By: By Jennifer Willems

BLOOMINGTON — As a youngster at Holy Trinity School in Bloomington, Msgr. Doug Hennessy’s plan was to go to Holy Trinity High School and then the University of Notre Dame.

Check. Check.

When he got to Notre Dame, however, he found himself thinking, “What next?”

“I was probably thinking about the priesthood because I took Latin,” he said. “It was kind of in the back of my mind already, I’m sure.”

Toward the end of his sophomore year he was accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Peoria. He received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and was sent to Rome in 1960 to study theology at Gregorian University.

“When I arrived John XXIII was the pope, but he died at the end of my third year and Paul VI was elected,” he said. “I was there in Rome for the first two sessions of the Second Vatican Council. It was a great time to be there, it really was.”

One of the benefits of studying theology in Rome was that he got a sense of the history of the church and that made it easier to weather the changes that came after Vatican II, he said.

“You kind of knew that the church was dynamic and had developed. It didn’t come the way it was from the hand of God. There was a history,” Msgr. Hennessy said. “That was a great gift.”

Assigned to St. Paul’s in Macomb after ordination, he worked with Father Joseph Kelly, the first assistant pastor. He would become a good mentor and friend to Msgr. Hennessy as they started to implement some of the changes in the liturgy with the blessing of the pastor, Msgr. Michael Haddigan.

In 1967 he went to Fordham University for graduate studies and after earning a master’s degree in religious education he was appointed director of religious education and director of vocations for the Diocese of Peoria. During those years he was in residence at St. Patrick’s and then St. Martin’s (now St. Joseph’s) in Peoria.

Msgr. Hennessy was named co-pastor at St. Patrick’s in Urbana in 1977 and eventually became the pastor. Focusing on faith formation for adults as well as children, he also worked to bring the liturgy alive for parishioners.

“If you do liturgy well it teaches people, too,” he said, adding that he hopes people understand that liturgy isn’t something the priest does alone.

“We are doing this together. It’s the whole community,” according to Msgr. Hennessy. “It’s the worship of all of us, just as the mission of the church is the mission of all of us.”

He went back to Rome in 1986 to serve on the staff of the Pontifical North American College, where he had lived as a seminarian. This time he was the one offering spiritual direction to the young men and their home dioceses as they all discerned what God was calling each seminarian to.

Msgr. Hennessy returned to central Illinois in 1991 to be pastor at St. Paul’s in Danville, where he would remain for 13 years.

“I grew to love St. Paul’s. It was a great parish,” he said. “It’s the first time I dealt with a grade school and a high school. . . . That was a great learning experience.”

It comes as no surprise that the man who refers to himself as Father Doug would fail to mention that he was named a monsignor with the title of Chaplain to His Holiness in 2003.

Pastor of his home parish, Holy Trinity in Bloomington, since 2004, Msgr. Hennessy will retire this summer. He will celebrate his golden jubilee and retirement with a Mass on Sunday, July 14, at 4 p.m. at Holy Trinity and a reception at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. Everyone is welcome.

The homilist for the Mass will be Father Tony Lee, his assistant in Danville and now pastor at St. Anthony’s in Atkinson. Unbeknownst to both of them when Msgr. Hennessy extended the invitation, Father Lee will succeed him at Holy Trinity.

Msgr. Hennessy has bought a condo in Bloomington “that just happens to be near a golf course.”

“When I left Danville I told people I was looking for a nice little place where I could pray more, read more and play more golf. Instead I came here and only played more golf,” he said with a laugh. “So I’m going to work on the praying and reading in retirement.”

Looking back over the last five decades, Msgr. Hennessy said, “I’ve been blessed, I really have. It’s been a great life.

Mail for Msgr. Hennessy may be sent to Holy Trinity Church, 711 N. Main St., Bloomington, IL 61701.