Provost Lecture held in Helena

Father Lawrence G. Wrenn, J.C.D., gave the Provost Memorial Lecture at the Carroll College Campus Center on April 16. Entitled “The Life, Death and Possible Resurrection of the Summary Process,” the lecture presented Father Wrenn’s reflections about the Church processes that can be used for resolving marriage cases in special and specific situations.
Father Wrenn, a priest of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn., for nearly 54 years, is known especially for his work in formulating the canonical grounds on which marriage cases are determined. He and Father Provost were friends and canonical colleagues.
Father James H. Provost, a priest of the Diocese of Helena and a professor at The Catholic University of America, died Aug. 26, 2000, at the age of 60.
The School of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America established an endowment to fund a canonical lecture series in Father Provost’s memory. Usually the lecture is given at The Catholic University of America in March. This year, the School of Canon Law decided to present the lecture in Helena to honor Father Provost’s service as priest to the Diocese of Helena.
James Provost was born in Washington, D.C., in October 1939. After studying at Carroll College and the American College at the University of Louven, Belgium, he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Helena on June 29, 1963.
He served at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Butte, then went to Rome for graduate studies in canon law, where he received the doctorate in canon law from the Lateran University.
He was named chancellor and judicial vicar for the Diocese of Helena in November 1967. In July 1979, he accepted appointment to the then Department of Canon Law at The Catholic University of America, where he served until his death.
Prior to the lecture, Carroll College hosted a dinner for priests and pastoral administrators of the Diocese of Helena and others. The dinner is part of the events leading up to the college’s 100th anniversary of its founding, which occurs in 2009.

Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 23, No. 4, April 20, 2007.