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Happy Father’s Day, one week early.

I posted last month on the man who is a father to a priest in Baltimore, and was about to be ordained a priest himself.

Well, yesterday, it happened:

This is history in process at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in north Baltimore as Deacon Greg Rapisarda became Father Rapisarda. He’s 62 and surrounded by family, friends and four children. Rapisarda took a vow into the ministry.

“Once, you thought that marriage was your only vocation. God knew otherwise,” said Archbishop Edwin O’Brien.

“I felt a call to the priesthood after my wife died. Other people said something to me about it; eventually, it sunk in that that’s what I needed to do,” Rapisarda said.

After practicing law for nearly 40 years, he entered the seminary. This weekend, he joined his son, John, who is already a priest.

“Excitement,” said Father John Rapisarda. “He’s going to be great.”

And it’s the first time in the Baltimore Archdiocese’s 221-year history that a father and son are priests at the same time.

“It’s all without trying to do it. It’s just what happened in this situation,” Rapisarda said.

Read more, and watch a video of the ordination, at the link. (Those who are curious can catch an interview with the newly minted Fr. Greg on “Currents” later in the week.)

Congratulations, Father Greg! Ad multos annos!

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