Questioning the "I" with Tim Olivieri

In this episode, I had the honor of interviewing Tim Olivieri.

Tim is postulant in the Community of Saint George (The Young Rite).  Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Tim encountered independent Catholicism for the first time while attending Catholic school just blocks away from St. Stanislaus Cathedral, the cathedral of the Polish National Catholic Church, in Scranton, PA. Tim came to know the jurisdiction and its many area parishes through friends and relatives of classmates. Growing up he felt a strong pull toward the priesthood and began actively exploring a vocation in the Roman Catholic Church during high school. Two major events caused him to reconsider that choice; the first was that his parish priest left the church to join the Episcopal Church. The second was that his diocesan vocation director left the priesthood entirely after only two years of ministry and in the middle of Tim's discernment process.

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served most of his enlistment at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily, Italy. Taking the time to explore the Greek Orthodox traditions of his mother and continuing to learn about the ISM through an early web directory. Shortly after receiving his honorable discharge from the Navy, he entered the seminary of the Oblates of St. Joseph, a Roman Catholic religious order founded in Asti, Italy by St. Joseph Marello. He left after two years and shortly after married his now-former spouse. Over the course of ten years, Tim left the church in favor of his spouse's Judaism before ultimately returning to Christianity and finding himself drawn to the ISM community and the Community of St. George in particular.

Tim is also a Master Mason affiliated with the Grand Lodge of New York and a companion of the Holy Royal Arch within the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in New York.

Tim has a bachelors and master's in business management and works as a fundraising professional in higher education. He has a daughter, age 6, who is the light of his life and he lives in Ithaca, New York.

We talked about:

• Identity in the Independent Sacramental Movement.
• Polish National Catholic Church.
• Oblates of St. Joseph.
• Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Orthdox Church.
• His challenges and blessings within Formation to the priesthood.

Links:

Convergent Streams: The Premier ISM Magazine.

The Independent Sacramental Movement Database.

The Community of Saint George (The Young Rite).

This podcast is hosted by Bishop David Oliver Kling and sponsored by the Community of Saint George (The Young Rite).