THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 5, 1996 TAG: 9607030217
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT McCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 76 lines
Timothy Keeney spent high school and college preparing for the Catholic priesthood. But a year before completing seminary, the former Chesapeake resident left that pursuit to study law.
``I had to sort out the question of celibacy and giving up marriage at that point,'' Keeney said. ``I was not sure I was ready to make the commitment then. Law gave me the perspective and time to sort things out.''
Keeney became a lawyer, sorted things out, and left the profession to return to the seminary. On June 29 he was ordained a Catholic priest at the Basilica of St. Mary Immaculate Conception Church in Norfolk.
``This is very much a confirmation of my faith, a culmination of a 20-year road,'' Keeney said. ``There was the physical presence of God at the ordination, particularly with the laying on of hands.''
Keeney's parents, Richard and Bridget Keeney, attended the ceremony.
``Tim's religious vocation has always been there,'' Bridget Keeney said. ``We felt when he left the law firm he would become a priest. I think because of his years of schooling and experiences, and the fact that he's older, he will make a good priest.''
Keeney, 35, conducted his first Mass on June 30 at the Prince of Peace Catholic Church on Cedar Road in Chesapeake. A practice of the Catholic faith is that a priest performs his first Mass in his home church. Keeney joined Prince of Peace when he and his father and mother moved to Chesapeake from Roanoke in the mid-1980s.
``I love Prince of Peace and the people here,'' said Keeney, who has been an active member of the church for nearly 10 years. ``It is so moving being the principal celebrant for the first time. It is overpowering.''
In late July, the new priest will return to the Basilica of St. Mary where he will be an associate pastor. In October, he will leave for Rome to work on an advanced degree in dogmatic theology. Keeney expects to come back to Virginia in May of 1997, when the Catholic Diocese of Richmond will assign him a church. Keeney said he'd like to serve as a priest in this area.
``Right now the important thing is to be assigned to a pastor who can teach me how to be a good priest, and there are a lot of good pastors throughout the diocese. I love the South Hampton Roads area, and Roanoke as well, but Richmond would be fine too.''
Keeney said he feels that law school and practicing law were necessary to get to where he is today. He graduated from the law school at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., in 1989 and went to work for Williams Kelly & Greer PC in Norfolk.
``Before law I had pretty much just been in a seminary environment,'' said Keeney, who left Washington Theological Union in Silver Spring, Md., to study law. ``I needed the experience of law school, but I enjoyed the intellectual practice of law much more than the litigation.''
Even while a lawyer, Keeney always stayed close to his faith. After working at the firm, he spent as many as four nights a week at Prince of Peace as a member of the choir, a cantor and as a participant on various church committees. But Keeney still held doubts about returning to the seminary.
That changed one day in the fall of 1992.
``I was praying at Mass, and after communion I realized that everything that gives me life was the ministry and bringing the church to other people,'' Keeney said. ``I had the support structure and I knew I could live a life of celibacy. Randy Rule was the pastor then, and through him I just kind of tested myself and he gave me the spiritual direction to go back to seminary. I knew priesthood was where God was calling me.''
After his vision to return to the seminary, Keeney turned in his resignation to the law firm in late 1992 and applied for priesthood to the Richmond diocese. He was accepted and given a pastoral assignment at Christ the King Church in Norfolk, where he preached, taught Scripture and visited the sick.
In August of 1993 Keeney was sent to Rome to be trained as a priest at the Pontifical North American College. He received a bachelor's degree in sacred theology (equivalent to a master's degree in the United States) from the Gregorian University in 1995.
Last summer, he did pastoral ministry at St. Mary's Basilica, and in September went back to Rome to begin work on the advanced degree in dogmatic theology. He returned here three weeks ago to be ordained.
``I don't think there are any accidents in any part of my life,'' Keeney said. ``God has led me in each step to become a priest of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Church.'' by CNB