Rich Campana, a deacon at St. Andrew Church in Clemson, also is doing good on earth. He serves the forgotten and the elderly, bringing Jesus to them in the Eucharist when they can’t make it to Mass.

To these folks, his visits make their whole day.

“It’s the best thing in the world,” Deacon Campana said. “I see these people in the worst possible times in their lives. I listen to them. I listen intently to them, to what they’re saying. It’s a heartwarming experience.”

He knows what they are going through. Deacon Campana is 86, and his wife died five and a half years ago.

“It’s hard,” he said. “A lot of people are so frightened. You can see it in their eyes, and I try to sympathize with them.”

And these are not just parishioners of St. Andrew.

“When they see me coming, they call my name. I know them,” he said. “I see a lot of people who are not registered in our parish. I see a lot of people who are non-Catholics, too. I talk with them. I bless them.”

When he brings the Eucharist to Clemson Downs, a retirement community, he is well received. So is Jesus.

“We say the rosary over there,” he said. “This one lady is not Catholic, and she wants to learn the rosary. I pray with her. I talk with her,” which opens the door to a deeper faith.

He calls his outreach gratifying because he gets just as much out of it as the people he visits.

“You have so many things in common,” he said. Same age, generation and life experiences — but unfortunately, that generation is fading.

“They put them in a nursing home, and they are from out of state, and they have nobody to visit them,” he said.

“I go to hospice, too. And they light up. You have so many things in common, and then they pass away,” he said. “When they pass away, it is so hard for me,” but he keeps coming back with the Eucharist.

Deacon Campana has been visiting retirement communities and homes for 18 years.

“I have the same folder that was given to me 18 years ago,” he said. “They said, ‘You need a new folder.’ I said, ‘No, no. This one has character.’”

And he carries on, making sure the forgotten are not forgotten.

Elizabeth Razayeski accompanied him one Friday to Seneca.

“I came home that evening … and my heart was just ready to burst,” she said.

She described one meeting with an elderly gentleman: “Deacon Rich was giving him Communion, and he forgot to take his hat off, and he had tears in his eyes. He said, 
‘I never took Communion with my hat on.’”

Another visit touched her deeply. “He just talked and talked and talked to her. And when he gave her Communion, she just got the biggest smile on her. This is truly bringing Jesus to people.”

They encountered people from many walks of life: writers, firefighters, mathematicians.

“And he knew something about each one of them,” Razayeski said. “There are just so many different people and stories. … The way he knew them, it just touched my heart.”

Deacon Campana has a way of putting people at ease, Razayeski said.

“He looks like a little Santa Claus. He’s short. He’s stocky. And his car is old, and you wonder if it will start. He’s somebody you feel like you want to give him a hug,” she said.

Parishioner Kate Hallenback agreed. She calls him “Santa Claus with a New Jersey accent.”

“He’s kind and compassionate and gentle. He’s genuine. He takes the time. It is absolutely amazing to watch somebody so entrenched in his faith,” Hallenback said.

She has shadowed Deacon Campana several times.

“For a lot of these people … they know he’s coming, and you can see they’ve been waiting for him. A lot of these people don’t drive, so this is it. This is their Communion. For some people, this is community,” she said.

“They do talk to each other about their lives,” she said. “It’s a very human interconnection, and a very spiritual interconnection.”

But it’s not easy helping people navigate end-of-life issues.

“It’s very personal to him right now,” she said of his dedication.

“Nobody would spend their golden years traipsing around in 100-degree weather,” Hallenback said. “He saw a need and picked it up and did it. It is incredible to see the joy and the peace. It’s an incredible thing to be part of. He’s very selfless. I wish there were more people in the world like him.”

She said he brings the Eucharist to those who are marginalized.

“The elderly are losing their freedom by no choice of their own,” she said. “He brings some dignity to a group of people who don’t have a lot.”

They do, however, have a friend — someone who shows up and makes them feel important. Someone who brings them the greatest friend ever: Jesus.

“Even the ones who have trouble expressing themselves, they know what they are getting. You can see it. Sometimes there are tears, but they are tears of joy … that’s how deep it is,” Hallenback said.

Both Hallenback and Razayeski have seen Deacon Campana lift up so many people throughout the Clemson community.

He goes home exhausted but filled with joy. And that is a heavenly feeling after spending the day doing good upon the earth.