COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—Ron Cattany had an enviable 35-year career in state government, most recently as director of the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety.
The Denver resident made important decisions affecting the sand and gravel operations and mines of Colorado, including the 160 or so mines in El Paso County. Cattany also led the Mine Subsidence Protection Program, which pays for home damage caused by subterranean mines in northern Colorado Springs.
Cattany, 55, retired July 31. But he won’t be spending his golden years relaxing at his condos in Denver and Granby.
On Tuesday, Cattany will become a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Denver, attending the Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass. After finishing the four-year program, Cattany will return to the archdiocese and be ordained at the Cathedral Basilica of Immaculate Conception.
Catany joined state government to help people, he told me. His becoming a Catholic priest is a continuation of that desire.
“I have been lucky to have the skills to motivate people,” Cattany said. “I hope that experience will help me relate to the issues parishioners are facing.”
Fewer than 150 of the thousands of seminarians in the U.S. are older than 50. The Catholic Church reveres older seminarians because they bring important life experiences to the parish, said Deborah Parritt, director of public relations at Blessed John XXIII Seminary, one of three U.S. seminaries specifically for older men. Middle-aged judges, lawyers, CEOs and other successful men have graduated to become accomplished priests, Parritt said.
Cattany, who never married, has been a lifelong Catholic. For most of his life he’s attended Mother of God Catholic Church in Denver, where he’s been an usher, a reader and a Eucharistic minister. He’s participated in numerous Catholic charities over the years, and was caregiver for his parents.
Cattany decided to attend seminary after taking on greater liturgical responsibilities at Mother of God in recent months.
He won’t be required to take a vow of poverty as a priest although he will take vows of chastity and obedience. But he said material possessions have never had much hold on him, pointing to his very modest 1999 Jeep Cherokee.
Since he decided to attend seminary, material goods have had even less pull for him. “You think more about what you will get rid of, not what you will buy next,” Cattany said.
Cattany admits he could have retired very comfortably, but that would have been selfish.
“The satisfaction I am getting now is from meeting the needs of others,” he said.
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Information from: The Gazette,
