Denis G. Donoghue's journey through the mind and spirit has carried him thousands of miles, from Mt. Lebanon to the Pacific Northwest, where he will be working as a Jesuit priest with Salish Indian tribes.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Denis G. Donoghue lies prostrate on the floor of St. Thomas More Church in Bethel Park on Saturday in a biblical gesture to the humility of God during his ordination. His father, C.J. Donoghue, right, top, watches him. Click photo for larger image.

In a ceremony that was both uplifting and bittersweet, Donoghue, 38, was ordained as a Jesuit priest in his parents' church in Bethel Park on Saturday, with his large Irish Catholic family, longtime friends and more than 25 members of his new family, priests from the Society of Jesus, all in attendance.

"It is my life wish that I would make it here to see this," said his mother, Cecilia Donoghue, of Mt. Lebanon, whose frail health and the health of her husband, C.J. Donoghue, were the reasons their son's ordination was held at St. Thomas More on Saturday.

"The Jesuits are lucky to get him. They are a great family. They love him like we love him," Donoghue said about the youngest of her seven children, of whom six are living.

Donoghue's ordination was set for June 4 in Spokane, Wash., but Donoghue and his siblings realized that their parents were too frail to make the trip.

So Donoghue appealed to the Rev. John Whitney, provincial for the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, who took the highly unusual step of contacting Pittsburgh Bishop Donald W. Wuerl for permission to hold the ordination at St. Thomas More.

Wuerl gave his permission, the Rev. Kenneth White, pastor of St. Thomas More parish, organized the details and less than 10 days after the request was made, Jesuits, family members and friends were flying in from all over the country for the ordination.

"We are so grateful to Bishop Wuerl and Father Whitney for this kind and noble gesture," said Gracelyn Ratay, of Mt. Lebanon, Donoghue's sister.

Emotions ran high as more than 300 people watched as Donoghue crossed the threshold into priesthood on a gray Saturday morning.

Placing his hands into those of Auxiliary Bishop William J. Winter, of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, Donoghue pledged his obedience to his province and bishops as Jesuit priests from around the nation welcomed him to full membership in their brotherhood.

As Donoghue lay prostrate on the church floor, in a biblical gesture of humility before God, the choir sang a litany of the saints, and family members daubed the tears from their eyes.

There were other poignant moments, such as when the Rev. Patrick Lee, and Donoghue's parents helped place new liturgical vestments on him.

His mother, after placing the vestment over his shoulder, gave her son an affectionate pat on the head as she straightened his mussed hair.

Whitney, who heads the Jesuit province in Oregon, where Donoghue will work, presented Donoghue to Winter and, later in the service, thanked the Donoghues for giving their son to the church.

"We are thankful beyond measure that you have given us this gift, and we will love him as you have," said Whitney, whose words prompted a standing ovation for C.J. and Cecilia Donoghue.

Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Cecilia Donoghue reaches out to touch the hand of her son, the Rev. Denis G. Donoghue, during his ordination at St. Thomas More Church in Bethel Park. Donoghue's father, C.J. Donoghue, is in the middle, and the Rev. Patrick Lee is at left. Click photo for larger image.

The Jesuits came into the existence in the 1530s, when Ignatius Loyola, a nobleman from the Spanish Basque country, abandoned his early life as a soldier to found a new religious order, the Society of Jesus. Members of the order become known as highly educated theologians and teachers of the church.

Donoghue, a 1985 graduate of Mt. Lebanon High School, had his first exposure to the Jesuits in 1991, soon after he graduated from Duquesne University with a degree in business.

Still in his early 20s, he signed up for a Jesuit Volunteer Corps on the Colville Indian Reservation in Omak, Wash., chiefly because he "wanted to go somewhere where you could see snow-capped mountains."

The scenery was breathtaking, but working with American Indian youth in a religious setting touched something else in Donoghue's soul.

"I was sort of a surrogate parent in a boarding school," he said.

After completing the one-year program, he joined another Jesuit program as a residential counselor at Boys Hope in New York. From there, he worked as a counselor for seven Sioux reservations at St. Joseph's Indian School in South Dakota.

In 1995, at age 28, he decided to pursue a graduate degree in pastoral studies at Seattle University, a Jesuit institution.

"I didn't feel a calling [a religious vocation], but I wanted to study spirituality," Donoghue said. "Once I got there and started meeting Jesuits, I felt moved toward their kind of lifestyle."

From that time, his path started becoming clearer as he proceeded on the long educational and spiritual journey, a process that took almost a decade to complete.

In 1997, at age 30, he ended the Jesuit novitiate and, two years later, he took the perpetual vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

He earned two more graduate degrees from Jesuit universities, a master's of philosophy from Fordham University and a master's of divinity from Seattle University, delving into historical philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology.

While engaged in studies, he also taught religious studies at parish and Jesuit schools and became a professor at Seattle University while working on his master's degree in divinity.

Because of his parents' declining health, Donoghue has been back in Mt. Lebanon for several weeks, helping care for them.

When he returns to the Pacific Northwest, where he will begin his ministry, working with Salish tribes as part of Jesuit work that has been going on since the 1840s.

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