Ministering to Needs of His Catholic Peers

Like ministers of every faith, Roman Catholic priests do far more than deliver sermons and baptize babies--they also serve as ad hoc counselors to their parishioners. Whether face-to-face in modern office chairs or side-by-side in the confession booth, priests soak up tales of regret, jealousy, anger and pain.

But where do they go to seek help for themselves? For the last six years, the 178 diocesan priests who work in Orange County have turned to Father Eamon O’Gorman, whose term as the Diocese of Orange’s vicar for priests ends this week.

Called thoughtful and compassionate by those who know him, O’Gorman was appointed to the prestigious position in 1993 by retired Bishop Norman F. McFarland on the recommendation of his peers.

“It’s an honor and a great responsibility,” said Msgr. John Urell, vicar general of the diocese. “He’s been a genuinely good and holy presence for all of us priests.”

O’Gorman’s job is to intervene if a priest is spiraling into depression or feeling burdened by his vow of celibacy. All his consultations are confidential; O’Gorman doesn’t keep files and is not required to report anything he hears to the Most Reverend Bishop Tod D. Brown or to diocese administrators.

“Priests are giving all the time to other people, and they need someone to remind them they are appreciated and that someone is concerned about them,” said Father Kerry Beaulieu of St. Bonaventure Catholic Community, who was chosen last week as O’Gorman’s successor. “He has left really big shoes for me to fill.”

Fairly reserved, O’Gorman speaks with precision and a sharp Irish accent, often brushing wisps of gray hair from his face or taking long pauses to collect his thoughts.

“I advocate that priests take time off every day to recover themselves with exercise, prayer or being with friends,” O’Gorman said, adding that it’s easy for priests--who constantly care for their parishioners--to burn out when they’re not taking care of themselves.

Father Kiem Tran of St. Barbara’s Catholic Church in Santa Ana credits O’Gorman’s support with helping him complete his ordination. Tran, 42, moved here from Vietnam and was intimidated by the language and overwhelmed with the culture.

“It’s not easy for me to get any support,” said Tran, whose eight siblings, father and grandmother are back in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. “He was the one who wrote a letter of recommendation to the seminary and tried to support me financially, helping me pay for gas and books.”

O’Gorman seems most pained talking about how allegations of sexual abuse in recent years have tarnished the image of the priesthood.

“Priests in the last 20 to 30 years have been turned inside out,” said O’Gorman, 56, pushing up his big wire-rimmed glasses. “To me, the tragic figure in the priesthood is the one who isolates himself and says, ‘It won’t happen to me.’ ”

“It’s made us all very cautious,” O’Gorman said. “I find myself being more guarded than I ever was in the presence of children.”

O’Gorman also is saddened by a decline in the number of young men entering the priesthood. Some may be lured by the rewards of a more traditional life: the big house, nice car or high-paying job, he said. Others aren’t willing to give up being a biological father to become a spiritual one.

“I’m not against priests marrying, but I don’t think marrying will solve our problems,” said O’Gorman, who does counsel priests struggling with the celibacy vow.

Celibacy has been required of Catholic priests only since the Second Lateran Council in 1139. Making celibacy optional would increase the number of candidates for the priesthood fourfold, according to a 1985 study at Catholic University. So far, the church hierarchy has refused to consider women or married men for the priesthood.

Although Orange County is doing “reasonably well” with filling vocations, O’Gorman has clocked lots of time with young men contemplating the priesthood. Another priority of his has been visiting sick and retired priests and making “house calls,” popping by parishes to see if his peers are getting enough exercise, rest and recreation.

“If priests are in need--and especially if they become ill--he’s been very wonderful about seeing to their needs and looking after their welfare, both spiritual and temporal,” said Father Colm Conlon of St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Irvine, who called on O’Gorman to help him make the case that his parish was too large and should be divided.

O’Gorman recently has spent lots of time with Father Kenneth Krause of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Newport Beach, who is dying of cancer.

“I thought somehow that working with sick priests would be harder than it is,” he said, his eyes tearing up with the recollection of how Krause, though facing the end of his life, comforted him in talks about life, death and faith.

So, who does the priest who is vicar to priests see if he needs a good cry?

O’Gorman said he often calls up his uncle, Msgr. Charles O’Gorman at Santa Clara Catholic Church in Oxnard. More than 32 years ago, O’Gorman came to Orange County from Dublin, Ireland, to become a priest like his uncle Charles and his great-uncle before him.

“He’s a great priest and a great person,” Charles O’Gorman said of his nephew. “He loves his sense of humor. We’re very close friends.”

Sitting in a worn blue chair in his office, O’Gorman said one of the most difficult things he faced was the challenge of being an Irish immigrant, caught between two cultures.

“It’s been very hard to be away from family,” he said. “But I’ve never had any sustained regret about doing what I did,” said O’Gorman, who has hunkered down in Southern California and is now used to the endless freeways and plucky palm trees.

O’Gorman keeps sane by practicing what he preaches: time off for recreation and leisure.

He tries to go back once a year to Dublin to visit his large Catholic family. He loves the poetry of Seamus Heaney, a fellow Irishman, and just finished a biography of Hannah Arendt.

One of the strategies O’Gorman highly recommends is taking the four-month sabbatical that priests are allowed every seven to 10 years.

He once loaded up his rusty Chevy Cavalier and drove across the country--with the destination of Washington, D.C.--after reading William Least Heat Moon’s book called “Blue Highways,” about exploring American off-roads.

He leisurely drove across the country, stopping frequently on Interstate 40 to chat with locals and sample the greasy fare at mom-and-pop restaurants. He then studied theology in Washington and puttered around Civil War sites, one of his passions.

“It helped me so much that I think about it every day,” O’Gorman said, sighing. “And that was 10 years ago.”

O’Gorman has not yet received a new assignment, but Beaulieu said that as the new vicar for priests, he’s trying to persuade O’Gorman to take another sabbatical before he goes back to a parish.

In the meantime, O’Gorman will continue to carry around a tattered quote--his favorite--that has become his ministerial mantra: “There is nothing in you which I would find strange in me.”