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Jeffrey Hopper and Wally Dant to be Ordained to the Priesthood
MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2006 |
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Cecelia Price, 502/585-3291 (office)
502/891-7239 (pager)
502/417-7187 (mobile |
JEFFREY HOPPER AND WALLY DANT TO BE ORDAINED TO THE PRIESTHOOD FOR ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF LOUISVILLE
Louisville, KY – On Saturday, May 27, 2006, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly, O.P., will ordain Jeffrey Hopper, a married man, and Wally Dant, a widower with grandchildren. The ordination will take place at 11:00 a.m. at the Cathedral of the Assumption, 443 South Fifth. Wally Dant, 66, is a native of Gethsemani, Kentucky. He attended St. Xavier High School, Notre Dame University, and, much later in life, Sacred Heart School of Theology. Dant earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Notre Dame in 1963. After working for Bendix Aerospace Corporation in South Bend, Dant took a job with United Parcel Service that led to many moves around the United States. Wally and his wife, Barbara, lived in Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Georgia before coming back to Kentucky to work at the Louisville-based UPS hub. When he retired from UPS in 1997, Dant was vice president of air operations. After retirement, he began studying to become a permanent deacon in the Catholic church and was ordained to the diaconate in 2001. After his wife’s death in 2002, Dant decided to begin studies to become a priest at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. Wally Dant has five children and 20 grandchildren. His first assignment will be as associate pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Lebanon and Holy Name of Mary Parish in Calvary, Kentucky. Jeffrey Hopper, 48, previously served as an Episcopal priest, a chaplain in the U.S. Army, a teacher (at a Texas parish school and at St. Rita School in Louisville), and most recently as deacon and director of sacrament formation at St. James Parish in Elizabethtown. A native of Russell County in Southern Kentucky, Hopper was baptized in the Separate Baptists in Christ Congregation in the waters of Lake Cumberland at the age of 12. At age 18, he married his wife Betsy and began a military career with the U.S. Navy. Hopper and his family joined the Episcopal Church in 1981, and, feeling a call to ministry, Jeff Hopper entered the Episcopal Seminary in Lexington in 1984. He was ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 1988 and served at Trinity Episcopal Church in Covington, KY. In 1991 Hopper became a chaplain in the Army, a position he held until his retirement in 2003. In 2000, he became interested in the Catholic church and converted to Catholicism in 2003. He also approached Archbishop Kelly about his interest in the Catholic priesthood, and Kelly submitted an application to Rome, which was approved just before Pope John Paul II’s death. 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. Since this provision was established in by the Holy See in 1980, about 80 former Episcopal priests have been ordained in the United States. Hopper has two grown children and a grandchild. His first assignment will be as associate pastor of St. James Parish in Elizabethtown. Dant and Hopper will serve as diocesan priests. A bishop or archbishop ordains diocesan priests, also called secular priests, for a particular geographical area called a diocese or archdiocese. Diocesan priests usually serve in parishes, though they also may serve in schools, hospitals, prisons, or diocesan offices, depending upon local needs. Diocesan priests ordained for the Archdiocese of Louisville serve in the 24 counties in Central Kentucky that make up the Archdiocese. The ordination ceremony will last for approximately two hours. Dant and Hopper will be available after the ceremony for photos and brief interviews.
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The Archdiocese 
