Father Campbell: The liturgy is a highlight

When Father Theodore Campbell moved to his townhome in Plymouth about seven years ago, it didn’t take long before he was nominated to the homeowner’s association. “I’m on the board of directors here because somebody found out I was a priest and they figured out I knew a lot about buildings. Unfortunately, I have been involved in a few renovations,” he said with a smile.

So today in retirement, after serving as a priest for 50 years, “I’m the cop again,” he said.

Quick to laugh and engage in conversation, with a green thumb evident in the roses and other potted and hanging plants at his entryway, Father Campbell, 77, retired from full-time ministry in 2015 but continues to help parishes by celebrating Mass and hearing confessions.

A special Mass in early May helped him celebrate his 50 years in ministry. Held at the parish he served for 31 years, Good Shepherd in Golden Valley, it included one of his brothers presiding — Bishop Emeritus Frederick Campbell of Cleveland, Ohio, who was an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 1999 to 2004. About 30 priests concelebrated.

The two brothers are about 18 months apart in age. They grew up with their siblings and parents in Elmira, New York, a city with many ethnic churches, Father Campbell said. He first attended “the Polish church” with his mother. His father had no church affiliation.

Unlike his brother, who entered seminary after high school, Father Campbell, 77, wasn’t interested until he started college. The late Cardinal Terence Cooke, archbishop of New York, ordained him a Paulist Father in New York City in 1972. It was the cardinal’s last ordination, Father Campbell said, as he was dying of cancer.

“He just wanted to do it,” Father Campbell said of Cardinal Cooke. “He was a generous man.” Father Campbell said he asked the cardinal for his personal blessing “because I thought, this guy is close to heaven and I want to get in a little bit later.”

Father Campbell was incardinated into the archdiocese in 1979. As a diocesan priest, he found the liturgy to be a high point, in part because it is “the one time most of your people are going to know you and how you act and how you do the things you do.”

Other highlights include preaching (using an outline instead of written text so sermons don’t sound like lectures) and not expecting any kind of special treatment from parishioners.

“I didn’t have the expectations of being treated in a special way,” he said, giving him freedom from owing people “so I could deal with everybody,” he said. “I wasn’t going to be a special interest priest.”

And he is proud that he could hear advice from “all kinds of people” at the parish before making decisions, including people on the parish council, school board and finance committees. “The more you hear, the better it is,” he said.

Father Campbell said that in retirement he misses constantly being around people. Parish life was active, he said, from the time he walked into the building, with people coming into the school, at daily Mass and socializing afterward, and being in the church office.

“I loved it,” Father Campbell said. “I’d take a day off, but then I’d go with other priests or people to do something. It was an environment where you were constantly with other people.”

One way he continues to connect with other priests is hosting dinners and conversation with two younger and one midlife priest, with himself being “the old fogey.” He is planning his 23rd dinner soon.