Chance meeting with future pope helped
Deacon Williams prepare for priesthood

Editor’s Note: On June 4, Deacons William M. Williams and Shaun Whittington will be ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.)

By Mary Ann Wyand

GREENWOOD—Since his childhood, Deacon William M. Williams’ mother has prayed that her youngest son would become a priest someday.

Our Lady of the Greenwood parishioners John and Dolores Williams of Greenwood will see her longtime prayers answered when their son is ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein during a 10 a.m. Mass on June 4 at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis.

The newly ordained priest will celebrate his Mass of Thanksgiving at 2:30 p.m. on June 5 at Our Lady of the Greenwood Church, his home parish.

His first appointments are as associate pastor of St. Simon the Apostle Parish in Indianapolis and chaplain of Father Thomas Scecina Memorial High School, the interparochial high school in the Indianapolis East Deanery.

“It is truly an honor to be able to have both assignments as a newly ordained priest,” Deacon Williams said during a May 24 interview at his parents’ home in Greenwood. “When the archbishop called me to tell me that I was getting two assignments, it was a surprise and an honor because he has entrusted me with quite a bit. I just hope that I can bring my own gifts and talents that God has blessed me with to my assignments.

“I’m looking forward to helping Father [Robert] Sims [the pastor] at St. Simon Parish,” Deacon Williams said. “There are a lot of good and faithful people there, and there’s obviously a lot of work to be done. It’s a growing parish. I’m looking forward to learning from Father Sims, and hopefully the two of us together can do a good job of bringing the Gospel message to the people at St. Simon Parish.”

Deacon Williams said he also is looking forward to serving as chaplain and teaching at Scecina Memorial High School.

“It’s the ‘Pride of the Eastside,’ ” he said. “When young people are taught the faith in a way that they can truly understand … when they understand why we do what we do and why the Church teaches what she teaches, they are more receptive. I hope that I can enliven the faith within the teenagers, and they can understand and appreciate their faith as a gift from God and that the Church is a gift. I will encourage them to be involved in the Church and to stay active in the Church.”

Dolores Williams said she is thrilled that the youngest of their six children has been called to the priesthood by God.

“I always prayed that with five boys one of them would become a priest,” she said. “When they would talk about vocations at Mass, I always used to nudge Bill when he was a little kid. I used to say ‘You’d make a good priest.’ I thought, ‘Now God has sent me all these sons, and one of them has to become a priest.’ But I wasn’t pushy about it, just prayerful. … I just knew that he had a calling, and now he is going to be ordained.”

John Williams said he is looking forward to his son’s ordination.

“I think it’s an honor for him and it’s an honor for us,” he said. “With four other sons and a daughter, we had to wait a little bit for a priest in the family. This is another marriage in a way—to the Church. We’re looking forward to it.”

Msgr. Harold Knueven, administrator of St. Mary Parish in Greensburg and former pastor of Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish, said in a May 26 telephone interview that he believes Deacon Williams will be a good priest.

“I think Bill is going to be a good priest,” Msgr. Knueven said. “He’s had a good background, comes from a really good family and has the right intentions. He is very capable, very talented and will be a good minister wherever he goes. He has good insight and had some practical knowledge before he went to the seminary. He worked in different places and even sold cars so he knows how to do things. He will be very loyal to the Church and very supportive of whoever he works with, and will do wonders for the Church.”

After studying at the University of Southern Indiana from 1993-95, Deacon Williams completed part of his seminary training at the former Saint Meinrad College in southern Indiana in 1996-97, St. John Vianney Seminary at the University of St. Thomas at St. Paul, Minn., in 1997-99 and the North American College in Rome in 1999.

He took a break from seminary studies to further discern his call to the priesthood in 1999 then completed his priestly formation at the Theological College at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., from 2001-05.

During those years, he participated in a Biking for Jesus vocations awareness ride from St. Paul to Evansville, Ind., in 1999 as well as World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002 with youth from St. Thomas More Parish in Mooresville and several March for Life rallies in Washington, D.C.

While studying at Catholic University, he also worked as a paid intern for the Office of Catechesis of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Education for two years.

“In seminary, I enjoyed the courses in Scripture, Church history and canon law,” he said. “The Scripture courses helped me in understanding the word of God and also learning about our tradition in the Church. Hopefully, I’ll be able to bring that into my preaching, which is what I’ve really enjoyed since being ordained a deacon.”

He is “a huge Pope Benedict XVI fan” and is thrilled that he was able to meet Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger several times.

While studying at the North American College in 1999, he greeted Cardinal Ratzinger after one of Pope John Paul II’s papal audiences and enjoyed talking with the German cardinal.

“The new pope is a good man, a holy man,” Deacon Williams said. “Pope John Paul II had just processed down the aisle after Mass. … The crowd flocked toward him, and I thought, ‘I’m not going to be able to see him or shake his hand or anything.’ And all of a sudden, through the crowd comes this little cardinal wearing his cassock and carrying an old black briefcase. I looked at him and … it was Cardinal Ratzinger. I went up to him and said, ‘Your Eminence, hello.’

“I shook his hand, kissed his ring and introduced myself,” Deacon Williams said. “I talked to him for about 10 minutes in the back of St. Peter’s, and he was so nice and polite. Everyone says that when you would see Pope John Paul II you could sense his aura of holiness. It was the same way with Cardinal Ratzinger. His English was excellent. … It was a great honor to be able to talk to him and for him to take the time to speak to me. The last thing he said to me was ‘Be a holy priest.’ Then he shook my hand and left.”

Deacon Williams said their brief conversation inspired him to focus on his life of prayer in preparation for his ordination and to remember that a priest must always put prayer first in order to better serve the people of God.

“All priests and all people need to put Christ first in their lives,” he said. “I put the Lord first, and because he is first and foremost in my life then I will be able to take care of the people. That’s why we call our priests ‘Father.’ ”

He said his devotion to Mary and his two favorite saints—St. Joseph and St. John Vianney—also will help him in his priestly ministry to people and to the Church in central and southern Indiana.

“St. Joseph is the ultimate model to me of humility, chastity and obedience—which is very important for all Catholics and in particular for priests,” Deacon Williams said. “St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, sometimes spent upwards of 18 hours a day hearing confessions. He would sometimes preach for a long time, and people were fascinated by him. … His little church at Ars, France, is now a basilica.”

As he begins his priestly ministry, Deacon Williams said he also will remember important words of advice from Archbishop Buechlein, who he said has been a “father” to him.

“When he installs a pastor, the archbishop always says, ‘You are not an island unto yourself,’ ” Deacon Williams said. “We are part of the universal Church in the United States and throughout the world. I had the good fortune of being able to see the universality of the Church in Rome for a short time and also the U.S. Church in Washington, D.C. It’s important that we respect the diversity in the Church, but also to continue to build unity in the Church that we have as the mystical body of Christ.”

Deacon Williams said he has been amazed to see the spiritual vitality of teenagers and adults who are active in their faith.

“To see 14- and 15-year-old high school kids who love the Church, respect what the Church teaches, hold to the truths of our faith and bear witness to that in such a public way is truly inspiring to me,” he said. “It’s inspiring, I think, to seminarians and priests to see laypeople evangelizing and bringing the truth—the message of Christ—to others at school, at work and on the street.”

During a retreat in May to prepare for ordination, Deacon Williams said he read a book written by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which inspired him to always remember that “priests need laypeople and laypeople need priests” for their prayers and support.

“That lay support encourages me in my priesthood,” he said, “to be even stronger and more zealous in promoting the Gospels.” †