When Father Witold Kaczmarzyk arrived at Christ on the Mountain Parish in Lakewood, Colorado, earlier this year, he inherited a parish unknown by many in the Denver Archdiocese and arrived with a mission from his archbishop: to breathe new life into the community. Kaczmarzyk’s solution involved an electric scooter, a little comedy, and a willingness to step outside his comfort zone by using social media — all in the hope of helping more people encounter Jesus Christ. Born and raised in Ostrow Wielkopolski, Poland, Kaczmarzyk lived there with his parents and younger brother until he was 25, after which he moved to the United States to attend seminary. He remembers first thinking about becoming a priest at the age of 6. However, as he grew up, he realized that being a priest meant sacrificing having a family. After high school, he went to college in Warsaw and planned to become a nuclear physicist. “I went to like a Polish MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] in Warsaw. And thatʼs actually what I called my Damascus — like Paul riding to Damascus, I was riding on a train to Warsaw to pursue my dreams and thatʼs when God caught me,” he told EWTN News. When he arrived at the university, Kaczmarzyk met several people who began to encourage him to pray, read the Bible, and get more involved in his faith. “Slowly this desire since childhood came back to the surface level,” he said. “And I kind of felt weird because my love for physics, for science, was going down, and then my love for God was increasing day by day.” After six months, Kaczmarzyk dropped out of college and entered the seminary. Originally, he felt called to become a missionary priest, with the desire “to be like the apostles.” “I didn’t want to be just the boring priest of a parish in Poland. Thatʼs not me. I wanted to go into Africa, Asia, other cultures, languages, [and] dangers,” he said. “I told my parents I want to become a missionary… Well, my parents thought I was crazy. Even my dad was like, ‘You might get killed,’ and Iʼm like, ‘Thatʼs even better. I will be a martyr, that’s an express path to heaven, sign me up.’” Kaczmarzyk’s new tenure at Christ on the Mountain Parish is his first as a pastor. He had previously been a parochial vicar at several other parishes in the archdiocese. When he received the assignment from Archbishop Samuel Aquila, former archbishop of Denver, he was told to help get people back into the Church and on fire for Christ. Read more: ewtnnews.com/world/us/from-e…