Father Pius Pietrzyk, OP, is used to turning heads when he walks onto Capitol Hill.

After all, it’s not every day that a habited Dominican priest walks through the halls of the U.S. Capitol.

But Pietrzyk does so on a regular basis.

For 15 years, he has served on the board of Legal Services Corporation, a publicly-funded nonprofit founded by Congress, which works to provide low-income people with legal services across the country.

Board members of the Legal Services Corporation are appointed by the U.S. president.

After more than a decade as a board member, Pietrzyk said that many people see him as a familiar figure when he walks through the Capitol complex to meet with members of Congress and staffers.

“When I first arrived, they hadn't really dealt with a priest or religious before and especially because I wear the habit, it just got questions like ‘Who are you? Why are you wearing this? What are you doing?’” Pietrzyk said. “But I've been involved for so long now that basically everybody in the legal services community knows who I am.”

—
In 2010, Pietrzyk got a call from a staffer working for Senator Mitch McConnell, (R-Kentucky), then-House Minority leader. The staffer wanted to know if Pietrzyk would be interested in serving on the board of the Legal Services Corporation.

Pietrzyk responded that he was. His superiors approved the unusual assignment, and shortly after the White House gave him the nod, the Senate confirmed him in the role.

Today, Pietrzyk is one of few priests - perhaps the only one - to hold a presidentially appointed office that requires Senate approval.

In this role, he has had to balance his priestly ministry and civic responsibilities.

“I do realize that I walk a thin line,” he said.

“I don't want to be accused of proselytizing and I don't want to proselytize,” Pietrzyk said. “At the same time, I'm not shy about my own religious views and using religious imagery in my rhetoric and the way I talk about things.”

“I am always introduced as Father Pius, they always know that I'm a priest.”

“That balance has always been well regarded and well received. I try not to be overbearing about my religious views, but to balance between the witness of my own life and avoiding heavy-handed comments.”

—
Long before Pietrzyk started hanging out on Capitol Hill, he was already a Dominican friar. Before that, he was a lawyer working at a firm in Chicago, after graduating from the University of Chicago’s prestigious law program.

But after working practicing law for three years, Pietrzyk discerned that God was calling him to become a priest. He soon after discovered the Dominican friars, and entered the novitiate in 2002. He was ordained a priest in 2008.

Pietrzyk was parochial vicar in a rural Ohio parish when he was invited to be one of 11 members on the LSC’s board.

He’s since gotten a doctorate in canon law, been a professor in Rome and the U.S., and is now his province’s vicar for administration. Among a priesthood filled with changes, the legal services work has been a constant.

Read more at The Pillar