GULF SHORES, AL —There’s a new gun in town, and he’s loaded with the Holy Spirit.

The “new gun” is the Rev. David P. Carucci, 46, who recently was assigned as pastor at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church in Gulf Shores. He replaces the Rev. Robert Fulton, who died of natural causes in September.

Father Carucci is no stranger to the Alabama coast, having been pastor at St. Thomas by the Sea Catholic Church in Orange Beach seven years ago, an assignment he dearly loved.

“And that was cruel,” he jokingly told Gulf Shores worshipers at one of his first Sunday services at Our Lady. “You don’t get assigned to Orange Beach for one year.”

Father Carucci comes back to the Alabama Gulf Coast after serving since 2007 as pastor of St. Bede the Venerable Catholic Church in Montgomery.

When he got the call from the Archdiocese of Mobile’s chancery office to discuss relocation, Father Carucci said the archdiocesan chancellor asked if he would accept the pastor’s job at Our Lady in Gulf Shores.

“I need to think about it, to pray about it,” Father Carucci said he told the chancellor.

About 1.7 seconds of silence followed.

“OK,” Father Carucci said, “I’ll go.”

In the shadow of a brand new $1.4 million parish center at Our Lady constructed under the watch of Father Fulton before he died, Father Carucci admits he has big shoes to fill. But he will attempt to fill them in the same way Father Fulton did – with perseverance, goodwill and humility.

“Father Fulton was a builder. And he loved Gulf Shores. He rarely left town. In fact, he never showed up (at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile) for his own elevation to monsignor, and his stock went up in my book,” Carucci told those in the pews for Mass during his first weekend at Our Lady. “He took good care of you – and you took good care of him.”

But unlike Father Fulton, who took pains to spend time on the grounds of Our Lady of the Gulf sprucing things up, Father Carucci prefers to spend his time sprucing up people’s souls.

“I don’t mow lawns,” he said tongue-in-cheek to church administrative assistant Vivian Castano shortly after his arrival.

Castano said that Father Fulton was planning to retire when he fell ill and was hospitalized. During one of his last conversations with her, Father Fulton said he knew who was going to replace him at Our Lady. However, he said he could not reveal the name to Castano.

“But,” she said, “he told me that we would be very pleased.”

And did it turn out that way for her?

“Oh, yes!” she said.

As Father Carucci stands in the pulpit delivering his Sunday homilies, he speaks extemporaneously, using no written notes. In that regard, he follows in the tradition of Father Fulton as well as the much-revered Father Anthony Zoghby, who was Our Lady’s pastor from 1985 to 1994.

During one of his first sermons at Our Lady, Carucci addressed the priorities of the faithful, picking up where the day’s gospel reading left off.

“If we displace God from being Number One, we will fall fundamentally short in our spiritual lives,” he said. “Too often, we reduce our Catholicism to doctrine and a set of rules. And that’s where we fall short. We must have an encounter with a certain person – Jesus. But it’s not just ‘me and Jesus.’ ... It’s also important that we have a personal relationship with each other.”

Carucci believes that any church he pastors should be a “can do” beacon for the community. On the website at St. Bede in Montgomery, he addressed his role as shepherd of the local flock.

“Our parish is a vibrant center of Christian life,” he wrote. “Many of our parishioners develop relationships outside the Sunday celebrations through the many corporal and spiritual works of mercy sponsored by the parish. We have an active Teen CAFÉ program for our high school students and a dynamic junior high program as well. The Pastoral Council sponsors numerous Christ-centered programs for all ages and all interests. We, though many, are one body in Christ.”

Among Father Carucci’s longtime friends and associates at St. Bede was Joan Cavan, director of religious education for the Montgomery parish. She said working with him was a delight, and “you’re calling because you want to send Father Carucci back to us, right?”

Cavan said one of Father Carucci’s main strengths is his decision-making process.

“He’s very adept at hearing or seeing a problem and then finding a solution that suits everybody,” she said.

Father Carucci’s philosophy at Our Lady of the Gulf likely will fit right in with an active congregation of nearly 300 families, plus flocks of winter “snowbirds” and a flood of summertime visitors – all served through five weekend Masses. For starters, Father Carucci said he plans to go off-campus and visit every parish family during what probably will be at least a year-long tour of homes. He also plans to reinstitute Bible studies because, he said, “I am, by avocation and talent, a teacher.”

Sandwiched in among the parishes he has served are six years of classroom teaching at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School, starting in 1996.

Father Carucci is the son of a U.S. Air Force officer whose last assignment was at Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach in the Florida Panhandle. As an “Air Force brat,” Father Carucci has seen his share of other places. He was born in 1967 on the U.S. Navy base near Sasebo, Japan. When his father’s assignment in Japan ended, the family relocated to South Carolina, then Boston, then the Virginia suburbs of Washington when his father was assigned to the Pentagon.

His father, Michael Carucci, retired as a lieutenant colonel at Eglin after a 20-year career. He then became a stockbroker/financial planner, and he was a full-time Catholic deacon as well. He died in 2004.

Father Carucci’s mother, Paulann, continues to reside near Eglin, in Niceville, Fla. Father Carucci also has a sister, Annmarie.

What motivated him to become a Catholic priest?

“I was in college,” he said, “and I felt like I wanted to do something more with my life. So, I decided to go to the seminary for at least one year. I had to give it a shot. And when I did, I knew then that I wanted to be a priest.”

Father Carucci is a graduate of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla. – south of West Palm Beach – and Catholic University in Washington. He was ordained in May 1995 by Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb at the cathedral in Mobile.

The newly assigned Our Lady pastor’s pet peeve?

“Meetings that have no purpose and that don’t accomplish anything,” he said.

But those are few and far between. What delights Father Carucci is how well he has been received by the parishioners at Our Lady of the Gulf, as well as those parishes in his rear-view mirror.

It is very gratifying, he said, “to see how people open their lives to you as a priest, and to receive all that unearned graciousness from people who don’t even know you yet.”

That’s part of the reason his love of the coastal environment likely will never waiver. Carucci, who often displays an endearing sense of humor, indicated he wouldn’t mind staying at Our Lady of the Gulf for the rest of his days. He said one of his new parishioners candidly pointed out that many of his predecessors had died while serving there.

“Good,” he replied. “Let’s keep it that way!”

Kent Cockson is retired after more than 40 years as an editor and columnist at newspapers throughout the Southeast. He resides in rural Foley. You can read his occasional blog at: cockson.wordpress.com