in the Church.” The students studied the Synod process more deeply.
They met delegates, attended a question-and-answer session with cardinals and spoke with Church leaders, including the bishop of Brownsville. During discussions about climate change, Father Junkes sensed that some participants believed countries in the global south were not working hard enough to address environmental crises.
“I don’t agree with that sentiment,” he said. “I spent two years in Chad. That was not my experience.”
What he witnessed instead were communities doing what they could despite immense structural inequality.
“I recognized that when you have corporations from the global north go and extract resources, locals can only do so much,” he said.
For Father Junkes, synodality, the Church’s emphasis on listening and shared participation, requires more than conversation. It requires prioritizing the voices of those on the margins.
“Those in the north and in positions of privilege and power must become uncomfortable and have an openness to being challenged,” he said.
Living in Chad forced him to confront his "own privilege."
“While in cross-cultural training in Chad, I was challenged by the experience of being a white male from the global north,” he explained. “I was challenged by material poverty. I saw the struggle of local Chadians.”
One conversation especially stayed with him.
“I was told, ‘You SVDs have three meals a day, electricity — but what about us? We don’t have those things.’ That made me reflect on what it means to be in synodality.”
As the Church continues to grapple with inequality, migration and climate change, Father Junkes believes Catholics must resist the temptation to view faith through an individualistic lens.
“Pope Leo most certainly has experience of the global south,” he said. “It informs his ministry and theology. In the craziness of the world today, I think our access to Christ, the Eucharist and God are not an individual thing, not only for the global north but for all of God’s people.”