Departing Dominican priest grateful for his time in Columbia

This has been one of the best ministries I’ve ever had in my 60-plus years of ministry.”

Dominican Father Joachim Culotta

Fr. Joachim's farewell statement

It is with great sadness that I bid farewell, a second time, to St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish and to the city of Columbia.

But this is the life of a friar. We are always on the move trying to bring God’s message of love and mercy to everyone we meet.

I chose to come back to the Newman Center because my first experience was so wonderful. And I thought to myself, “What a great place to retire.”

Little did I know that I would still be doing ministry, much to my delight. I have enjoyed these last few years as much as, if not more than, I did the first ones I spent here.

Why? Because this is such a welcoming, vibrant, and self-giving community. St. Thomas More community has many people who give of themselves selflessly to the Newman Community, as well as to the larger Columbia community.

Many people I have met in Columbia have told me that when they come to Newman, they experience the joy of Christ in this Community. And I have to agree with them.

Christ is present in the St. Thomas More Newman Community. And He is present because of you and the way you work together to bring God’s love to others.

But now, I move on. I think it’s time that I think about truly retiring. So, on January 13 (weather permitting!), I will be going to St. Pius V Priory in Chicago, which is a community of about 20 friars, some still active, some retired, and some semi-retired. Into which category I will fall has yet to be determined.

But whatever God asks of me, I hope I have the willingness to respond.

However, I have had a good example of how to give of oneself in the parishioners here at St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish. I will carry that example with me to Chicago.

I have one last request before I leave: Please remember me in your prayers. Because I hope I will have lots of time for prayer, you will always be in my prayers. That will be a win-win situation for all of us.

Thanks again for the kindness you have shown to me for the time I have spent here at Newman. It has, indeed, been for my pleasure and the enhancement of my spiritual life.

May God continue to bless you in the future in your individual and community endeavors.

Father Joachim Culotta OP,

Senior Priest in Service, St. Thomas More Newman Center parish, Columbia

Dominican Father Joachim Culotta’s personal motto is “Trust in the Lord.”

It’s a message he’s been preaching consistently for over 60 years.

“I want people to be able to trust in God’s mercy,” said Fr. Culotta, who has spent six of the past 14 years in Columbia.

“God’s mercy is inexhaustible,” he said. “A lot of people can’t fathom that. They think, ‘My sins are so grave that God will never forgive me.’

“They’re wrong,” he insisted. “I’m convinced that if Judas Iscariot had repented like St. Peter, God would have forgiven him immediately.”

Fr. Culotta hopes people will remember that message long after he takes up his next assignment at St. Pius Dominican Priory in Chicago on Jan. 13.

He is one of the three remaining priests of the Dominican Community of St. Raymond of Penafort in Columbia who will receive new assignments outside the Jefferson City diocese this year.

The others — Dominican Father Richard Litzau, pastor of St. Thomas More Newman Center parish, and Father Michail Ford, associate pastor — will be reassigned July 1.

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight will appoint diocesan priests to serve in their place when the time comes.

The leadership of the Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great announced in November that the priests would be moved to larger communities, in order for them to “engage in a more robust common life while attending to the demands of their ministries.”

Fr. Culotta said he’s sad to leave central Missouri but knows it’s time for him to cut back on his active ministry.

“I’m 82,” he stated. “I actually came back here to retire, but there was so much to do that I love doing, so I never really stopped.”

He was one of the first two Dominican priests to arrive in Columbia in 2006, serving as associate pastor of St. Thomas More Newman Center parish and as superior of the newly formed St. Raymond of Penafort Dominican community.

He was reassigned to Albuquerque, New Mexico, a few years later — followed by St. Louis, then Lafayette, Indiana — but returned to Columbia in 2016.

“I wanted to come back here,” he said. “I really like Columbia and the Newman Center, and the priests of this diocese are really great.

“I like Bishop (Emeritus John R.) Gaydos, who was in office when I came back, and Bishop McKnight, too. I think he’s a very good bishop,” he stated.

Fr. Culotta said he’ll miss the people who have been at the epicenter of his Priesthood throughout his time in Columbia.

“This has been one of the best ministries I’ve ever had in my 60-plus years of ministry,” he said.

“The people at the Newman Center are friendly, and they’re interested in ministry themselves,” he said. “They want to go out to the community and help as much as they can.

“That’s what our Christian life is all about,” he asserted. “And I see that very strongly here at the Newman Center — In fact, I see that attitude in the people of all three parishes in Columbia.”

Tapped out

Fr. Culotta was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, a predominantly Catholic city not far from Louisiana.

He loved tap-dancing and wanted to become a dancer. But he inexplicably lost interest during his senior year in what had been his life’s passion.

He rediscovered his enthusiasm for dancing only after discerning his calling to religious life and Priesthood.

“I love to dance but my body won’t let me anymore,” he said. “I still know all the steps. Whenever I watch TV and see dancing, my feet are moving. But I’m sitting down, of course.”

He holds a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, and a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

That qualified him to serve as a judge on the diocesan Matrimonial Tribunal during his first time in the diocese and to offer assistance upon his return.

“Dominicans are known as the Order of Preachers,” he noted in a 2006 interview, “but preaching takes on so many forms: homilies, teaching, counseling, even work in the Tribunal.”

Love and truth

Headquartered in Chicago, the Province of St. Albert the Great is one of four Dominican provinces in the United States.

They are part of a worldwide order established by St. Dominic in 1216 to promote preaching the truth in order to combat destructive heresy.

Unlike diocesan priests, whose first commitment is to God through their parishioners and their bishop, the Dominican priests’ first commitment is to God through their order.

Living in communities much like families, Dominicans take an emphatic vow of obedience. From that vow and the rule of St. Augustine and the Constitutions of the Dominican Order, flow the associated vows of poverty and chastity.

Dominicans turn the internal charisms of prayer and contemplation outward toward preaching, teaching and apostolic service.

Fr. Culotta believes that second only to the Eucharist, good preaching is the most important thing priests can give to Catholics.

“They come to church to worship God and grow in their spiritual lives,” he noted, “and I think our preaching helps them have a better relationship with God.”

Brother priests

Fr. Culotta believes having a Dominican presence has been good for the diocese.

“I think we build on the good ministry that the diocesan priests are doing,” he said.

He has great respect for all of his fellow priests who serve here.

“They’re good priests,” he said. “I’ve really enjoyed them. They’re a big part of why I chose to come back and be in this diocese again. Many of them are very spiritual, and I wanted to be a part of that.”

Likewise, he’s derived great satisfaction from living in community with the other Dominicans who have served in Columbia.

“The brothers I’ve been here with — we call each other ‘brother’ in the Dominican order — they’ve just been great about helping, about encouraging us all to be the best kind of people we can be,” he stated.

“That’s why I chose to be a part of a religious community in the first place,” he said.

Fr. Culotta asks for prayers for God to help him continue to minister the best way he can, “even though I will be somewhat retired.”

He said he’s enjoyed every moment of his time in Columbia.

“I will remember the Columbia community, especially the people of Newman, for their acceptance, for all they have done to help me grow as a priest,” he said.