The immediate and biggest shock was the heat.
Back home in rural Wicklow County, Ireland, the summer temperature averages 68 to 70 degrees in summer. But upon arrival to the United States and the Gulf Coast in August of 1967, newly ordained Roman Catholic priest Rev. Luke Hunt found himself smothered in something much more uncomfortable that a heavy black cassock. It was the heat. And, of course, the humidity.
"I was at St. Mary's in Fort Walton Beach and it was my first weekend there,'' Hunt recalled. "It was a small church with no air conditioning and I'm wearing the long, black cassock. The pastor had sent me to hear confessions and I was sitting in the confessional with bugs biting me and it was so hot."
A family came into the church, and he could hear a child run ahead of his parents through the holy place.
"I'm sure his parents had warned him to be quiet in church because God was there,'' Hunt said. "But he ran ahead of them, looked around and shouted back to his parents, 'I can't see God in here.' I said to myself, that's my sentiment exactly."
Hunt, 83, smiled and added that it was also Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival season too, Fort Walton Beach's weeklong celebration similar to Pensacola's Fiesta of Five Flags, though maybe a bit more raucous.
"No one had told me about it and there were all these explosions,'' he said. "I thought I was in a war zone."
Hunt served with various parishes in what was then the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham, which included the Florida Panhandle. Northwest Florida churches would later become part of the Diocese of St. Augustine. Now, all Northwest Florida Catholic churches are part of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, established in 1975.
Since 1984, now Monsignor Hunt has served as pastor at St. Ann Catholic Church Parish in Gulf Breeze. When he began his service to the church 41 years ago, the parish had about 300 families. Today, the parish is made up of about 850 families, as well as another 150 families from St. Ann's mission church on Pensacola Beach, Our Lady of Assumption Mission.
Hunt will retire following a morning mass at St. Ann Catholic Church on June 22.
Then, he'll return home.
That's to his home in a nice Gulf Breeze neighborhood, not far from the church.
"People ask me if I'm going to go back to Ireland,'' Hunt said in his Irish brogue, not as thick as it was 58 years ago when he arrived in the United States. "Well, you know, I know more people here now than I do in Ireland. Plus, I've been part of more families here, families I've known for generations. In our preschool now are parents who bring their kids here who went here themselves as children. I have celebrated weddings with people that I baptized. I'm going to stay here and to continue to minister. when called. I love to be around people, and I want to continue to do that."
He suffered a health scare in 2021 when he became severely ill after contracting COVID-19. Today, he said his health is good, though, of course, age has taken its natural toll. He can't ride his bike out on Pensacola Beach like he used to enjoy doing until about 20 years ago. No more jogging through Gulf Breeze like he once did.
It's the right time to retire, he said. But what actually does a priest do in retirement?
"I'm about to find out,'' Hunt said with a grin.
He's always returned to Ireland once or twice a year since his ordination so long ago and will return twice a year for sure now that he has more free time.
Hunt has family there − a brother, sister-in-law, nephews and cousins. But he'll always return back to Gulf Breeze, where he has become part of families and the community. The church even served as a FEMA relief center for nearly five months in 2004 following the devastation of Hurricane Ivan and a year later, Hunt was elected chairman of the Santa Rosa Island Authority's Committee to Redefine Pensacola Beach advisory committee.
"Pope Francis used to say that we not only serve Catholics, but the whole community,'' Hunt said. "I want to thank the whole Gulf Breeze community, the Pensacola Beach and Pensacola communities for their acceptance of me and their love and support over the years."
Bishop William Wack, who leads the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, called Hunt "the unofficial mayor of Gulf Breeze."
"He especially enjoys bringing members of the community together on the church grounds for meetings, fellowship, and prayer,'' Wack said. "This includes everyone, Catholics and non-Catholics alike."
Though he led the church as senior pastor for decades, he is now associate pastor under Rev. John Cayer who has led the church for just a few years.
"He's given us a great sense of stability here,'' Cayer said. "People have appreciated that throughout the years. He's been great for parish life and leads more by example than his voice."
St. Ann church member and parish bookkeeper Grace Hofius has known Hunt since she was 15. She's 63 now.
"I've known him since Fort Walton Beach,'' she said. "It was right when he first arrived and he got to know our family well." She would later marry, move away, have children then began searching for a new parish, finding St. Ann Catholic Church.
"One of the first days I was here I ran into the monsignor and we were talking, and he looked at me for a second,'' Hofius said. He had remembered her parents. And her.
"I was in my 40s then and he recognized me from when I was 15,'' she said. "I knew I was in the right place. He is just very present with people when he's with them and he lets them know he cares through his attitude, actions and words. He has been amazing."
Yes, she calls him "Monsignor" as everyone does. Monsignor is an honorary title the pope bestows upon certain priests who have provided valuable service to the church or provided some special role in church governance.
Before coming to St. Ann's in 1984, and following his early parish assignments, which included Our Lady of Victory in Crestview, he served as secretary to Bishop Rene Gracida, who was appointed first bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in 1975. Hunt said it was Gracida − who is still alive and turned 102 years old on June 9 − who requested to then Pope Paul VI to bestow the "monsignor" title upon him.
He was told by Gracida that the designation was for service given, and service yet to come.
As a young seminary student from Tallahassee talked to Cayer in the parish hall kitchen, Hunt reflected on advice he would give to any new priest.
"The first thing I would say is to be faithful to prayer, because prayer is what fuels your ministry,'' he said. "Without prayer you cannot be effective. I would also tell them that they're not working for me, they're not working for the bishop, they are working with Christ."
As for his own faith, he said it has grown since his ordination.
"It has to grow,'' he said. "If a relationship doesn't grow, it becomes static and it's going to die."
He said he is thrilled to see Pope Leo XIV become the first American pope − Hunt has dual Irish and U.S. citizenship.
"It's beyond joy,'' he said. "It's amazing. It's something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime."
Wok, Hunt's current bishop − he's served under six in the diocese, beginning with Gracida − said the community was fortunate to have Hunt venture from his homeland nearly 60 years ago.
"Monsignor Hunt made the decision to leave his home country to dedicate his life for the spread of the Gospel in the United States,'' Wok said. " What an incredible gift. He has faithfully served here in Northwest Florida for more than 58 years − as long as I have been alive...I take solace in knowing he isn't going far."