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PARMA, Ohio — The Eparchy of Parma welcomed a new priest this month with the ordination of Father John R.P. Russell.
Bishop Milan Lach, SJ, apostolic administrator of Parma, ordained Father Russell, 37, during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist Oct. 8.
Bishop Emeritus John Kudrick of Parma presided. A number of priests of the eparchy and Jesuit Father Sean Salai, Father Russell’s college roommate, concelebrated.
Father Russell was born in Lafayette, Indiana, Sept. 15, 1980, the youngest of three children, and grew up in a Roman Catholic home. His father was the editor of Catholic Moment, the newspaper of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, and his mother was an elementary school teacher and homemaker. Both his parents are deceased.
A painter and iconographer, Father Russell’s artistic talents emerged at age 5. He always wanted to be an artist. So, when priesthood crossed his mind at age 16, he pushed it aside.
He went on to Wabash College, a liberal arts men’s college in Crawfordsville, Indiana, and majored in art. While there, he began to take his faith more seriously. He discovered the religion department and decided to minor in religion.
One of his professors, Stephen Webb, who later became Catholic, introduced him to the Church Fathers; he was attracted especially to the Cappadocian Fathers and St. Gregory Palamas.
His love of art and theology eventually led him to iconography. All of these factors combined led him to fall in love with the East; he decided he would become Byzantine Catholic.
After college, Father Russell moved to Indianapolis in order to attend St. Athanasius Byzantine Catholic Parish.
By this time, he had fallen in love with the woman he would marry, Katie. The two had first met when they were 12 years old in art class, but they would fall in love at age 19. In college, Katie had converted from Evangelicalism to Roman Catholicism. They entered the Byzantine Catholic Church together in their early twenties. Their love for St. Athanasius Parish would grow so strong that they would eventually buy the house next to the church.
They married at St. Athanasius Aug. 20, 2005, and currently have three children: John Elias, 11; Mary, 9; and Veronica, 3. Katie is expecting their fourth child in November.
Father Russell continued his study of iconography in Indianapolis under the instruction of a local Orthodox nun and iconographer, Mother Katherine Weston.
As his faith deepened throughout his young adult life, both in his dating years and as a married man, he realized that those first inklings of becoming a priest as a teen were a vocation to being “a married man who is a priest.”
“This has been part of my relationship with Katie since the very beginning,” he said. “So, the idea has always been with us and she has always supported it.
“Discernment of (marriage and priesthood) was a long process,” he said. “There were several moments of clarity along the way. A particularly striking such moment took place in a chapel in Crawfordsville, Indiana, when I was 22 years old.”
Father Russell said he was also moved to choose priesthood by the shortage of priests and his sense “that God might be calling me to help fill that need.”
“I wouldn’t do it except for the fact that I’m a passionate anti-Donatist. So, even though I’m deeply aware of my own sinfulness and unworthiness, I’m also just as aware that God has the power to overcome all that and work through me regardless. It’s about him. It’s not about me,” he said.
“Also, I’ve long loved the prayer of the church — the divine praises — and these really ought to be led by a priest, but many times it’s hard to find a priest available to lead them. Solution: be the priest,” he said.
In 2010, he, his wife and two children moved to Pittsburgh so he could attend the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.
He said his four years in seminary were wonderful. He particularly benefitted from his hospital practicum, where he said his encounter with the suffering of patients and their families helped him to grow as a person.
In 2014, Bishop Kudrick ordained him a deacon at St. Athanasius church, where he served his entire diaconate and where he will continue to serve as a new priest, until the details of his next assignment are confirmed. He said he expects to begin his new assignment before the end of the year.
In his “new role and mission” as a priest, Father Russell said he hopes to “let the Lord do his work through me…for the good of the people of God entrusted to my care. I hope not to get in the Lord’s way.”
Prior to his priestly ordination, Father Russell had to give up his 13-year job, which he enjoyed, as a custom picture framer. He also said he hopes eventually to “continue making a little art and iconography when I can.”
He seemed to be at peace with renouncing his craft and passion.
“One of the main reasons I did not want to be a priest early in my discernment is that I feared it would prevent me from being an artist, which is all I ever wanted to be,” he admitted. “But, while at Wabash, I had a realization about liturgy: it is the highest art.
“It is the only art that engages all the senses…in which everyone fully participates,” he explained. “It is the action of the Lord. It is the only art which actually becomes that which it represents — the life in Christ.”
A blogger since 2007, Father Russell publishes his homilies on his own blog, holydormition.blogspot.com, and at catholicexchange.com.
Laura Ieraci contributed to this report.
Caption: Father John Russell poses with his family after celebrating his first Divine Liturgy at St. Athanasius the Great Parish in Indianapolis Oct. 15. Left to right, back row: Katie and Father Russell; front row: Veronica, Mary and John Elias. (Photo: Megan Craig)
As published in Horizons, Oct. 22, 2017.
