Archbishop William E. Lori will ordain five men to the priesthood June 21 at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland. The following is a profile of one of those future priests. New profiles of the other new priests will be added to the Catholic Review site daily from June 15 to June 20. Click here to read them.
Deacon Thomas P. O’Donnell was never an altar server when he was young and wasn’t “super-duper churchy.” His family attended Sunday Mass, said grace before meals and the kids all went to Catholic schools.
It was a “normal level” of practicing Catholicism that included sometimes talking about matters of faith at the family dinner table. A member of St. Mark in Catonsville, he attended the youth group at St. William of York Parish in Ten Hills.
A priest at St. Mark, Father Christopher Whatley, inspired him and invited him to run for the parish pastoral council, where he became the youth representative.
He and Father Whatley had some good conversations, including some suggestions to consider the priesthood, but he was not interested then. Father Michael DeAscanis, then at St. Agnes, encouraged him as well.
He said during high school, he always thought he was smarter than the church, until he started to realize “the church is smarter than me.” As beautiful as his children’s Bible was when he was growing up, it was nothing compared to breaking open one of Pope St. John Paul II’s many encyclicals.
As a graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School, he returned to the school for the funeral of Xavieran Brother James Kelly, at which Father Watley preached the homily and reminded those in attendance that one of Brother James’ goals was to form students into good Christians. For some, maybe most of the men there, that meant a good marriage, but for others, maybe it was something more, such as the priesthood or religious life. Deacon O’Donnell said he was struck by the thought then that “maybe that’s me.”
He started attending daily Mass more often, going to confession and eucharistic adoration and reading more about the faith. All this led to a deepening of his life.
For college, he had the chance to study in Rome while a student at Loyola University Maryland. There, he encountered seminarians at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, home to seminarians from the U.S. A fellow Baltimorean, then a student in third-year theology, now Father Michael Rubeling, “heard me out, showed me around Rome, taught me some new ways to pray.”
From that experience, he felt called to consider a priestly vocation. He studied philosophy for two years at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg before going back to the NAC in Rome for theology.
Deacon O’Donnell, who will turn 32 just after his ordination to the priesthood in June, said the opportunity to study in Rome helped him see people from all over the world. Classmates might include someone from Ohio, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso or Venezuela. Classes might be taught by a priest from Italy.
That experience of the global church and people coming from different local churches was a blessing.
He was interviewed in early March, while Pope Francis was still in the hospital and before the convocation that elected an American, Cardinal Robert F. Prevost as Pope Leo XIV.
Rome’s role in calling people together from all corners of the world and the pope’s presence at the heart of the universal church connect people, by design.
Biblical saints such as Peter and Paul have a presence there. “The Scriptures themselves were unfolding in Rome,” Deacon O’Donnel said. Assisi, with St. Francis and St. Clare is not far.
There is nothing in the soil in Italy that makes more saints, he said. “It’s the work of Providence. It’s God’s work in history. It’s people being open to grace and being open to following Christ in every time and place.”
That attitude gives him confidence that coming home to Maryland to serve can be similar. “We can do this. I went hiking along the Via Appia where St. Paul would have come,” he said, thinking that as he looked around, he could be walking on the Appalachian Trail.
“Maybe the foliage is a little different. Maybe the architecture is slightly different,” but there are parts where he began to realize that somebody like St. Paul journeyed through areas “that don’t look worlds different from where I’m from. … It’s a reminder that saints can be born anywhere.
As a deacon, he serves in an apostolate in the city of Rome, where he relishes the opportunity to preach and break open the word. He looks forward, once he is ordained a priest, to being able to hear confessions and celebrate the Eucharist. “I could just do that every day for the rest of my life, and I’d be very content – more than content, I’d be very fulfilled,” Deacon O’Donnell said.
He also said he wants to be part of some of the parish groups, some of which may have been around for decades. “There’s real life in those groups and the parish priest gets to serve as a kind of chaplain to them.” The parish priest, unlike those of some religious orders, has a unique role to “help continue the presence of the kingdom in a specific neighborhood.”
In his free time – what little there is these days – he hikes and backpacks. He likes to cook, in groups mostly, because of the charism of hospitality that goes into it. He’s also in a group of students that does some poetry or novel reading, occasionally delving into politics or philosophy they’re not covering in school. “But that also involves food and getting out.”
Deacon O’Donnell will return to Rome in the fall for a final year of study before coming back to Maryland for his first parish assignment.
For a guy who grew up the oldest of three children in a “normal” Catholic family, he said it is interesting to see his younger brother and sister growing in their own vocations. Both have gotten married and each has two children. His parents are more involved, too. His mother is in the Serra Club, which supports priestly vocations.
“The familial dynamic of everyone in the family growing in their own vocations as I’m growing in mine has been very beautiful to see, Deacon O’Donnell said.
Email Christopher Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org.
Listen to a 2020 interview featuring Deacon Thomas O’Donnell when he was a student seminarian at the North American College in Rome. http://bit.ly/aobradio-010520
Read More Vocations
Copyright © 2025 Catholic Review Media
English
Spanish