Knoxville, Tenn., Jul 17, 2011 / 11:04 am
Seven years after entering the Catholic Church, Father Doug Owens’s journey toward ordination was sealed with the single word present, as he responded to vocations director Father Michael Cummins’s invitation, “Let Douglas, who is to be ordained a priest, come forward.”
“That was easy enough, wasn’t it?” said Bishop Richard F. Stika of Knoxville, Tennessee before ordaining Father Owens during a May 28 Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral. “All those years you were in seminary all came down to that [word].”
“A lifetime has brought him to the moment when he said present. He presents himself to the Church, and after formation and spiritual growth and academic achievement, he stands before the people of God. He stands before Jesus and before the Father, praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to enlighten him and to be with him.”
Father Owens, 45, a native of London, Ky., is the 39th man ordained for the Diocese of Knoxville and the fourth ordained by Bishop Stika. He was raised a Southern Baptist and later became a Presbyterian before entering the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil in 2004.