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May 21, 2006
By Eileen Dugan OKLAHOMA CITY—For Daniel James Letourneau life is about to come full circle. On June 2, Deacon Letourneau will be ordained a Roman Catholic Priest by Archbishop Eusebius Beltran at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Then, Father Dan Letourneau will make the short drive to Edmond where he will serve at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church as associate pastor. His story begins in Kansas. “Both my parents are from Kansas,” Letourneau said. “My dad, Lloyd Letourneau, is from Aurora, and my mother Delores is from Angelus, outside of Oakley. Dad went to Saint Benedict’s College, now Bendictine College, in Atchison, Kansas. Mother went to Mary Mount in Salina. They met and eventually got married at the Cathedral in Salina. “Dad had a business degree and took a job with Conoco, the oil company. In 1955, they moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma. I was born there in 1957. I have three younger sisters. Growing up, we all got along great. We are a close family,” Letourneau said. His oldest sister, Mary Letourneau, lives in Bartlesville, and like their dad, works for what is now ConocoPhillips. Middle sister, Janice Cupples, lives with her husband Jim and two children in Friendswood, Texas, and works as a chemical engineer for Dow Chemical. Judy Bell, Dan’s youngest sister, lives in Peck, Kansas, south of Wichita. Both she and her husband work for Boeing. They also have two children. “I attended Saint Mary’s School in Ponca City from first through eighth grades,” Letourneau said. “When I was in grade school, I admired all the priests at our parish: Father Joseph McGurk and several young associate pastors: Father Gerald MacAulay, Father John Michalicka, Monsignor Greg Gier, and Father John Petuskey.” Letourneau remembers all these priests planting seeds for his becoming a priest. “Father Petuskey, in particular, helped me,” he said. “He taught me to be an altar server at Saint Mary’s. Then, when I was in Edmond and went to Saint John’s, he was there, as pastor. He asked me if I wanted to go to the seminary. “I’ve always loved music, and when I was in the first grade, one of the nuns said that I had an ear for it. My mother had an old guitar stored in the closet, so when I was in fourth grade, they signed my up for guitar lessons at the music store. I took to it easily. I gradually learned to read music, and I’ve been playing the guitar ever since. “I also play the saxophone. Because Saint Mary’s High School had closed, I went to Ponca City High School. When I entered ninth grade at Ponca City, I took saxophone lessons. I played in the high school band, and, my senior year, I was drum major at Ponca City High School. Later, I was also drum major at OSU. “I don’t play the saxophone any more because I play the guitar much better and I enjoy it more. The guitar has opened so many doors in my life,” Letourneau said. One of these doors led to Northern Oklahoma College Junior College. After graduating from Ponca City, Letourneau attended NOC on a music scholarship. He played instruments and studied music for two years at NOC, graduated and continued his music studies at OSU. While at OSU, Letourneau attended Saint John’s Church in Stillwater and played guitar at Mass. The priest there was Father Bob Schlitt. “Father Bob said that he thought I would make a good priest,” Latourneau said. “Father Bob was the first to ask me if I wanted to be a priest. I told him I would consider it.” This was before Dan moved to Edmond and encountered Father Petuskey’s continued influence. “Studying to be a high-school band director at OSU just didn’t ‘feel’ right. I took a job with Southwestern Bell and moved to Edmond. After two years, I became a clerk for the House of Representatives at the Capitol. All during my time in Edmond, I was also playing guitar in a dance band for weddings and office parties. I did that until I went into the seminary,” Latourneau said. Although both Father Bob at OSU and Father Petuskey at Saint John’s in Edmond had told Dan they thought he would make a good priest, it is what happened in Salina, Kansas, in 1993 that steered him most directly toward the priesthood. “My dad had a priest cousin in Salina, Kansas, Father Steve Latourneau. I admired him very much. Tragically, he was killed in an auto accident in 1993. At his funeral, Bishop Fitzsimmons asked, ‘Who is going to step up and replace this priest?’ I felt like he was talking right to me,” Latourneau said. Some time passed, and “I went and talked to Father Petuskey who was now pastor of my church in Edmond, Saint John’s. Father Petuskey said that I should try the priesthood out. If I didn’t, he said, I would never know if I could do it, and it would haunt me. I took him up on the idea. I went through the process and was accepted as a seminarian in New Orleans in 2000. Dan studied philosophy at Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans and, in two years, received his Bachelor of Science degree in theology. At the same time, he was attending regular seminary classes at Notre Dame Seminary, also in New Orleans. He started in 2000 and will graduate this year, 2006, on May 11. “Except for two semesters of classwork, my last assignment before being ordained was my pastoral internship at Saint Francis Xavier Church in Enid. I lived in the parish and tagged along with Father Kevin Ratterman as part of his staff; it was something like being a student teacher. I gave homilies, made hospital visits, and was very active in the parish. “Father Ratterman, pastor of Saint Francis Xavier, has been a close mentor to me. I saw him as a new priest when he began at Saint John’s in Edmond when I first lived there. He took me with him to Conception Seminary in Missouri for a ‘Come and See Weekend’. Then, more recently, I served my internship under him in Enid. He has been a great help to me. “While I was in Enid, the seminary in New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. I couldn’t go back for a while, so my pastoral internship, which should have been five months long, was extended to seven months, until Christmas, 2005. Then, I was ordained as a deacon in Enid at Saint Francis Xavier on December 28 by Archbishop Beltran. At Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, “much of the basement and first floor had been flooded by Katrina,” Latourneau said. “We lost a couple of classrooms and the kitchen. The library was damaged, but the books were saved. They had been stored on the second floor before the last of the seminarians fled the rising water in September. They are still trying to put the library back together and are finishing the auditorium, as we speak. They put in a new floor and are painting the walls. We’re hoping it will be completed today [It was]. We’re supposed to graduate from the seminary in there tomorrow [May11]! Then, on June 2nd, I will be ordained at Our Lady’s Cathedral in Oklahoma City by Archbishop Beltran. “To any young men out there considering the priesthood I would say, ‘Give it a try. It’s not as scary as people think. We need priests so badly, so go with your first instinct.’ “I became a priest because I want to be there for people; I want to administer the sacraments, and I want to bring people closer to Christ,” Latourneau said. When Father Daniel Latourneau arrives at Saint John’s in Edmond as associate pastor, no introductions of the former drum major will be necessary. When he arrives at Saint John’s, his home parish, the circle will be complete: Father Dan Latourneau will have come home. |
The
Circle of Life