It is said that parish priests have a significant influence on awakening the call of God to priesthood in the young men in their parish. For me that parish priest would be Father Anthony Kacevicius, a young Lithuanian curate at St. Margaret’s Parish in Rumford, R.I. His modeling of the priesthood is one of those mysterious and unconscious influences the Spirit used silently and subtly to raise the consciousness in a young teen-ager to that call to serve. Once recognized and accepted by me, the early priestly mentoring and support was provided by Father Edmund Mullen, a seasoned pastor with a savvy sense of Church and ministry and a keen compassion for people, who at the time was serving as pastor of St. Joseph’s in Hope Valley.

My seminary years provided an ample variety of scholarly educators, and there were several who influenced my thinking and values in those early developmental years. The first was a Jesuit, Father Mortimer Murphy. Another was Father James Conefrey, whose firm discipline and caring kindness was recognized and remembered by many priests in the Hartford Archdiocese. There were also other academics like Msgr. Russell Collins in philosophy, Fathers Philip King in Scripture and James O’Donohoe in liturgy and moral theology. Their competence in their disciplines and effectiveness as teachers impressed many a seminarian in Boston.

The saying, “Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are,” also reflects my development as a priest. In the summer of 1969 the Diocese of Fall River changed the priest’s annual retreat policy. We would no longer be required to make our annual retreat at Cathedral Camp, but were given the option to choose our own venue. That August I chose to join 14 other priests from our Fall River Diocese at the Jesuit Retreat House at Round Hill in South Dartmouth. The group was made up of young priests newly ordained as well as older priests in their 60s. Our present Ordinary, Bishop Coleman, was one of those 14 priests. The Spirit was touching us not only individually but also as a group so much so that the director at the end of the retreat observed that it would be a missed moment of grace to walk away from the fraternal priestly bonds that had formed during the week. As a result of his encouragement we committed ourselves to meet monthly for prayer, theological reflection, social time and fraternal support. During that first year we had shared the experience with some of our other brother priests who also expressed interest in what we were about. And so over the next two years an additional 30 priests from the diocese became involved in the process bringing the total participants to more than 40 priests.

I didn’t realize it at the time but that week at Round Hill in August of 1969 was to have a profound effect on my spiritual life and ministry. This simple and unassuming model that the 15 of us had experienced that summer and the subsequent follow-up years would become the basis of a Ministry to Priest Program that would extend around the English-speaking world. Thanks to the generosity of my bishop, I was to become a small part of a worldwide program for priests. For approximately 20 years I traversed large parts of this world, working with priests in 65 dioceses in the United States, 19 dioceses in Canada, 15 dioceses in Australia and 14 dioceses in England and Scotland. It was a profound privilege to come to know so many dedicated priests interested in coming closer to God through dialogue with their brother priests. They shared their joys and struggles, their failures and successes, their hopes and disappointments, their concerns and visions with one another and a brother priest from a far away diocese in southeastern Massachusetts. It was an opportunity to share in the universal solidarity with priests that I could never have imagined, let alone hoped for. It was a defining experience in my commitment to the priesthood. This was a time for deepening growth of my love for priests and my joy at being in their presence.

What I learned from this ministry is that priests like all people develop in a world of relationships. I learned that growth is holistic, touching all aspects of who we are as persons. Through the process I became aware of the uniqueness of the person and the journey, the fact that learning is lifelong, and that to say “yes” to his invitation to follow him is to set out on an exciting adventure and great love affair! I feel profoundly privileged to have experienced both. 

As I approach retirement I only wish I was able to do it all over again. Spending time with priests is easy for me. Perhaps it’s a natural fit with my extroverted personality or the common lifestyle that we share. I know that it is an important part of my spiritual life, right up there with prayer, the Eucharist, and theological reflection. Certainly there are times when it’s inconvenient to get together, but I’m always energized when I make the extra effort. It’s a discipline that has reaped great rewards for my spiritual growth.

These are some of the priests who helped make me the priest I have been. There are many other men and women who have taught and formed me in my journey back to God but that’s another story for another time.

Father Morse was ordained in 1967 and is pastor of St. Stephen’s Parish in Attleboro.