On October 24, Br. John McFadden, O.S.B. will be ordained the college’s ninety-ninth alumnus priest by Bishop Edward Slattery, the retired former Bishop of the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Deacon McFadden (’13) is a fully professed Benedictine monk at Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, a Benedictine community belonging to the Solesmes Congregation. Founded in 1999 from the Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault in France, the Abbey is located in the Diocese of Tulsa. The community currently counts approximately 60 monks, including fellow alumnus Br. Stephen Foeckler, O.S.B., (’17) who recently made his simple profession as a Benedictine monk.
According to the Abbey’s website, “Like the other monasteries of the Solesmes Congregation, Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey, having devoted itself from the outset wholly to the service of God in the hidden life, is to be counted among the institutes entirely ordered toward contemplation. By virtue of their vocation, the monks devote themselves to God alone in silence and in solitude, in constant prayer, and willing penance.”
Br. McFadden graduated summa cum laude with a double major in history and Theology, and a minor in Classical and Early Christian Studies, before joining the Benedictine monks in August 2013. With Br. McFadden’s ordination, the Christendom College class of 2013 will have three ordained priests in its ranks – Fr. John McFadden, O.S.B., Fr. Nicholas Blank of the Diocese of Arlington, and Fr. Steven Wood of the Diocese of Sacramento – and one transitional deacon – Rev. Mr. Phillips Briggs – on schedule to be ordained for the Diocese of Arlington in the summer of 2022, becoming the college’s one-hundredth priest.
Br. McFadden marks the fifth alumni priest ordination of 2021, following the ordinations of Fr. Joseph Dalimata, FSSP (’17), Fr. John Paul Heisler (’17), Fr. Joseph Townsend (’11), and Fr. Jonathan Fioramonti (’14).
In total, Christendom currently has 98 alumni priests, 52 sisters, 5 brothers, 4 transitional deacons, 1 permanent deacon, and 16 men currently studying for the priesthood, in addition to 526 alumna-to-alumnus marriages.
Please pray for Br. McFadden, and all Christendom alumni who are pursuing the religious life.