St Thomas Aquinas Church
Bowling Green KY

Fr. Michael E. Williams  

Pastor  

 

 

270-843-3638  

 

Click here to contact Fr. Michael E. Williams  

Fr. Michael E. Williams was born on September 20, 1962 in Lexington Kentucky. He was raised in Cynthiana Kentucky, the youngest of three children born to John Louis Willams, Sr. and his wife Pat Jones Williams. He worked on the farm with his dad and many of his extended family. They raised tobacco and milked cattle for a living. After graduating from Harrison County High School, he attended the University of Louisville for two years, then left school and began his work career.

During the following years of work, he began discerning the priesthood and the community of the Glenmary Home Missioners. Fr. Michael completed one year of formation at the Candidacy program in Hartford, Kentucky in 1990. In the fall of 1990, he traveled to St. Meinrad College and took classes there for two semesters. The next year was the noviate year with Glenmary. Half of the year was spent in Cincinnati, Ohio and the other half was spent in Claxton, Georgia. At the end of this year, he discerned that he wasn’t being called to a vocation with this Community.

He decided to finish his Bachelor’s degree, so he enrolled at Brescia College in Owensboro. While continuing his studies, he was blessed to have the opportunity to live at Sts. Joseph and Paul Parish in Owensboro with two priests from the Diocese of Owensboro. During this time, he decided that he did have a vocation to the priesthood, and he affiliated with the Diocese in the spring of 1994. In the fall of 1994, he began his studies at St. Meinrad School of Theology on a part time basis, while he also was a part time student at Brescia completing his degree studies there. In the spring of 1995, he became a full time seminarian at St. Meinrad and received his Masters in Divinity in the spring of 1997.

On May 31st 1997, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro by Bishop John McGraith, along with three other men from the Diocese of Owensboro. His first assignment was at St. Stephen cathedral in Owensboro, where he served as Parochial Vicar for three years with the Pastor, Fr. John Vaughan.
In the summer of 2000, he was assigned as Parochial Vicar at St. Mary of the Woods parish in Whitesville where he served for one year with Fr. Richard Powers as his pastor. He taught senior religion at Trinity High School in Whitesville for the year he was assigned there. It was there that he came to appreciate his love of teaching.

In the summer of 2001, Fr. Michael was assigned to be pastor of St. Edward parish in Fulton, Sacred Heart Parish in Hickman, and St. Jude Parish in Clinton. He served in these parishes for three years. Then in the summer of 2004, he was assigned as pastor of St. Leo Parish and as the Director of the Newman Center at Murray State University in Murray.

After five years as pastor at St. Leo, he was assigned in the summer of 2009 as the Chaplain of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Campus Center at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.
During his 14 years of service, Fr. Michael has been very involved with many youth activities in the Diocese. He has worked with the Christian Leadership program, Camp Life, Teens Encounter Christ and is currently part-time chaplain at the Gasper River Youth Camp and Retreat Center, just outside of Bowling Green.
He began his formation with a missionary community, and he believes that working with youth is like working in the mission fields. There are so many youth and young people who are searching to know God and what they really believe. He is grateful that his current assignment gives him the opportunity to share the Catholic Faith with so many of these young disciples and help to strengthen their Faith while they are still young!  

 

 

 

 

2708433638  

2708433638  

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