Background
Responding to Jim Lovejoy's Request for Help
Jack Wentland
During my transition from the diocese of Rockford, Illinois, I had met Jim and Jackie in 1983 in the DC area as members of “The Sunday Bunch”—an intentional Eucharistic Community in Fairfax, Virginia, begun by Carl and Pat Hemmer and Joe and Kathy Kerns. Then in 1986 after I had returned to Illinois, I had occasion to visited Jim, Jackie and their kids, Jennifer, Jon and Jeff at the Bed and Breakfast they had bought and renovated in Belfast, Maine, after his leaving government service with the Department of Navy.
Though we didn't correspond regularly, Jim and I were listed on the CITI Ministries website. In the course of about a year, he had sent three emails soliciting stories from those on the CITI listing and was discouraged that he was not receiving the response he expected, receiving only 12 stories. When I noticed the challenge Jim was facing in getting enough stories to make a hard-copy publication possible, I emailed him on January 18, 2012, with the suggestion that he consider planning a website to present the stories on-line. That sparked his imagination, and he began to seek help to do that.
On April 23, 2012, Jim emailed a list of married priests soliciting volunteers to collaborate with him on a project:
To all:
Those of you who are already listed on the new married priests of integrity website, or those who are aware of it, could be of great assistance to me at this time. My daughter who was helping me has returned to teaching after several weeks of maternity leave and can no longer take the time to help, so I am asking anyone with ample experience with computers to help me continue to add married priest's stories to the website.
I have very limited skills in transposing word documents to the website, correcting errors and adding pictures.
If we could work through email correspondence, perhaps I could finally qualify in these skills and continue adding to the website myself.
Thank you in advance.
Jim Lovejoy
After having made the suggestion about an online presentation of the stories, I sensed an obligation to respond to Jim’s call for assistance to add to the website the stories submitted to him. Jim’s response to my offer to assist him with the website was a gratifying email:
Bob Scanlan's and John Kosinski's follow up emails to yours, in which they showed their support of your expertise, convinced me that you are the one who can take the place of my daughter's support up to now.
Jim initially had been assisted by his daughter Jennifer in creating the website which he dubbed MARRIED PRIESTS OF INTEGRITY.
He first organized it on a different platform site and offered it to the resigned/married priest community as “a website for sharing your story of continuing ministry, stories of the journeys priests have made in their transition from clerical priesthood to being married priests of integrity.”
Jim’s own poignantly delightful story was published in 2007. Many Call Me Father, But My Kids Call Me Dad: The Life Story of a Married Catholic Priest is still available by clicking on the link.
He abbreviated that story into a vignette on the MCPI website: “Rev. James Edward Lovejoy - Many Call Me Father But My Kids Call Me Dad”
Jim was embraced by the eternal love of God on January 21, 2015. His obituary can be read by clicking here.
The website Jim begun with Jennifer’s help is a work that is a continuing tribute to all resigned/married priests as well as to Jim, a storyboard that preserves the testimony of the lives of married priests and serves, as well, as a resource for the People of God who respect and love the priests who have ministered to them both as clerics and resigned/married priests.
Before his passing, Jim Lovejoy with his wife Jackie entrusted me with making alterations to this website. In tribute to Jim, I accepted this role and credit him with all the creativity of setting it up with the help of his daughter, Jennifer, as well with eliciting the response of those who offered the stories that are presented here.
I do not take this role lightly and assume the title of "owner" only in the sense that it has been bequeathed to me.
Though we didn't have occasion to meet often after that visit to their B&B in Maine, I was happy to make contact with Jim as a fellow member of CITI Ministries, Inc. whose president at that time, Louise Haggett, had given Jim encouragement and endorsed the website.
Touched by the loss of Jim's physical presence, I hope the maintenance and updating of this website will reflect the spirit in which Jim established it and continue to make his loving presence evident to all who contribute to it and visit it.
With the gracious permission of Jackie, I continue as administrator of the website originally designed by Jim and welcome the additional submission of stories to be added to the website. Please contact me at jackwentland@gmail.com
You'll find some of the emails exchanged between Jim and others in
Disclaimer
In the restructuring of the MCPI website, it was clear that there is insufficient information about and input from wives of married priests. Because this restructuring intended only to reflect the content of the original website Jim created, those stories are not here, except in the individual profiles of the men who wrote their stories. The reader will notice that the inclusion in some of the stories mentions these men's wives, without whom they would not have been who they became. The omission of the stories from the wives of these men was never meant to slight the women who played such an important part in the transition of these men. The stories collected and written by Jackie are in another archive to which I do not access. The request Jim made simply asked for "stories of transition." The inclusion of "Wives of Married Catholic Priests" was addressed by Jackie. Those stories were collected. I need to do more research to discover those stories. The omission will be addressed in the future.