Indianapolis native ordained to the priesthood for French religious order

By Sean Gallagher

On April 24, Pope Benedict XVI enthusiastically declared during the homily of his inaugural Mass that “the Church is alive” and “the Church is young.”

This youth and vitality were on display on June 25 when a former Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioner from Indianapolis, Deacon Mary David Hoyt, was ordained to the priesthood in the Basilica of St. Mary Magdalene in Vézelay, France, as a member of the Community of St. John.

This religious order were founded in France only 30 years ago yet now has more than 500 members hailing from more than two dozen countries around the world. The average age of the members of the order is 37. Father Mary David is 31.

The pastoral ministries of the order include parish ministry, teaching, preaching, youth ministry and serving as chaplains in schools, hospitals and prisons.

Father Mary David, who was given the name Michael Paul at his baptism, joined the Community of St. John in 1997 at its priory in Laredo, Texas.

The only other current foundation of the community in the United States is in Princeville, Ill.

Dan Hoyt, a member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, was present for his son’s ordination with his wife, Judy, along with several other members of his family and fellow parishioners.

“It was an answered prayer,” Dan Hoyt said. “We have nine children. Since we were married, we hoped that we’d have a vocation among one of our children. So this is just a huge victory and we prefer to say that we’re thankful rather than proud.”

Father Mary David learned about the order as he was discerning a call to religious life while a student at Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind., in the mid-1990s.

But in an interview following his ordination, he noted that the seeds of his vocation were planted many years earlier.

As a member of the Boy Scout troop at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, he and other scouts were often accompanied on hikes by the troop’s chaplain, then-Msgr. Gerald Gettelfinger, now the Bishop of Evansville.

And in 1988, Father Mary David, when he was 14, served as Msgr. Gettelfinger’s bowman during a canoeing trip in the lakes on the border between the United States and Canada on northern Minnesota.

Father Eric Johnson, who was ordained as a priest of the archdiocese in 2002 and now serves as archdiocesan vocations director, also participated in the trip as a teenager.

Looking back on all his experiences with Bishop Gettelfinger, Father Mary David acknowledged that “he was definitely part of my childhood and my early young adult life as a teenager. He was certainly a witness.”

Bishop Gettelfinger, in a recent telephone interview, recalled watching Father Mary David and the other young men he knew “grow up, wondering if any of them would become priests.”

He kept in contact with the Hoyt family, knew that Father Mary David had entered religious life and was pleased about his ordination to the priesthood.

“I’m very proud of him,” he said. “I’m excited for him and for the Church as well and, especially, for his mom and dad and the whole family.”

Judy Hoyt was pleased beyond words about her son’s ordination.

“You just can’t put it into words,” she said. “It’s so, so incredible. Words just diminish it, I feel.”

She was also struck by and values the youthfulness of her son’s religious community that was displayed at a reception following his ordination when young men from around the world were celebrating together.

“As I looked out at them, all smiling and laughing and being wonderful friends together,” she said, “I thought, this is the Church and why can’t this be the world?”

Father Mary David noted that while the Community of St. John has a decidedly international flavor, the majority of its members were born in France, a country where the Church recently has had a reputation for lacking vitality.

“On one side, there’s not a [local] Church which is limping along more than the Church in France,” he said. “But on the other, as of about 30 to 35 years ago, there’s been a renewal in religious life in France. There are probably about 10 to 15 new, living and fervent new religious communities there.”

Father Mary David’s first pastoral
assignment will be at a Community of St. John priory in Souvigny, France.

Soon after he was ordained to the priesthood, Father Mary David visited his parents in Indianapolis.

He celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at 11:30 a.m. on July 17 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Indianapolis.

In an interview a few days before that Mass, he said that his first few weeks as a priest have been privileged ones for him, especially as he has heard confession and celebrated the Eucharist.

“I’ve just had a great experience of joy and being able to communicate the mercy of Jesus Christ to people,” Father Mary David said, “and especially the unbelievable, profound joy of living the Mass and having this new unity with Jesus Christ in the consecration of the Eucharist.”

But Father Mary David has also been pleased with the joy he has seen in others at his ordination to the priesthood, a joy shown on the faces of many people at his Mass of Thanksgiving.

“This new unity and friendship with Jesus Christ over the past couple of weeks has been pretty incredible for me to live,” he said. “And just the joy of other people has been a great blessing for me, to see how touched people are by the priesthood, by the mercy of God, that God comes yet again into their lives by the great sacrament of the priesthood. It’s been very touching.” †