Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
Jun 5, 2002
Dominican scholar-priest celebrates silver jubilee
Theology professor Father Michael Carey reflects on 25-year priesthood
By Roxanne King
While sitting near the back of church one day when he was in the third or fourth grade, Michael Carey looked up at the altar and the priest celebrating the Mass and sensed that that is what he wanted to do.
On April 23, the graying, but boyish-looking 53-year-old celebrated his 25th anniversary as a Dominican priest.
"What a privilege it is to have been called to be a priest," he told the Register. "And what a great act of God's mercy that after all these years I'm still a priest. My generation so many men left the priesthood — it was a chaotic time in the world as well as in the Church."
Ordained in 1977, he had approached the Dominicans in charge of campus ministry at Arizona State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in education, about his vocation.
"I went to them and said, `I think I want to be a priest,'" he recalled. With a laugh he added, "They said, `Fine. What kind?' I said, `I don't know.'"
They told him to visit the Dominican House of Studies in Oakland, Calif., which he and a friend did. The weekend trip affirmed his decision.
"When I saw the place and the Dominican friars and the Dominican sisters, I felt right at home and I said, `This is what I'm going to do,'" he recalled. "I was attracted by the beauty of the place. It's a beautiful monastic-style chapel with choir stalls. I remember the friars chanting the Divine Office back and forth from side to side. It was the beauty of the place, the beauty of the life, the beauty of the people, the grace that seems to be there."
Called the Dominican order after its founder, St. Dominic, the Order of Preachers is dedicated to "preaching and teaching," Father Carey said. The soft-spoken, reflective priest added that it was — and is — a challenge for him to be a public person who preaches and leads liturgies.
"Being well-prepared really helps — so you know what you're doing — and in celebrating the liturgy to know that things are happening along standard lines, there usually aren't any surprises," he said, smiling. "But I love preaching. I love celebrating the Mass. Once I get going I'm OK."
Initially assigned to teach literature and serve as an assistant administrator at a Catholic college in California, Father Carey later attended graduate school. After earning an S.T.L. degree from the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., he spent several years dividing his time between Rome and California earning an S.T.D. degree from the Angelicum (Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas) and ministering as an itinerant preacher.
"That means you get in your car and drive from one place to another. This was all along the West Coast, from Washington state down to Arizona and everywhere in between," he said. "A lot of times it would just be little towns that you would otherwise not know were there. We'd go into a parish for a week at a time, start with confession on Saturday and preach at all the Masses on Sunday. During the week it was hearing confessions and preaching and hearing confessions — lots of confessions."
Following that, he served the Archdiocese of San Francisco as director of clergy education for three years. The last two years he has served the Archdiocese of Denver as a theology professor and a formation advisor at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.
"Father Carey has been a blessing to the seminary since it began," said Father Michael Glenn, seminary rector. "He has a great love for theology and teaches it with the richness of the Dominican tradition."
Father Carey's classes provoke lots of student discussion, which often continues long after the classes have ended, the rector added.
The Dominican priest said he loves both sides of his ministry at the seminary.
"On the teaching side, I like the opportunity to read and to learn and to work through some of these theological issues with the students in the classroom — I like that a lot," Father Carey said, smiling. "On the formation side, the opportunity to meet with students outside the classroom in a more informal way, just to help them to grow and to deepen their vocations."
Living the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience have been the greatest challenge of his vocation, Father Carey said.
"That's a lifelong task," he said. "It's not as if you learn how to do it and then it's over and done with. You realize you can give more and be purified more. It's all to live a life in imitation of Christ. After 25 years as a priest and 30 years as a Dominican I realize how imperfectly I do that. I realize how much more I can do."
The greatest joy of his vocation?
"Saying Mass," he said, later adding, "My vocational call was in watching another priest do that and saying, `That's what I want to do,' but then, being a priest and really finding the depth of that challenge — doing that is not just a matter of knowing how to celebrate Mass but of really entering into the depth of the spirituality of the Mass and imitating Christ: offering myself for his Church as he did on the cross. The fuller meaning of that is always a challenge."
Watching movies, one of his favorites is "To Kill a Mockingbird," listening to classical and classic music — particularly Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra — and reading, he's now educating himself about World War II, are among his preferred pastimes.
"He loves books. He's a bibliophile," said 25-year-old seminarian Kevin Augustyn, chuckling. He described the Dominican as "a great professor."
"Father Carey is a consistently and quietly faithful priest who has a deep regard and love for the student seminarians and for those he ministers to," he added.
Theology professor Father Gerard Beigel also had high praise for his colleague and friend.
"Father Carey has made a notable and positive impact on the life of St. John Vianney Seminary," he said. "His charity and friendliness, and his exemplification of the genteel Dominican love for learning have blessed and inspired many among both the students and faculty."
Reflecting on the journey from his childhood in Franklin Park, Ill., to the priesthood, Father Carey said he is deeply grateful for the gift of his call.
"There's a sense of my own unworthiness really," he said.
More cognizant and appreciative today of the contemplative dimension of his priesthood, the scholar-priest continues his quest to deepen his relationship with God.
"(There's) a greater awareness of my love for God, as well as his love for me," he said, "and a real desire to draw a lot closer to him in prayer."
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