JAY – It was a gradual realization for the widower with seven children and 12 grandchildren: God might be calling him.

The Rev. Dick Senghas thought seriously about entering the priesthood while at college. Instead he chose medicine. He went on to graduate from Harvard Medical School in 1954.

Senghas met his wife, Dr. Gertrude “June” Murray, at Harvard. She had the cadaver next to him.

The two married in 1955; she died in 1993.

Senghas was a senior orthopedic surgeon in his five-member Framingham, Mass., practice before he decided, at 66, to give up his career to enter the seminary.

“After my wife died, I realized I didn’t want to get married again,” Senghas, 75, said.

He said he thought it possible as a celibate man that he would be a candidate for priesthood. His children were very supporting, he said, although he didn’t mention it to them until he had been accepted by Bishop Joseph Gerry and the Pope John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass.

He completed the rigorous program as a second-vocation priest and was ordained in 1998.

Similarities

During his ordination, he had to lie face down in front of the altar. He could hear his 5-year-old grandson asking, “‘What’s wrong with grandpa? … Somebody go help grandpa,'” Senghas recalled, sitting behind his desk at his office in the rectory of St. Rose of Lima Church in Jay.

Senghas said he was pretty active in the church and a regular practicing Catholic prior to heeding his call to God, so he didn’t have any sudden surprises about the priesthood. “I was happy to be looking forward to the future,” he said.

The two vocations are similar in the sense that they both involve helping people and dealing with the joys and pains of life, he said.

Before he came to the Jay parish nearly five years ago, Senghas was assistant pastor for 18 months at St. Johns and Holy Cross churches in Portland.

“I’m happy still to be able to help people,” Senghas said. “I’m busy with 1,300 families here. So it keeps me going, keeps me busy.”

He likes to bring the sacraments to parishioners, including baptism, Holy Eucharist, matrimony, and celebrate Mass.

“I think they’re good things to do,” he said. “I love my work. I love my vocation. I’m very happy.”

Perspective

He enjoys returning God’s love and helping bring his love to others, he said.

“I was blessed with an excellent education, and that helps me, too,” Senghas said.

“You realize how smart people were 2,000 years ago,” he said. “We’ve a historical church.”

Looking at things historically gives people perspective on their present lives, he said.

Without that perspective, there is temptation to repeat the same mistakes that our forebears have made.

He tries to use the wisdom of the past and apply it to problems in the present when he gives his sermons, he said.

“I have great hope for the church in the future,” Senghas said.

dperry@sunjournal.com