Father Seott Binet: Priest-Doctor Finds Cure for His Spiritual Longing
BY WAYNE TRYHUK
U.S. Camillian Father Scott Binet, a medical doctor from Milwaukee, examines a woman displaced by tsunamis in a camp near Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Jan. 19.
The remedy for what was ailing Scott Francis Binet has led him to heal others in body and spirit — as a doctor and a priest. Though the route to his dual profession was not always clear, he now travels to many of the world's disaster areas fulfilling his vocation.
Before becoming a family physician in 1993, and being ordained a priest of the Order of St. Camillus in November 2003, "I was unfulfilled, thirsting, not satisfied," said Father Binet, 41, a member of Trinity Council 4580 in Hales Corner, Wis.
"I remember as an adolescent at Mass being fascinated by stories of Jesus healing people and saying to myself, 'Lord, I want to be like you,'" recalled Father Binet. Toward that end, he established the Camillian Task Force (3533 North 84th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53222 Phone: 414-464-8030, www.ctfmercy.org) that provides medical and pastoral care to people affected by natural and man-made catastrophes.
Despite his early attraction to Christ's healing ministry, the form of his vocation — that of a doctor and priest — was far from apparent. It would be about 10 years before he moved in that direction.
In 1985, Father Binet was accepted into medical school at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. He changed direction, though, moving to New York City to audition for modeling and acting jobs. Eventually, he was considered for a major part on a soap opera.
Acting in soap operas tested his moral character, requiring him to act literally in ways that contradicted his faith. He had hoped an acting career would help him "make Christ known to people." In a soap opera, though, he would possibly have to play a character engaging in sinful behavior such as illicit sex or drug use.
"I had to ask myself, 'Would I want my mother to see me-'" in such a part, he recalled.
Closing the curtain on an acting career, he said, "'OK, Lord, I will go to medical school,' yet left a door open. "I gave myself the option of choosing something else if I wasn't happy after four years," he added.
In his third year of medical school, he got a sign of what that choice might entail. A woman in "asthmatic crisis" lost a child she did not know she was carrying.
"I followed her through the whole thing, and it was very moving for me," Father Binet said. "I asked myself, 'How do I want this patient to see me? As a doctor?' And the answer that came to me was, 'As Christ.' That was the Lord moving to help me see my vocation."
During his fourth year of medical school, Father Binet finally said yes to the priesthood. "A great feeling of joy and peace came over me and it has not left," he said. "It was a manifestation that I was on the right path. That thirsting was gone."
He did his family practice residency in Yonkers, hoping to become a priest for the Archdiocese of New York, where he could serve the inner city poor as a priest and doctor. But he was refused admission to the archdiocese's St. Joseph Seminary by a rector who questioned his quest for a dual profession. "I knew it would be a challenge" to acquire the status of a priest-physician, "but I didn't know how much," Father Binet said. Without questioning his vocation, he recalled, "I said, 'Lord, what's going on here? You're calling me, but I'm having trouble finding the way.'"
But he persevered, knowing "the Lord was calling me to be a priest and a doctor."
While thumbing through the "Guide to Religious Ministries," he happened upon an advertisement stressing the Camillian charism of "serving the sick" — exactly what he had discerned as his vocation.
Father Binet said that when contacting the order, whose North American Province is in Milwaukee, "I was very straightforward about what I understood my vocation to be."
The order's vocations director, himself a physician and a priest, said, "Fine, no problem," he recalled. "I had to pinch myself. Once again, I had a great sense of peace and joy, which are fruits of the Holy Spirit, a sign that I was in the right place."
As a Camillian priest who speaks several languages, Father Binet has been to Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, the Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya and Uganda, providing pastoral and medical care in slums, refugee camps and other stricken areas. In January he traveled to Sri Lanka and Indonesia to help provide medical care to tsunami victims there.
The greatest reward in his dual vocation, he said, "is knowing that through what I'm doing — counseling in confession, forgiving sins, helping people medically, bringing Christ's peace in the Eucharist, praying with patients if I see the situation is open to prayer — I'm making Christ's presence known to people."
Reflecting on the way in which he finally arrived at his vocational destination, he said, "It's amazing how the Lord has brought that about."
WayneTryhuk is a freelance writer in Milwaukee, Wis. This story originally appeared in the Catholic Herald, official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and is reprinted with permission.