Returning to the priestly vocation he had set aside 50 years ago, Father William Spencer became the newest priest of the Saginaw Diocese Dec. 14 at age 75.The ordination date, the feast of St. John of the Cross, a Carmelite, was an appropriate one for Father Spencer, who had been active in the Third Order Carmelites along with his late wife, Peg.
Father Spencer is believed to be the oldest person ordained in the United States in 2007, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' latest ordination report. A 68-year-old man was ordained earlier in the year.
Father Spencer's three children -- Margaret Logan, Bill Spencer and Beth Gava -- and their spouses, his four grandchildren and a sister-in-law were among those who filled St. Denis Catholic Church in Lexington for his ordination by Saginaw Bishop Robert J. Carlson.
Father Spencer had been in the seminary as a young man. A graduate of a Catholic high school, he earned a degree in philosophy from The Catholic University of America in Washington in 1955. He left the seminary in 1957, after much prayer and discernment, just days away from making his perpetual vows.
He married his wife in 1959, and together they were active in parish life, including Marriage Encounter and the charismatic renewal. In 1965, he earned a degree in industrial management from LaSalle University in Philadelphia. He worked for several major companies, retiring from Detroit Edison in 1999.
When he learned in 2004 that his wife was losing her second battle with breast cancer, he prayed for direction. In a matter of months his wife died. The day of his wife's funeral he was already pursuing the call to priesthood that had become clearer to him as her death approached.
He then enrolled in classes at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Both the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Diocese of Lansing rejected his request for ordination because of his age. Five weeks after Bishop Carlson was installed as head of the Diocese of Saginaw in February 2005, the widower sent a letter to him making yet another request.
In his homily during the ordination Mass, Bishop Carlson recalled that when he had spoken with the man who wanted to become a priest he uttered something like "impossible."
The bishop said he soon found out the senior citizen had an advocate -- God. As he prayed for vocations, the bishop said that God told him, "Why don't you take the people I send you?" The next time Bishop Carlson saw the priest applicant, he said, "Bill, I'll take you; now get God off my back."
On a more serious note, Bishop Carlson said Father Spencer had proven his faithfulness to his vocation, as was clear from the number of years he and his wife had been married.
He urged Father Spencer to continue to be a man of prayer both publicly and privately. Prayer will lead him to a life of holiness, he said.
Father Spencer has been assigned as administrator at Our Lady of Lake Huron Church in Harbor Beach, where he has served since early this year.
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