We invite readers to send short stories about the ways in which their lives have been personally blessed by the life and work of priests and religious in our diocese.

By Karina Fabian

Father Robert Hall just seemed destined to a religious life. When he was a child, neighbors noticed he had a special relationship with God. His religious education teacher told his parents she thought he had a vocation. Of course, there was the influence of his uncle, Monsignor Joseph Harrington.

Nonetheless, when he entered Carroll College, he had his sights on medicine. He soon learned, however, that he enjoyed his philosophy and theology courses much more than biology or chemistry. In his sophomore year, he joined the pre-seminary program. He received his theology degree in 1981, attended Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon and was ordained June 21, 1985. He said his first Mass on June 23, his parents’ 29th wedding anniversary.

He said his first assignment as associate pastor of Anaconda Catholic Community was a real growing experience. “I was ‘wet behind the ears.’ After 20 straight years in school, all my experiences were academic ones, except for working in a cemetery and in the food service to pay my way through college. Anaconda was an older population – a whole community developed over funeral luncheons.”

That was not to be his first new experience, however. In 1990, he moved to St. Joseph in Choteau, St. John’s in Fairfield and St. Matthias Mission in Augusta. “It’s mostly farmers and ranchers – a whole different country. It was good exposure to a different way of life,” he said.

In 1994, he had the chance to return to a more academic environment when he became pastor of Resurrection Parish in Bozeman, which serves the Montana State University campus as well.

In July 2006, he moved to St. Patrick’s in Butte, serving Catholic Community North and Montana Tech. “I get the best of both worlds: There are students and older people. There’s very much a Catholic culture here. Plus, it’s my home town so it’s like coming home. I’m making connections with folks I knew in grade school or who I haven’t seen in 20 or more years.”

Wherever he’s been, and whatever community he has served, he’s always enjoyed the calling which was so apparent in such a young age. “It’s a rewarding vocation. It’s not without its challenges, but you are in the lives of many people that you would not otherwise be invited into.

“You have a large family in the Church. You have your own personal family, then the family of the Church and the family in your brother priests. You can feel very connected as a priest. Some think of being a priest as a lonely vocation, but when it’s lived out well, one doesn’t feel alone in it.”


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