Father Ron Knott on life as a Catholic priest

Here's 81-year-old Father Ron Knott in a wide ranging conversation with Terry Meiners on Heaven, humor, the impact of prayers, sin, loneliness, and living life as a Catholic priest.bio from his website at fatherknott.comI am a priest of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky. Ordained May 16, 1970, I have served as a home missionary, college teacher, campus minister, pastor, cathedral rector, traveling evangelist, homiletics instructor, archdiocesan vocation director, founding director of the Saint Meinrad Seminary Institute for Priests and Presbyterates and a weekly columnist for 15 years.I have given major addresses at national conventions on church renovation, parish revitalization, homiletics, presbyteral unity and vocations. I have presented more than 80 parish missions and retreats and led more than 150 presbyteral convocations around the US and nine countries abroad.I have a Master of Divinity degree from Saint Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana and a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Presbyterian Seminary in Chicago. I have authored several books for clergy and published several collections of my homilies and fifteen volumes of my For the Record book series. A few of my books for clergy are available in Spanish, Vietnamese and Swahili.In my retirement, besides the things listed above, I had been volunteering in the Diocese of Kingstown in the island country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and serving as the founder of the Catholic Second Wind Guild (a volunteer organization for retired priests and lay people wanting to volunteer their time, expertise, connections in the Caribbean missions). After six years and twelve trips, I recently ended that organization due to COVID and travel restriction. With a major volcano eruption, it has become obvious that I need to make a wise and timely decision to find a cause closer to home. Long distance travels seem to be a “thing of the past” at least for the foreseeable future.In April of 2021, I decided to focus my attention on my home parish of Saint Theresa of Avila an hour away from where I now live. I have the dream of turning my old grade school building, Saint Theresa School which was closed in 1993, into a new Saint Theresa Family Life Center to serve the whole area.  My third cousin, Father Bob Ray, another priest from the same parish, is partnering with me by founding the Saint Theresa Heritage Partners, an alumni organization of the parish and school, to support this effort. I will lead the remodeling project of the Saint Theresa Family Life Center. Click on St. Theresa Heritage Partners and St. Theresa Family Life Center in the menu bar for more information.