Fr. Robert J. Kus

Fr. Robert J. Kus, R.N., Ph.D., originally from Cleveland, Ohio, is a psychiatric-mental health nurse, sociologist, writer, and Catholic priest. After retiring as pastor of the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary in Wilmington, North Carolina in 2018 at the age of 75, he decided to begin the second half of his life as a missionary priest in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Currently, he serves in the far-flung mountain parish of San Francisco de Asís, a poor, rural parish of 50,000 parishioners with 87 churches. He lives on a mountainside with his dog Blackie. Fr. Bob has also been an R.N. for over 50 years and has served as a clinician, an educator at the University of Iowa, a researcher, and a writer. His latest nursing book is Saintly Men of Nursing: 100 Amazing Stories. Currently, he is working on a nursing memoir. Fr. Bob is also a sociologist (Ph.D. – University of Montana) specializing in gay men’s studies and alcohol studies. He has been a visiting researcher in Hungary and Czechoslovakia and was accidentally in the Velvet Revolution. Now, he is devoting his life to priestly ministry to the poor, writing, gardening, and creating a small retreat center for people who’d like to have a “mission retreat.” Follow him on his exciting new website: missionpriest.com.