Here is a press release from my alma mater, St. Bonaventure University, about Saturday’s Ordination.
SILVER SPRING, Md. — Two St. Bonaventure alumni who are Franciscan friars of Holy Name Province will be ordained priests at 10:30 a.m. on May 19 at a Mass at St. Camillus Church outside Washington, D.C.
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, will celebrate the Rite of Presbyteral Ordination of Brothers Stephen DeWitt, O.F.M., and Daniel Horan, O.F.M..
Both friars are natives of Upstate New York and graduates of St. Bonaventure University. DeWitt, 30, graduated in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in history and theology and Horan, 28, the following spring with a degree in theology.
Both DeWitt and Horan received their master’s of divinity degrees from Washington Theological Union on May 4.
Prior to professing their solemn vows in September 2011, the two spent a year of formation interning at Holy Name Province ministries. DeWitt was based in South America, strengthening his knowledge of the Spanish language and serving at St. Anne’s Parish in Lima, Peru. Horan taught several courses at Siena College, Loudonville, N.Y., while writing his recently released book, Dating God: Live and Love in the Way of St. Francis (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2012).
For their first assignments as priests, DeWitt will serve as parochial vicar at St. Bonaventure Parish in Paterson, N.J., and Horan will pursue a doctorate in theology from Boston College.
Today I will graduate (again) from the Washington Theological Union. Two years ago I completed an M.A. in Systematic Theology from the WTU and then taught for a year at Siena College during what we friars refer to as our ‘internship year,’ or what some communities call their apostolic year. I returned to Washington, DC, last Fall to complete my coursework for the Master of Divinity (M.Div.) degree that I had been concurrently completing while finishing my M.A. these last few years. A number of friars from my local community will also be graduating, including my profession and ordination classmate, Steve DeWitt (in picture to left with me and Fr. Jim Coriden, the renowned Canon Law scholar, after my M.A. graduation in 2010) and Frank Critch, who are also both receiving M.Div. degrees. Additionally, there is one friar, Ross Chamberland, who has earned an M.T.S. degree and two friars, James Hwang and Gerald Hopek, who have earned graduate certificates.
