EDUCATION/WORK
Roman Catholic Priest for the Diocese of Belleville, IL.  BA, MA Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota; MA in Counselor Education, St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO.  Graduate student at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, associate pastor, high school guidance counselor and religion teacher, seminary spiritual director, vocation director, pastor, Vicar of Deacons and President of the National Association of Deacon Directors, Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer, locally and president of the Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers, President of Illinois Conference of Churches and Carbondale Interfaith Council.


LIFE
I'm looking forward to our 45 year Class Reunion and being able to see as many of the class as possible.  Hats off to our planning team which, as usual, has worked extremely hard on our five-year get-together.

This is my twelfth year as the pastor of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Carbondale, Illinois.  It's the longest period of time I have served in one place in my 37 years as a priest.  I like the college atmosphere and diversity of this southern Illinoisan community.  I'm not sure how long my bishop will have me stay, but I'm enjoying the exciting environment while I am here.  I can retire in five years at the age of 67--when I'm eligible for social security--but I likely will no do so at that time.  Perhaps at 70 or 75 when it is mandatory to submit my letter of resignation.  I'll wait and see what happens at the different junctures in my life ahead.

I continue to be the Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer for the Diocese of Belleville.  I began this invaluable ministry back in 1997 after I finished my terms as President-Elect, President and Past-President of the National Association of Diaconate Directors (NADD) from which i received their highest award.  The past six years, I have been serving two three-year terms as President of the national Catholic Association for Diocesan Ecumencial and Interreligious Officers (CADEIO).  Besides the year-round and annual convention responsibilities, I also have been in charge of lining up our three one-week summer institutes:  the Initial Institute, the Interreligious Institute and the Advanced Institute.  These have been held in Washington, D.C.; Garrison, New York; Chicago, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Collegeville, Minnesota.  Our main convention, held in conjunction with our umbrella group for all the denominational networks, has held meetings in New Orleans, LA; San Jose, CA; Arlington, VA; Chicago, IL; Phoenix, AZ; Tampa, FL; St. Paul, MN; Rochester, NY; Louisville, KY; San Diego, CA; Cleveland, OH; Savannah, GA; and Omaha, NE.  The next three years the NWCU will be in Pittsburg, PA; Oklahoma City, OK; and Atlanta, GA.

As President of CADEIO, one of my other responsibilities has included serving on the National Planning Committee or Board for the National Workshop on Christian unity (the above locations) of which I will continue to be a member for three more years, having served six years already.  I have been chosen as the National Chair of the NPC for the 2012 NWCU event in Oklahoma City.  I was also appointed by the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for a three-year term as a member of the Catholic delegation to the new ecumenical body, Christian Churches Together in the United States, CCT-USA.  Over the years the group has met in Baltimore, MD; Houston, TX; Pasaden, CA; Atlanta, GA; Washington D.C. and Seattle, WA.

There have been a number of highlights during my tenure as President of CADEIO:  Attending in 2004 the Parliament of the Worlds' Religions in Barcelona, Spain; attending the International Council of Christians and Jews in Chicago in 2005; attending the annual meeting of the National Council of Christian Churches USA in St. Louis in 2005; attending the 9th Assembly of the World Council of of Churches in February of 2006 in Porte Alegre, Brazil; attending, via Prague, a ten-day Catholic and Orthodox institute in 2007 in Istanbul, Ephesus and Cappadocia, Turkey, meeting and praying with the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Church on three occasions; in 2008, making a mini ecumencial and interreligious sabbatical to Geneva and Bossey, Switzerland to visit the World Council of Churches headquarters and their insittute and then going on to Rome for a three-week institute attending the opening service of the Year of Saint Paul with Pope Benedict XVI and the Ecumencial Patriarch.  As President of CADEIO, I have also made trips to Thailand, Hong Kong (2007), India and Sri Lanka (2009), where I met with religious leaders and visited Hindu and Buddhist temples, Jain and Sikh shrines, Jewish synagogues, Muslim monsques and various Christian churches fo the East and West.

In Calcutta, India I celebrated Mass at the tomb of Blessed Mother Teresa and in Goa, India I celebrated the main Sunday Mass in Bom Jesu Church where the body of Saint Francis Xavier, SJ the patron saint of our parish is entombed.  In Sri Lanka, i visited a restaurant by the river where part of the movie, "The River Kwai" was filmed and among other things went to tea plantations, an elephant orphanage and the coastline and it's towns destroyed by the tsunami.  In 2008, as president of CADEIO which had me attending the Bishops' Committee for Ecumencial and Interreligious Affairs, I was asked by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops secretariat to select a group of eight of our members to attend the New York City Ecumenical Evening Prayer Service led by Pope Benedict for two hundred and fifty ecumencial judicatory leaders, officers and theologians from various denominations around the country.  The same week I was also invited by President and Mrs. George Bush to attend the Pope's Welcoming Ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.  In February of 2011, I have a trip planned to Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa visiting the ecumenical and interreligious scene there, and in 2013 I hope to attend the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, Korea.

As you can see from all that I have been involved in over the years of my priesthood, ecumencial and interreligious relations has been a major part of who I am and my ministry as a Catholic priest.  It has enabled me to meet a great number of inspiring people.  I gained much of that interest from our diverse setting in Lawrence and at our excellent high school.  This past October I was given The Alumni Achievement Award by my alma mater, Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota and this March I was named a Notable Alumnus of Saint John's in the field of religion.  I just found out in May that I have been elected and appointed to the Board of Overseers of the School of Theology-Seminary at Saint John's University where I hope to use my ecumnical, interreligious and diaconate experience--areas in which Saint John's university has always been a forerunner.

It will be great to see everyone and catch up on things.  I'm glad that the planning committee has decided to hold another Remembrance Service to lift up in prayer our growing number of deceased classmates, faculty and staff.  It will be good for us as a group,having known many of these individuals closely, to remember them together.  unfortunately, Bill and Martha Moorhead will not be able to attend the service or our reunion since they had already planned a pilgrimage to Lutheran Shrines in northern Germany and the Passion Play in Oberammergau.  i know I can speak in the name of us all that we are extremely grateful to Bill for keeping us all abreast of class news and deaths.  Bill and Martha will certainly be with us in spirit, and we'll let Bill be the main leader of our next Remembrance Service in 2015--our 50th Class reunion, believe it or not!

God's peace to you and your loved ones!



Last updated 9/2010