When the Rev. Ken Oldenski was a boy in Pittsburgh's Polish Hill neighborhood, Sundays and holidays centered on the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.

"When the bells rang, everyone went to church," he said.

People poured from their homes and into the streets, walking to the church, which was the foundation of the community's spiritual life.

Father Oldenski has long since moved from Polish Hill. But the church remains at the center of his life. Next Sunday, Father Oldenski, 65, will celebrate 40 years in the priesthood.

Now pastor of St. Richard Church in Richland, Father Oldenski has had richly varied and often challenging experiences.

In the lpast 20 years, he has led suburban churches with affluent, booming populations: St. Richard and, before that, St. Ferdinand Church in Cranberry.

He has headed churches with far different demographics in the financially troubled communities of McKees Rocks and McKeesport.

Despite their differences, each of the churches was influential in Father Oldenski's approach to leading a parish. In McKees Rocks, for example, he experienced the value of interdenominational harmony when race riots threatened after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. As angry crowds massed in the streets, Father Oldenski and leaders of various churches gathered, too, to ensure peace.

"The other ministers and myself walked the streets," Father Oldenski said. "We were able to personally approach the people we knew and bring some calm. God used us together, as a team."

At the McKees Rocks church, which has since closed, Father Oldenski helped launch what became a nationwide program called Engaged Encounter to prepare young couples for marriage by learning to express their feelings.

The communicating appears to be going well in St. Richard parish. When Father Oldenski was asked to lead the church in 1996, it had 450 member families; now that number is 1,650. Where 200 children attended religious education classes, now there are 900.

After 40 years of answering the call which began with the bells on Polish Hill, Father Oldenski is not sure what will happen when he is eligible for retirement. Whatever happens when he turns 70 will depend on the call he hears then.

"I'm just trying to listen to the Lord," he said.