by Rena Fulka
Condon is
a Chicago native whose interest in the priesthood began during
childhood with a makeshift altar, an egg cup and a Ritz cracker.
He entered the seminary after grade school, was ordained in 1967, and
spent the bulk of his ministry in the mountains of Oaxaca,
Mexico.
Frustrated with missionary work, Condon left the Oblates of Mary
Immaculate four years later and returned to the Chicago suburbs.
"I applied to Rome for a laicization to free me of my vows of
poverty, chastity and obedience, but it doesn't deny I'm still a
priest," Condon said.
Condon worked for a year as an education coordinator for the
Illinois Migrant Council in Chicago Heights and spent the next
33 years at Respond Now, a nonprofit providing food, clothing
and rental assistance for the poor.
Condon joined Rent A Priest in 1996 when a friend's son needed a
minister to officiate at his wedding.
"I didn't realize there were opportunities to get back into
ministry," Condon said.
"There are more than 100 married priests in the Chicago area, and
some like the opportunity to still be of service. I'm still
exercising my priesthood to the degree I'm able."
Condon, who retired from Respond Now in 2006, conducts up to 30
weddings a year. Some of the couples are of different faiths.
"They come to me, as well as many other married priests, because
they have a relationship with the Catholic faith, through their
own person or through their family, and want to get married in a
park or banquet hall. A local priest wouldn't be able to do it,
so they search me out," Condon said.
"A family with no connection to a parish may want to placate mom or
grandma. We're there to maintain that Catholic connection the
family has had for years and years."
Condon's wife, Magdalena, whom he married in 1992, designed and
sewed his liturgical stoles.
She attends most Rent A Priest weddings, but does not help with the
ceremony.
The Condons are members of St. Irenaeus Roman Catholic Church in
Park Forest, and are affiliated with a home church group that
conducts monthly communal liturgies.
Back to Top
The Rev. Dennis Condon, former
executive director of Respond Now in Chicago Heights, is among
the married men on the Rent A Priest roster. His ministry is
certified by Celibacy is the Issue, Federation of Christian
Ministries and Frankfort-based International Council of
Community Churches.
The weddings, funerals, baptisms, home liturgies and marriage-vow
renewals Condon conducts are not sanctioned by the Catholic
Church, and all must take place outside an actual Catholic
Church building.
"I tell people from the get-go that whatever I do for them is not
recognized by the Catholic Church. I don't come off on any false
pretenses," said Condon, who was a Spanish-speaking padre with
the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in the late 1960s.
"For a wedding to be official in the eyes of the church, it must
take place within the confines of a Catholic church."
There are many other requirements for a sanctioned marriage, some
of which vary from one diocese to the next.
Those most likely to seek Rent A Priest services are Catholics who
no longer attend Mass, a segment representing 73.3 percent of
the American Catholic population, according to Celibacy is the
Issue.
Loli and Al DiSanto, of Chicago's Lakeview community, wanted their
wedding ceremony to be intimate and out-of-the-norm.
"We both grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools, but we
didn't have any one church we wanted to go to. And we don't go
to church every Sunday," Loli DiSanto said.
"We thought it would be so romantic to be married on the lake next
to the (Adler) Planetarium, but none of the priests we grew up
with could marry us outside the church."
At their caterer's suggestion, the couple hired Condon, who offers
an ecumenical, non-judgmental ministry throughout Chicago and
Northwest Indiana.
"For us, our wedding wasn't a Catholic thing," DiSanto said. "It
was about our relationship, the union of me and Al and
committing our lives to each other. We wanted to get away from
the 100-percent Catholic ceremony."
DiSanto said Condon sent them a packet of premarital information,
met with them several times before the ceremony and allayed
their pre-wedding jitters.
"We got to pick and choose and put together our entire ceremony
ourselves, and we still get compliments on how beautiful, unique
and touching our wedding was," she said.
Two years later, the couple hired Condon to baptize their daughter
Lorelei.
Back to Top
"We had the baptism outside in the backyard with a fountain and a
baptismal candle," DiSanto said.
"We had just moved into a new house we had built, and we had the
house blessed and the baby baptized on the same day."
DiSanto refers Condon to relatives and friends and said she most
likely will call on him again.
"We spent a lot of time with Rev. Condon, and we're getting to know
his wife. He's part of our family now," DiSanto said.
"It's nice to be able to turn to a priest who's also married and
who understands the ins and outs of daily living. Sometimes you
can't turn to your parents or in-laws because they are no longer
living. So it's nice to be able to turn to a person of faith who
is married and can give advice."
But can the couple ever re-join the Catholic church?
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," DiSanto said.
"The Catholic church is supposed to be all-forgiving. If someone
does not welcome me as a member of their community because my
marriage was not sanctified inside the walls of the church, then
I'm not sure I want to be a member of that community."
Rena Fulka can be reached at rfulka@southtownstar.com or (708) 802-8829.
Courtesy of SouthtownStar Newspapers Back to Top