Annulment won't hinder new Chicago priest's ministry

Published: 2004-07-15

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Father Thomas J. Mescall had a special guest at his ordination as a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago this spring: his son, Tommy, 30, one of his two grown children and a lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M. Father Mescall, 56, was the oldest of 14 men ordained to the priesthood this year for the archdiocese, and the only one to have been married. He was divorced in 1981. Four years later his 11-year marriage was annulled. "People think annulment is a 'Catholic divorce,' and it's not," said Father Mescall, who was raised in Chicago and got his law degree from John Marshall Law School before embarking on a legal and judicial career in New Mexico. "But the church has been reaching pastorally out to both partners in cases where they feel they didn't have a sacramental marriage." In his case, Father Mescall said, he was young -- 22 -- when he married in 1970. He was teaching in an inner-city public school and attending law school at night during what were turbulent times.

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