TRACY — From Rome to southwest Minnesota, the Rev. Mark Mallak was born to travel.

Mallak, who spent served for 16 years in the Vatican, is joining the team at Holy Redeemer in Marshall. However, his services will center on the Church of St. Mary in Tracy and continuing his Spanish services as well as overseeing and teaching at St. Mary’s Catholic School.

His travels started as soon as he graduated from the seminary. He was sent to serve at the Vatican in Rome, Italy.

“I was in the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, which oversees Catholic schools, universities and seminaries around the world,” he said. “I assisted Archbishop Cardinal Pio Laghi who was in charge of the Universities department.”

Each office dealt with various languages in which reports were made. Mallak worked in the English section, helping to summarize reports from the U.S. Canada, England, Ireland, parts of Africa and other countries who wrote in English, he said.

Upon his return to the U.S., Mallak was assigned to the small parish at Leavenworth, Minn., the Church of the Japanese Martyrs, 1996-2000.

“Leavenworth was a good place for me to learn to be a pastor,” he said. It was a big change from St. Peter’s Square in Rome. “My mother would tease me about the big change. My office in Rome overlooked St. Peter’s Square and the people bustling around there, to looking out over cornfields in rural Minnesota.”

Coming to Tracy two weeks ago, the new priest had spent some time in Chicago at a Marriage Encounter weekend.

“It was the 50th anniversary of Marriage Encounter,” Mallak said. “It’s good for priests to learn to use God’s relationship with the church as an example for marriage.”

Mallak also attends marriage enrichment weekends a couple of times per year at Shalom Hills in rural Windom.

“I try to take a good breather here and there,” he said. “I also go to Willmar to my lake home on my days off, just to get out and rest in a peaceful location.”

Mallak has also served at the parish school in Litchfield.

“I enjoy visiting with the youth in Faith Formation classes,” he said.

Mallak had an opportunity to return to Rome in August of 2000 when he accompanied a youth group from New Ulm to the World Youth Day over there. His small group of 50 youths melded with the millions over there and were privileged to participate in prayer sessions in various locations.

“We said the rosary in the hills,” Mallak said. “At the Basilica we had a conference on The Moral Life given by a Cardinal from Africa. Saturday evening, we were led in prayer by Pope John Paul II. The next morning, we celebrated Mass with the pope, having slept outside in the open air the night before.”

While all these working vacations provide much travel for the priest, Mallak said that some time he plans to take a longer vacation in order to see all the sites in Australia.

Mallak said he has been open to the Spirit of God moving in his life and routinely makes time for Examination of Conscience and to ask forgiveness for whatever may be troubling him.

“I want to be a conduit, but being human, sometimes my weaknesses get in the way,” Mallak said. “I’m very upfront about the fact that I am a recovering alcoholic and am prone to depression and anxiety. I attend 12-step meetings and spend time in prayer throughout the day.”

It’s during those trying times that Mallak leans on his relationship with God for guidance and strength.

“I ask God for grace to get out of my own way,” Mallak said.

Mallak’s skills include speaking Spanish and conducting services in this language. As a substitute pastor and Spanish priest, Mallak has visited Holy Redeemer Church in Marshall fairly regularly over the past two years, while based at St. Catherine’s in Redwood Falls.

Mallak shared a story about a priest once visiting a Hispanic patient in the hospital and was prepared to talk to him in Spanish. The priest was surprised to hear the man speak English, so he responded in English. The priest then asked, in English if the man would like to say the rosary and make confession, but the man said no.

Seeing that the man was hesitant in his answer, the priest asked him the same question in Spanish and the man wept, saying yes.

“People want to worship and pray in their heart’s language,” Mallak said.

To this end, Mallak had used Rosetta Stone for a year in 2016 to learn Spanish and also spent four weeks in Guadalajara to immerse himself in its use.

“I spent four hours every morning learning (Spanish) grammar from one teacher,” he said, “and two hours every afternoon in (Spanish) conversation with another teacher.”

He said that while some of it was similar to the Italian he used in Rome, much was not.

Mallak graduated St. Thomas seminary in 1984, was ordained in 1988 and on June 25, he celebrated his 30th anniversary in the priesthood.

“On June 25, my classmates and I met in Chicago and celebrated 30-some years of being ordained as deacons.”

Mallak’s family lived in Glencoe when he and his siblings were born. After that, they moved to New Ulm where they all graduated from New Ulm Cathedral High School.