ROCKFORD—Msgr. P. William McDonnell is heading to Rome in early August to begin a new mission.
As he nears the end of his second year of retirement, he has been praying, he says, for a new challenge, since he “has lots of energy and good health.”
He had thought God might want him to join the work of a handful of other retired priests of the diocese in service to the Food for the Poor organization.
Then Bishop David Malloy caught him after the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday to ask him to become one of the spiritual directors at North American College in Rome.
After wrestling with the idea throughout Good Friday and Holy Saturday, Msgr. McDonnell woke up on Easter Sunday morning “totally at peace,” he says, concluding that “the Lord had something else (besides Food for the Poor) in mind.”
North American College is a residence for about 230 seminarians who study theology for four years at Gregorian University (run by the Jesuits) or the Angelicum (run by the Dominicans) or Santa Croce (run by Opus Dei), Msgr. McDonnell explains.
They are nearly all from the United States, with a few from Canada and Australia.
Twenty additional residents (including the Diocese of Rockford’s own Father Jared Twenty) are student priests who are studying for their licentiate degree, akin to a master’s degree in theology.
Msgr. McDonnell will live at North American College, serving as one of six spiritual directors.
“I’ll have about 35 directees,” he says. “That will be my main job – to work with these young men to help them in their desire for a deeper union with the Lord, and their discerning more clearly their calling to the priesthood.
“As a priest on the faculty, I will take a turn as one of the confessors, attend faculty meetings and serve on faculty committees. I’ll also be called to assist with pastoral formation practicums, such as homily preparation and delivery, helping them to become better preachers of the Word.”
He has made a two-year commitment to the work and can renew that commitment on an annual basis after that for up to five years total.
Msgr. McDonnell is a graduate of Gregorian University and resided at the NAC from 1961-1965. He and some 20 of his classmates got together to celebrate their 50th anniversary of ordination last December.
“We were there for three of the four sessions of the Second Vatican Council,” he says. “It was a very exciting time to be there as students.”
The college, he adds, is located on one of the higher hills of the city, “so the view of the city of Rome as well as St. Peter’s from the top of the six-story building is breathtaking.”
All of it is “exciting and a little intimidating,” Msgr. McDonnell says.
He notes that the Holy Father, who is a year older than he, accepted the papacy and its staggering responsibilities.
Msgr. McDonnell feels he is following that good example in accepting a new challenge at age 77.