Msgr. Mark Hammond said he is thankful that an announcement honoring him with the title “monsignor” was not a surprise.
Bishop Earl Fernandes announced the news that Msgr. Hammond had been named a monsignor after the Holy Week Chrism Mass – when sacred oils are blessed for the coming year – at Westerville St. Paul the Apostle Church. He told the then-Father Hammond about the honor in a private meeting beforehand.
“It was nice that I knew ahead of time because I could invite a couple of my sisters who were able to be there, and nice to have family there when the announcement was made,” he explained.
Still, the news from the bishop was surprising.
“It was kind of out of the blue, and I was not expecting it, but I feel very honored that it happened,” Msgr. Hammond said.
The official ecclesiastical title of the monsignor designation, an honor from the Holy Father, is “chaplain of His Holiness.” There were previously three grades of monsignor: “chaplain of His Holiness,” “apostolic protonotary” and “honorary prelate of His Holiness.” The latter two titles were eliminated after changes made by the Vatican in 2014.
The designation recognizes long and dedicated service to the Church and its people. The title is limited to priests who have reached the age of 65 and for those who hold certain major offices in the Roman Curia or as a vicar general or chancellor in dioceses.
Msgr. Hammond, 69, added that, if nothing else, the title shows his age.
He said he “joked with people for a very long time that, when they would ask me, I would tell them, ‘Well, “monsignor” just really means “old priest,”’ and now I’m proving it.”
A priest of the diocese for nearly 36 years, Msgr. Hammond was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Emeritus James Griffin at Columbus St. Joseph Cathedral in June 1989.
A Newark native, Msgr. Hammond was born at the former Good Samaritan Hospital in Zanesville, but his family had moved from Zanesville to Newark before his birth. He grew up in Newark St. Francis de Sales Parish, where he also attended grade school. He later graduated from Ss. Peter and Paul Seminary High School, located southwest of Newark.
The Catholic high school seminary served the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. Msgr. Hammond attended as a diocesan priesthood student rather than for the missionary priesthood.
He had his heart set on the priesthood and continued pursuing the vocation after high school, but later left the collegiate seminary and attended Columbus Mount Carmel School of Nursing. He worked as a registered nurse for about four years at the former Mount Carmel West Hospital in Columbus. During that time, he dated a fellow nursing school classmate, and the two began a serious relationship.
However, the door to the priesthood remained cracked open.
“I never really said, ‘No’ to the priesthood,” Msgr. Hammond explained. “I simply said, ‘Not yet.’ Discernment and spiritual direction and things like that, I eventually knew that God was calling me to be a priest, and that’s where I would be happiest.
“All of a sudden I came to the realization – that real sense of peace in my heart when I thought about becoming a priest. It was a hard decision because I was choosing between two good things: marriage and the priesthood.”
Msgr. Hammond returned to seminary in 1983. He completed a year at Catholic University in Washington and finished his theology studies at the North American College in Rome before returning to Columbus for his ’89 ordination to the priesthood.
His vocation has continued to bring a sense of peace since then.
“I’m very glad that I finally made the right decision because it really was the right one,” he said. “The Lord has blessed me greatly through the priesthood.
“I really enjoy my work and enjoy being with people at the important moments of their lives, like when they celebrate new life – we do baptisms – or when they are in need of some consolation with sickness and death and those kinds of things,” he continued. “To be present there and bring the Lord to those moments is a real privilege.”
It seems the Lord also used his nursing background for work as a priest.
“It was helpful,” he said of his experience in nursing. “It certainly taught me some things and how to deal with the sick and families. Even though I couldn’t see it at the time, the Lord was showing me things that I was going to use later on as a priest.”
Msgr. Hammond has served as pastor at Mount Vernon St. Vincent de Paul Church since 2006. Eight years into his pastorate, in 2014, the Knox-Licking Consortium was formed consisting of St. Vincent de Paul, Danville St. Luke and the former Utica Church of the Nativity, which closed in 2015.
A pastor typically is limited to 12 years in a parish. With the formation of the consortium in 2014, Msgr. Hammond said his “clock” reset then, and he became pastor of the three churches, which was considered a new assignment. In 2024, St. Vincent de Paul and St. Luke parishes merged to form one parish, known as St. John the Baptist, of which he currently serves as pastor.
Other parish assignments included pastor at Columbus St. Mary Church in the German Village neighborhood (2000-2006) and associate pastor at Pickerington St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish (1989-1995). He also served for several years in the diocesan Tribunal, which hears cases of marriage nullity, serving as judicial vicar and defender of the bond, and lived at Columbus St. Andrew Church (1995-2000).
Msgr. Hammond currently serves as the diocese’s promoter of justice, on the College of Consultors and vicar forane of the Tuscarawas-Holmes-Knox-Coshocton Deanery.
Only 10 percent of diocesan clergy can hold the title of monsignor at a given time. In the diocese, including Msgr. Hammond, others currently holding the title are Msgrs. John Cody, John Dreese, William Dunn, Craig Eilerman, Paul Enke, Anthony Frecker, Joseph Hendricks, John Johnson, Frank Lane, Anthony Missimi, Stephan Moloney and James Walter.