Priest’s 100-mile bike ride raises aid for parish – and hope

Fr Christopher Heanue started his morning on July 27 by celebrating Mass at 5am…and then took off on a 100-mile bike ride.

It wasn’t just any ride. Fr Heanue called his journey ‘100 Miles of Hope’, which was a fundraiser to help support his parish, Holy Child Jesus, in Richmond Hill, New York, in the Brooklyn diocese. He is the administrator and a parochial vicar of the parish in the New York borough of Queens.

Holy Child Jesus has faced some challenging months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the food pantry and parish outreach programs particularly affected.

Joined by parishioners Paul Cerni and Tom Chiafolo, Fr Heanue, 32, did the ride to provide hope and optimism in addition to raising money.

“I was very, very nervous entering into the ride. The week before, I read some articles about how to prepare for a century ride,” as a 100-miler is called by cyclists, Fr Heanue told Catholic News Service. “One of the main components that the writers kept saying was that you need to have a whole week of good rest.

“I’ll tell you, all of the fears and all the nervousness and anxiety that I had entering into the ride seemed to dissipate once we began,” said the priest, who was ordained in 2015 for the Brooklyn diocese.

One Bible verse accompanied Father Heanue along the way – Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Fr Heanue said he had never been on such a long bike ride, but he took up the challenge to not only ask for support and prayer but also to ask for donations for the parish and its outreach programs.

“We set up a GoFundMe page and I started with a goal of $1,000. That quickly was raised. I increased it and tried for $5,000, and in three days we hit $5,000. I tried for $10,000 and today we’re at about $9,400,” he said when he spoke to CNS on July 28.

As of August 6, he had raised over $20,000 with his GoFundMe page and through Facebook and GiveCentral.