FATHER BARRY O’LEARY heard his call to the priesthood a lot like the prophet Samuel— during the quiet moments when he was alone with his thoughts in Mass, at prayer, and when walking by himself.
Father O’Leary, at age 58, came to the priesthood late—in 2007—after spending 24 years as an elementary school teacher and principal in Catholic schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. He is the second oldest priest to be ordained in the history of the diocese. He earned one of his master’s degrees in education from Carlow University, making him the first Carlow graduate to be ordained a priest.
“As I got closer to 50, I started to feel an urge that I should pursue the priesthood,” says Father O’Leary, who consistently wrote off that feeling as a form of middle-age angst. “I just dismissed it as a desire to do something different.”
While those urges never became as dramatic as the revelation to St. Paul on the road to Damascus, Father O’Leary marks the exact day he took his first step to the priesthood by a moment that might seem nearly as dramatic—at least for modern day audiences.
“On September 10, 2001, I was gathered with other Catholic school principals from the Diocese of Pittsburgh at an all-day workshop,” Father O’Leary says, adding that part of the day’s activities included listening to Father David Bonnar, the rector of St. Paul’s Seminary at that time, give a talk about vocation recruitment. “Following his presentation, I asked if he would consider someone in his 50s for the priesthood. He said, ‘No,’ and, honestly, I was a little relieved.”
Father Bonnar—in the manner of good rectors everywhere—didn’t leave it at that, however. He urged—there’s that word again—Father O’Leary to speak with Father Robert Meyer, who was then pastor of St. Basil Parish in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood, and Father Warren Metzler, pastor of St. James Parish in Wilkinsburg.
“The next day—September 11—I had a meeting with Father Meyer. I know it was the 11th because the parish secretary interrupted our meeting to tell us the World Trade Center towers had been hit by the planes,” he says. Just before receiving the news, Father O’Leary brought up his idea about pursuing a course to the priesthood. “I told Father Meyer and then I watched his face closely to see if he thought it was a good idea. He was absolutely encouraging, and within two weeks I had two letters of recommendation to the seminary.”
Father O’Leary spent the rest of that school year as principal at St. Basil’s and, in April 2002, he received a letter from the seminary saying he had been accepted. He entered St. Paul Seminary in August 2002.
“There was very little time to think,” Father O’Leary says. “I was leaving St. Basil’s, I was working as an aspiring seminarian, and St. Paul Cathedral would become my new home.”
Patrick Joyce, EdD, vice president for Advancement and Government Relations, has known Father O’Leary since they were elementary school classmates and friends at St. James School in Wilkinsburg. They even used to deliver morning newspapers together.
“I was surprised when he told me he thought God was calling him to be a priest,” says Joyce. “I say ‘surprised’ because after a certain age you tend to be fixed in your ways. Barry was a successful teacher and principal, but now he was about to begin a radically different journey with men half his age. I told him I believed he has what it takes to be a great priest, and that I would pray for him to persevere along the way. Happily, he did!”
“Everyone was encouraging,” says Father O’Leary of his decision to become a priest. “Some said I should have done it years ago. I tell them, ‘So, why didn’t you say so?’”
As a successful Catholic schoolteacher and principal for 25 years, Father O’Leary was well prepared in many ways for being a parish priest.
“In the Catholic school system, the school principal does nearly everything when it comes to budgets and administrative work,” he says, noting that this is similar to what the parish priest is called to do, too, albeit on a larger scale. “The things we learn in theory, I got to put in practice.”
“We were in a lot of classes together at Carlow, and I got to know him quite well,” says Barbara Johnson, MEd, associate dean and director of Diversity Initiatives. “He is a nice person to talk to. We had good conversations in class, and he always had insightful things to say based on his experiences [as a teacher and principal]. He’ll do very well because he’s so genuine ... down-to-earth and passionate about what he does.”
Father O’Leary praises his experience at Carlow as providing a very good formation for certification as a principal, and he claims to still use the experiences—and really all of his life experiences—in what he does today.
“I’m naturally a teacher, so I still present myself as a teacher in my homilies,” he says. “The toughest thing to adjust to is that your life is no longer your own. That can be difficult, even if you feel called to do it.”
But it is a calling that he has willingly taken up; just as he pursued a calling of teacher and principal for 25 years.
“We do get called for different reasons,” Father O’Leary says. “I believe I’m called to ordinary pastoral work: to lead and guide people to Jesus Christ.”
Carlow University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. (267-284-5000)
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the
US. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
