When the Reverend Leo McCarthy of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Osprey, Floriday, isn’t busy talking to parishioners or taking care of administrative matters, you will find him in his “other place.”

The “other place” isn’t far from the church. It is the garage on the church’s 18-acre site, where a small section has been turned into a pottery workshop.

With a laugh, McCarthy says, “I can’t call it a studio. I’m not an artist. Just a potter.”

McCarthy is a member of the Carmelite order. He took his vows 45 years ago and has served the church in a variety of capacities since. It was in the 1980s, when he was principal at Salpointe Catholic School in Tucson, Arizona, that he first became interested in making pottery.

“I would visit the classrooms regularly and I was fascinated with what the children did in pottery class,” McCarthy recalled. “The instructor liked to have me in class because the youngsters behaved.”

The pottery instructor encouraged McCarthy’s interest. “That’s how it began,” he said.

McCarthy has taken a lesson or two and currently takes class each Thursday at the Venice Art Center.

“I get a great sense of relaxation when I am throwing a pot on the wheel,” he says. “I love when I take a fired piece out of the kiln. It is always a surprise to see what the fire can do to glazes.”

Although McCarthy never sells his work and has only exhibited a couple of pieces one time at the request of a friend, you will always find one or more of his pieces at the church’s fundraising auctions.

In the future when more space comes available, McCarthy would like to work with parishioners interested in making pottery. “Pottery is my only hobby,” he says. “I used to ski, but at 72, I have a little knee problem.”

McCarthy came to Our Lady of Mount Carmel several years ago to assist the Reverend Lukas Schmidt, founder of the church. When Schmidt retired in May 2006, McCarthy became the pastor. It was an unusual appointment, because most replacement pastors are younger.

The young church was organized in 2000 and met in a storefront on Potter Priest Tamiami Trail. In October 2006, the church relocated to an 18-acre site at 838 S. Tamiami Trail, Osprey. It has 700 registered families in the congregation.

Originally from Marblehead, Massachusetts, McCarthy graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in economics, “I found economics dull and the idea of becoming a priest and maybe a missionary more appealing.”

It is a decision McCarthy has never regretted.

During his years a priest, McCarthy has been a chaplain at Dartmouth College; taught school in Louisville, Kentucky, and Tucson, Arizona; co-founded the Kino Institute, an adult-education program in Phoenix; was director of the theology seminary in Washington, DC; conducted Marriage Encounter programs; and was a religious supervisor for Catholic clergy in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Peru.

“I have enjoyed every experience I have had as priest but none more than being a pastor at Our Lady of Carmel,” McCarthy says. “I have a wonderful congregation, so friendly and so active.”