Father Joe O'Donnell - "Father Ecumenist"
by Father Bob Bond

Father Joe O'Donnell meets with Bishop John McRaith in Owensboro.

“I think that I have always been a committed Catholic," professes Father Joseph O'Donnell; "but since I have been so heavily involved in ecumenical work, bouncing my Catholic faith off the other traditions of Christianity, I think I am a better, more deeply committed Catholic than ever before."

In the rolling hills of Ohio County in western Kentucky, there are forty-two Southern Baptist and twenty-six Methodist churches, not to mention the churches of the other denominations. Most of them have revivals twice a year. There is ample opportunity for Father Joe to bounce his faith off other traditions.

He makes time for attending each revival "at the big Baptist churches in Beaver Dam and in nearby Hartford," he said. "I go to different country churches every year, except for Clear Run Baptist, where I never miss." At almost every revival the minister asks him to lead a prayer. Father Joe added: "I do not do any of that kind of ecumenism in Butler County or in the area around Fordsville. I rely on the Sisters to go—and they do."

Father O'Donnell is referring to the three nuns who serve as his pastoral associates and as extensions of his ecumenical activity. There is one at each of his parishes: Sister Luisa Beckett, OSU, at Holy Redeemer Church in Beaver Dam, Sister Diane Payne, OSU, at Saint John Church in Fordsville, and Sister Marcan Freking, OSF, at Holy Trinity Church in Morgantown (Butler County). They also coordinate and perform some of the other usual parochial functions, thus freeing Father O'Donnell to carry his ecumenical expertise beyond parish boundaries.

Sister Marcan came to Morgantown after having spent about ten years in the Vanceburg/Grayson, Kentucky, missions. She specified some of her ecumenical efforts. "Every Wednesday at 7 a.m. I pray with ministers of the other denominations. We alternate churches for these prayer meetings. As a member of the ministerial association, I do a fifteen-minute daily devotional radio program for a week at a time about nine times a year. Last year I read Scripture at the Thanksgiving Community Service held at the Church ofthe Nazarene."

Sister Diane is effervescent about her three-year missionary experience in a Glenmary parish. The examples of her ministry are indicative of the Sisters' activities: "I do marriage counseling, coordinate the religious education program at Saint John's and prepare converts for entrance into the Church. I also work with teen-agers, and victims of spouse and child abuse. I go to affairs in other churches, and counsel shut-ins who belong to the different denominations. I visit the sick at the rest home and in the hospital. Finally, I spend a lot of time with the unchurched, both Catholic and nonCatholic, in order to get them to church."

Father Joe readily admits that he could not be so ecumenically involved on a broader level if he did not have the Sisters to help with the parish work. Glenmary and the diocese of Owensboro gladly support them to enhance local ministry, as well as Father Joe's diocesan and state commitments.

In addition to attending the regular diocesan staff meetings as Ecumenical Director for the Owensboro Diocese, Father O'Donnell serves on the executive board of the Kentucky Council of Churches and on the Commission on Ecumenism of the Kentucky Catholic Conference. He is an active participant at the annual conference of the National Association of Diocesan Ecumenical Officers, a group which also meets with those who hold similar positions in Protestant churches. Every year he attends the Kentucky Southern Baptist Convention and other state Baptist meetings.

"I feel a deep commitment to working for Christian unity," Father Joe said. "It is an essential apostolate of the Church. If one looks at Pope John Paul's teaching, there is hardly anything he has emphasized more than ecumenism. He meets with the Protestant leaders of every country he visits. When he comes here in September, he will make a trip to Columbia, South Carolina, primarily to meet with religious leaders."

In 1982, shortly after he came to Owensboro, Bishop John J. McRaith asked Father Joe to become the director of ecumenism for the diocese. He knew that Father O'Donnell had served for five years ·as Glenmary's Southern Ecumenical Worker. He wanted to make the experience and wisdom of Father Joe available to his own priests and people.

Bishop McRaith's insight is bearing fruit. Father Joe developed a section in the diocesan marriage guidelines relative to interfaith marriages. It emphasizes the need for helping Catholic and Protestant people face the reality of a mixed marriage. During the draft stages, Father Joe gave several talks to all the priests of the diocese about the nature of the evangelical South, particularly the Baptist culture.

Although Father Joe recognizes the importance and value of his leadership at ecumenical meetings, he finds greater satisfaction on the grassroots ecumenical firing line. As he put it: "It was delightful to give a talk to the parishioners at Saint Jerome Church near Paducah and to encourage them to be more ecumenically inclined and enthusi.astic." He has given several such presentations throughout the diocese.

About his local work, he said: "I can honestly say that in parish life I have genuine friends who are members of other churches, particularly among the Baptist and Methodist ministers. I have prayed with them and enjoyed meals with them. I feel very comfortable discussing theology with them. Yet they know that I 'am truly a Catholic, and I know that they are truly Baptists and Methodists."

Reverend Glenn Armstrong demonstrates with Father Joe O'Donnell how an elderly adult receives baptism by immersion.

The feelings are mutual. Reverend --J Glenn Armstrong, pastor of the very large Beaver Dam Baptist Church, where Father Joe delivered the sermon at the Thanksgiving Community Service, said of him: "I consider him to be not only a colleague, but also a very dear friend. Through the years (they have known each other since 1967) we have shared happy moments and some that were not so happy. He has been a minister to me personally.

"I also think my people are delighted with (Father) Joe. Although he comes from a different part of the country, with a different culture, and a Chicago accent which he hasn't been able to shed in all these years, he has been very real to our people. The fact that he has attended services with us, and that we have conducted joint services, has communicated something very wholesome to our people about the Catholic faith. It has also highlighted the need for our two traditions to work together and to relate positively with one another."

Father Joe feels that the development of a climate of friendship is the first and foremost job of doing ecumenism, especially in Glenmary territory where Catholics are in the minority. It is always the first step so that Baptists and Methodists and Catholics and others can respect one another.

The second step for him is to make the effort to understand others. As Father Joe puts it: "People may know what other churches hold, but they do not know the interior practice, the depth of meaning in how they pray, how they bury their dead, how they run a Sunday school, and how they use music, for example. That is what we have to understand."

Thirdly, Father Joe suggests finding areas of cooperation, and finally, letting the Holy Spirit guide us where He wills. "Ecumenism is not going to succeed on human techniques. It will only succeed through prayer and renewal - and who are we to argue with the Holy Spirit!"