FORTY-SIX YEARS OF PRIESTHOOD

I've been through the "old church," the "new church," the new old church" and now the "new new church." 

THIS IS WHERE IT REALLY STARTED




That is me (altar boy on the right) serving a wedding mass about the time I first realized I wanted to be a priest.  I was about seven years old. People should have known that something was up  because I was the only altar boy to own his own cassock. 

I left for the seminary at age fourteen and was ordained at age twenty-six. On my forty-sixth anniversary, I am seventy-two years old. 


MAY 16, 1970





Getting ready to drive down to the Cathedral for ordination.
May 16, 1970



Getting ready to go down the isle for ordination.
May 16, 1970



FIRST MASS
May 17, 2017



In so many ways, I am overcome with gratitude for my vocation. God had to be behind it. I was probably in the "least likely to succeed" category.
Sister Mary Ancilla told me that I would probably "never be any good around the altar." 
Father Johnson predicted, as I left for the seminary in 1958, that I wouldn't make it past my first year.  
When I was accepted for the seminary, a neighbor bet me $5.00 that I would "not make it till Christmas."
A male childhood friend said to me, "If you become a priest, I'll become a nun!"| 
In 1959, Father White, rector of St. Thomas Seminary called me a "hopeless case" and threatened to send me home. His last words to me in 1964 were, "Knott, you have been a ball and chain around my leg for six years!" 




NEVER TELL A KNOTT THAT HE CAN'T DO SOMETHING! 


WHAT AN ADVENTURE!
I WOULD NOT TRADE THE LAST FORTY-SIX YEARS FOR ANYTHING!




THE ICING ON THE CAKE
PRIEST JUBILEE CELEBRATION AT THE CATHEDRAL

This evening we had the Jubilee Celebration of priests ordinations: 25, 50 and 60 years.
It just so happened that Father Kevin Brassil, a retired priest of Providence, Rhode Island, 
was in town. Father Brassil was a priest at St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville from 1958-1961 when some of us were there. He was thrilled when I asked him to come with me to the celebration. He knew so many people and old  seminarians. He stayed at the Galt House, where Father Tony Olges and I picked him up and took him back. 



Father Brassil and I ate lunch at the Galt House.



One side of the church with priests attending the celebration.



Father Mark Hamilton delivering the homily. 



Head table with some of the jubilarians (with Father John Burke in foreground). 



One of the tables with Father Brassil, my special guest. 
Left to right: Father Terry Bradshaw, Father John Burke, Father Clyde Crews, Father Kevin Brassil and Father Tom Clark.



Another shot of the room with other tables.