Deacon Michael French, CPM, will be ordained as a priest of the Fathers of Mercy, a religious institute of consecrated life based in Auburn, Kentucky, at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 4 at the Chapel of Divine Mercy. Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, will be the ordaining bishop for Deacon French and Deacon Joseph Morgan, who also will become a Fathers of Mercy priest..
Deacon French is the son of Howard and Judy French of Columbus and has two younger sisters. He graduated from Ohio State University in 2008 with a degree in aerospace engineering, a field in which he worked in Florida for seven years before entering Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati.
“Discerning a call to the priesthood and, subsequently, religious life ever since the end of high school, while living in Florida I received graces of conversion and conviction to finally follow God’s call,” he said.
“I entered the Fathers of Mercy in 2015 and am thankful for the blessings of God’s mercy in all my life and consider it a privilege for the opportunity to serve the Church in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.”
The Fathers of Mercy is a congregation whose primary apostolate is preaching parish missions and retreats in the United States, Canada and Australia.
It was founded in 1808 as the Missionaries of France to re-evangelize the French people after the Catholic faith had been persecuted during the French Revolution. It is now an exclusively American community based a few miles outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky.