The Record - Unlike most new priests, Deacon Jeffrey Hopper will feel right at home on the altar and in ministry after he is ordained during the Archdiocese of Louisville’s presbyteral ordination Saturday, May 27, at 11 a.m. at the Cathedral of the Assumption.

Deacon Hopper, jovial and energetic at 48, served as an Episcopal priest — and a chaplain in the U.S. Army — for 15 years until 2003 when he joined the Catholic Church. Now, under a special provision in the church, Deacon Hopper will be able to serve as a shepherd to the Catholic faithful.

And he’ll do it with his wife of about 30 years, Betsy, in the wings. While it will be a new experience for most Catholics to have a married priest, Deacon Hopper said his family is accustomed to the life of a priest.

Deacon Hopper will celebrate his first Mass of Thanksgiving, just a few hours after ordination, at St. James Church in Elizabethtown at 5 p.m. May 27.

“What I’m looking forward to the most is offering the sacrifice of the Mass and doing the pastoral duties of a priest — hearing confession, visiting the hospital, going to the school with the kids,” he said during an interview last week. “I’ve been doing different lay jobs (since converting to Catholicism). I miss being in a pastoral role.”

In recent years, Hopper has served as a teacher — for one year in a Texas parish school and a year at St. Rita School in Louisville. Currently he serves as pastoral associate for sacraments at St. James Church in Elizabethtown, Ky. He has been assigned to serve as a priest at the parish after ordination, as an associate pastor to the pastor, Father Richard Sullivan.

While serving as a priest in the Archdiocese of Louisville will bring wholly new experiences, it also brings Deacon Hopper back to his roots in Russell County, Ky.
He was baptized in the Baptist church in the waters of Lake Cumberland when he was 12 years old. At 18 he married Betsy — who he had known since first grade and with whom he shares his Feb. 13 birthday. Immediately after their marriage, Deacon Hopper embarked on a military career in the U.S. Navy.

He and his family joined the Episcopal Church in 1981, and in 1984, feeling called to ministry, he joined the seminary in Lexington, Ky. He was ordained in 1988 and then served at Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington, Ky. In 1991 he became a chaplain in the Army until he retired in 2003.

His interest in the Catholic faith began in 2000, he said, after a Catholic priest friend suggested he take a closer look, and he began to study early church history. His conversion marked the completion of a long faith journey that he said began when he was just 18 and felt the first inkling that he was meant to serve.

He has found compelling the idea of the servant leader — a concept the late Pope John Paul II discussed.

“As a priest you are called to be a leader, but more than that you are called to be a servant,” he said. “Sometimes ‘servant’ has a negative sound. But to serve is the highest calling.”

And the idea of caring for God’s people at St. James, he said, is exciting.
“I can’t imagine anything more fulfilling than being a part of people’s lives in a servant way.”

Teaching — which he also deems a high calling — will be an important part of his ministry, Deacon Hopper said, noting that he helped lead RCIA at St. James this year and will teach an apologetics course at the parish this summer.

Celebrating Mass will be a wholly new experience in the Catholic Church, even though many of the rites are similar in the Episcopal Church, he noted.

“The imagery and language are similar enough,” he said. “In the Episcopal church the Eucharist is held in high esteem. But there’s still ambiguity about what it is.”

The Catholic Church’s belief in transubstantiation — that during the consecration, bread and wine become the actual body and blood of Christ — is new for him as a priest.

“The idea that Christ, through me, will be offering up his body and blood — it’s such an awesome concept,” he said. “It’s overwhelming. I am in awe that he will be able to do that through me. I’m excited about it.”

He’s also come to love eucharistic adoration, he said. And he appreciates the church’s regard for the Virgin Mary “in her role as mother,” he said.

One commonality between the Episcopal church and the Catholic Church, Deacon Hopper noted with a smile, is that the faithful expect a great deal from their priests.

“I am used to having my family in the congregation,” said Deacon Hopper, who has two adult children and a young grandchild. “It will be easy for me to make the transition. But ministry demands a lot out of you, and spouses have to be understanding. You have to balance the demands of family and church.

“In the Catholic Church, knowing the priest is typically alone, there’s an assumption that you have the time to come to a lot more things. For instance, on Sundays, when some priests go to the house of a parishioner for lunch, I will probably go home with my family,” he said. “But I will find other ways to get close to parishioners. And on the crucial points, my family understands that church will come first.”

“I feel very strongly that this is what God wanted me and my family to do,” he added. “And I’m thankful that we can do it here.”

Deacon Hopper is the first priest to be ordained in the Archdiocese of Louisville under the special “pastoral provision” that allows former Episcopal priests to be ordained to the Catholic priesthood. The provision was established in 1980 by the Vatican, and since then about 80 former Episcopal priests have been ordained in the U.S. Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II approved Deacon Hopper’s ordination just days before he died in April 2005.

Deacon Hopper will serve in assistant roles as a priest for now. But the provision permits a bishop to petition Rome to allow a priest ordained under the “pastoral provision” to become a pastor if there is need. Typically, a wait of about five years is recommended to allow the priest time to adjust to his new role, Deacon Hopper said.