I hope you will forgive me today as this blog might be a bit off the Pop Culture subject, although we often talk about celebrities and charities. Today, I wanted to write about another charity, but there are no celebrities involved in this one.
I was fortunate enough to attend a four-year college (Christian Brothers University) right after high school. When I read the trash mags, I always see articles about people who went to school with Brad Pitt or Jennifer Aniston and think “Man, why didn’t I ever go to school with anyone famous?” Turns out, I went to school with someone I now admire more than I ever could any celebrity (and I’ve you’ve been reading my past blogs, you know that means a lot!).
After reading my recent college alumni newsletter, I found out that I went to college with the coordinator of a very worthy charity. I remember Scott Binet, but I doubt he remembers me. If we spoke it all, it was only a few times, but he was a very cute guy, so his name stuck in my memory all these years.
I was quite surprised to read in my college newsletter that Scott Binet became both a physician and a priest. He helped develop and is now the coordinator of the Camillian Task Force (CTF). For this reason, he was named a Distinguished Alumni at last year’s Alumni Weekend. I was impressed enough with the fact that he completed medical school, but when I started reading about the Camillian Task Force, I was blown away. The Camillian Task Force is an international relief effort coordinated by Father Binet, who was ordained into the Order of Saint Camillus (Ministers of the Sick). The Force consists of both people from this Order and lay people who respond to disasters to help the poor and sick.
Father Binet helps children in Nias after a devastating earthquake
I read about how Father Binet helped develop CTF after hoping to become a diocesan priest in the inner city of New York, but was told by a rector, “We need good doctors. We need good priests. We don’t need doctor-priests.” Father Binet part-time as a physician while completing a pre-theology program at the New York Archdiocese’s minor seminary. He decided against entering the major seminary when its rector asked if he would be willing to give up medicine after only two years of priesthood. Father Binet knew God was calling him to combine both medicine and priesthood. He found his place when he found the Camillian Order, whose vocations director was also a physician and priest. Through the Camillian Order, Father Binet served in countries such as Honduras, El Salvador, the Philippines, and Uganda providing both pastoral and medial care.
CTF was developed in 2001 and Father Binet was official named coordinator in 2004. And if you are still thinking this really does not have anything to do with Pop Culture, I can throw in the part about how before he went to medical school, Scott had bit parts in several soap operas including “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.”
So kudos to all the celebrities who take an active part in charities, but let’s give kudos to the common people who also do as much if not more with far less recognition.