When Brian McAllister was growing up a Lutheran in Richmond,
becoming a Catholic priest was the last thing he could have
imagined.
On June 1, McAllister, 34, will join with four other diocesan
seminarians and three men who will be ordained to the
permanent diaconate at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in
Arlington. He will kneel before Bishop Paul S. Loverde, who
will lay hands on the men’s heads and say the prayers of
consecration to the diaconate. This event marks their last
year in seminary. For the next year, they will work in
parishes until their expected priestly ordination in June
2014.
This journey from a Lutheran boyhood to the cathedral altar
took several turns including service in the U.S. Army, and
several starts at the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
McAllister attended Park Tudor School in Indianapolis and
after graduating enrolled in Centre College in Danville, Ky.,
majoring in English literature. He was in the ROTC cadet
program, so after graduation he entered the Army’s U.S.
Airborne School in Fort Benning, Ga., and was commissioned as
a second lieutenant. He served in Afghanistan and Iraq. An
Army chaplain piqued his interest in Catholicism, but that
seed planted had a way to go before harvest.
McAllister was not the first of his family to convert to
Catholicism. His mother Delane became a Catholic and helped
pull him to the church.
“I saw how much she loved the faith,” he said. “It helped win
me over.”
His mother’s conversion made him more interested in the
church, but he still divided his religious practice between
Catholic and Protestant services.
“I was drawn to the Mass,” he said.
But his search for truth continued. He didn’t want to enter
the Catholic Church halfheartedly. He wanted to take his
time. In fact, he began the RCIA three times in the various
places he lived.
“I wanted to intellectually assent to everything the church
believed,” McAllister said of his doubts.
In 2006, he made his first confession at St. Francis of
Assisi Church in Amherst.
“I took confession very seriously,” he said.
Hearing his confession, and seeing how enthusiastic
McAllister was, the priest asked him, “Have you ever thought
of becoming a Catholic priest?”
“I got really excited,” said McAllister of the question.
That query stayed with him and with help from a spiritual
director and encouragement from family he entered Mount St.
Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., two years after his
reception into the faith.
His discernment at Mount St. Mary’s solidified his desire to
be a priest. McAllister said that the process gave him
“sufficient certitude and sufficient clarity to know that
this is what I want.”
But he added that no one can make such a big decision like a
religious conversion and an ordination without some doubt.
“We have to stay close to Jesus,” he said of his efforts to
overcome those doubts.
McAllister said he knows he is on the right path even with
doubt, and he looks forward to his year as a deacon and to
his opportunity to be a spiritual father to his parishioners.
