St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Sandpoint has a new priest at its helm.

The Rev. Madanu Sleeva Raju was selected in the spring by the Diocese of Boise to take the place of retired priest Rev. Dennis Day, who served the parish for 24 years.

Known as Father Sleeva, the priest said it is a common name for priests in southern India where he was born and raised, and where there are more Catholics and Christians than in any other part of India.

Raised in a family with a line of priests going back 200-plus years, he said his youngest brother is also a priest. It was not a matter of expectation by his family, Father Sleeva said of his decision. He wanted to be a priest, so he joined the seminary in the eighth grade.

Father Sleeva was transferred from the Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Grangeville in north-central Idaho where he was also the head of the Saints Peter and Paul School, a private Catholic school with an enrollment of approximately 100 children; the town has just over 3,000 residents. He did enjoy viewing the beautiful canola and wheat fields there, he said.

While he has not had much time to explore the outdoors since his arrival in Sandpoint two months ago, Father Sleeva said he did have time to plant a vegetable garden with “much generosity” from parishioners who dug up the sod in his backyard and helped him with the initial work of preparing the beds. He is looking forward to a much bigger garden next year, with many Indian vegetables one doesn’t find here.

Before Grangeville, Father Sleeva served in the Diocese of Superior (Wisconsin) for five years. The bishop of the Diocese of Superior was Peter Christensen, the same man who later became bishop of the Boise Diocese. “So I knew him in Wisconsin and then when he became bishop of the Boise Diocese, he chose me for the position in Sandpoint,” he explained.

While in Wisconsin, he liked to go fishing — both in the summer and winter. His parishioners would drive on the frozen Lake Superior, then drill holes in the ice; he enjoyed ice fishing in the bracing cold. He hopes to go ice fishing on Lake Pend Oreille.

His pastoral duties in Sandpoint, and also at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Clark Fork, have assured him a much busier schedule than at other posts.

“It is good to work with a large number of people and to hear their ideas and opinions,” he said.

In the short time he has been in Sandpoint, Father Sleeva has seen a person nearly every day for counseling.

He has yet to meet any of the other spiritual leaders in the community, but he hopes to do so.

“My personal mission is to get back the Catholics who’ve left the church. Perhaps they had a bad experience when they were young, or at some other time. I invite them back. Their experience will be different here," he said, assuredly. “The world has changed in just five months,” he said, referring to the pandemic, “and there is change here, he said.

“It’s not just about having a beautiful church. We need to have people in the church because the church is the people, not the building,” he said, and when asked about the length of his homilies, he chuckled and said 10-to-15 minutes, generally, and the entire service is one hour.

When asked about the separation of church and state, Father Sleeva said he will never align himself with a political party, or stand next to a cardboard cutout of a candidate. “No, I am a religious leader, a spiritual leader, not a political leader,” he said.

The church is practicing social distancing, and offers a sanitized environment for Mass attendees. “There is a woman who cleans every pew after every Mass,” he said.

For more information, call St. Joseph’s, 208-263-3720 or contact the church website: www.st-joseph-church.net