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

As a youth, Father Dougald McCallum was more comfortable under the hood of a car than behind a desk, yet he found that his calling would lead him to study in Italy, teach at Carroll College, and become director of campus ministry and the Borromeo pre-seminary program.

Father McCallum was born in Minnesota, one of eight boys in a family of 12. His father owned a trucking company and he said he grew up sort of expecting that he’d find a career working with his hands. “It was just the way I was raised. Five of my brothers owned their own businesses. I figured I’d do the same thing — make some money and start a business.”

After graduating from Catholic high school, he worked for several years in trucking, building fiberglass racing boats and in a steel factory. He also indulged his hobby of rebuilding old cars, something he’d been doing with his brothers since he was 12. A hundred cars later, it’s still a hobby; right now, he’s rebuilding a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge.

None of the jobs were quite satisfying, however. “I always knew I had the capacity to learn and I could be fairly articulate. I’d thought about priesthood since I was nine years old, so I decided to pursue that.”

He chose Carroll because he was impressed by the St. Charles Borromeo vocation discernment program. He graduated in 1992 and was asked by then-Bishop Elden F. Curtiss to attend seminary in Italy, so he attended the Gregorian University in Rome for three years and Sant’Anselmo for two years before being ordained in Helena in 1997.

He said it was a real challenge. “I didn’t excel in academics when I was a kid. I accomplished what I needed to and did well, but I didn’t need to work real hard. I’m not a natural linguist and the classes are in Italian, so I really had to work.”

He served as associate vicar at the Cathedral of St. Helena from 1997 to 2000, then at St. John the Baptist Parish in Frenchtown and its missions, St Albert the Great in Alberton and Mary Queen of Peace in Superior for a year. Then he was sent back to Sant’Anselmo to get an STL in sacramental theology. He returned to Carroll to teach theology in 2004 and 2005.

In 2005, he had the opportunity to become the director of campus ministry at Carroll, and he has loved the job.

“There’s a spiritual renewal I’m seeing in the young people. A real hunger is present in their hearts. They want and they value the things of God. I’m somewhat surprised by it. I didn’t realize I would come into this environment and find such strong spirituality and love of God in the students.

The campus ministry program is never wanting – the students are eager to be involved. Daily Mass has 50 students regularly. Sunday evenings, the Mass on campus is just jammed. What I also really enjoy is how friendly the students and the administration, staff and faculty are.”

Father McCallum has also been chaplain at Legendary Lodge, the diocesan youth camp, for the past three years. In the summer, he also serves the parish communities of Living Water in Seeley Lake, St. Thomas the Apostle in Helmville, and St. Jude in Lincoln.


Published in the Montana Catholic, Vol. 22, No. 5, May 19, 2006.