CINCINNATI (July 11, 2007) Father Dan Dorsey was re-elected president of Glenmary Home Missioners during the community's 14th General Chapter June 18-29 in Nazareth, Ky. Also elected to executive council: Father Dominic Duggins as first vice president and Father Mike Kerin as second vice president.

For the first time in Glenmary's 68-year history, the community gathered as a Chapter of the Whole with Glenmary priests, brothers, students and lay coworkers participating in this every-four-year-gathering. Following the election process, participants-working with the aid of an outside facilitator-identified key issues facing Glenmary and set priorities for Glenmary to address over the next four years.

Calling the June Chapter "an extraordinary event in Glenmary's history," Father Dorsey added that is was "more successful than anyone could have imagined." That success was measured in the future plans and goals that were developed and the sense of unity and dialogue which facilitated the development of those plans and goals.

Among issues discussed were the revitalization of the Glenmary Research Center and of Glenmary's Ecumenical Office as well as the future of Glenmary's international vocations initiative.

Chapter participants recommended that a commission be established by Glenmary's president to envision and carry out a refounding of the Glenmary Research Center located in Nashville, Tenn. The Research Center is the publisher of the every-10-year Religious Congregations and Membership Study and provides religious data to Glenmary as well as the national Church.

Ecumenism has always been a hallmark of Glenmary's ministry since its founding in 1939. As such, it was recommended to Glenmary's new leadership that a new plan to carry on this ministry at both a national and local level be created . And, members affirmed the continuation of Glenmary's vocation initiatives which include pursuing international vocations from Africa and Mexico.

Inner-community goals-both spiritual and administrative-will also be priorities in the coming years. These goals include, but are not limited to, beginning a proactive missionary planning process for future home mission ministries and national leadership ministries; developing a team ministry model for use in Glenmary's home mission counties; continuing the Chapter of the Whole model for future Chapters and ways to improve the consultation structure between coworkers and Glenmarians and leadership.

"All of the success of our Chapter was made possible by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit," Father Dorsey said. "After the 12 days, we all left with a unified vision of who we are and where we want to go as a community of missioners over the next four years and beyond."

Glenmary's New Executive Council

Father Dan Dorsey, 56, a native of St. Louis, Mo., was elected first vice president in 1999 and president in 2003. His new term as president extends to 2011. He served as pastor of two Glenmary missions in southeastern Arkansas before coming to leadership in 1999. In his 33 years of home mission ministry, he has also served in Cincinnati as Glenmary's director of novices, and in Morehead, Ky., as associate pastor of a Glenmary mission serving six rural counties.

Father Dominic Duggins, 64, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, was elected to leadership in 2001 as second vice president. His term as first vice president extends until 2011. He also serves as the director of Glenmary's Development Office, a position he has, and will, retain while serving on Executive Council. He has served missions in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Georgia, Texas, and Oklahoma in his 44 years as a home missioner. Father Duggins, who first entered Glenmary as a brother, has also served as associate director and director of students at the Glenmary House of Studies in Washington, D.C.. He came to Cincinnati in 1993 to work in Glenmary's Mission Office and became director of the Development Office in 1999.

Father Mike Kerin, 50, is a native of Scarsdale, N.Y., and was elected to leadership as second vice president with a term that extends until 2011. He has served missions in Texas, West Virginia and Alabama in his 24 years as a Glenmary missionary priest. He has worked in Glenmary's formation programs in Washington D.C. and Cincinnati as director of novitiate and postnovitiate in the late 1990s. Most recently he pastored two Glenmary missions in Winfield and Fayette, Ala., both of which were returned for continued pastoral care to the Diocese of Birmingham on July 1, 2007. -30-
Glenmary is a society of Catholic priests and brothers who, along with coworkers, establish the Catholic Church in rural regions of the United States. Currently, Glenmary staffs over 50 missions and ministries in 14 dioceses.