b"Answering God's callBy: Angela GilesSometimes you find your place and your peace where you leastIronically, Sister Margaret wasnt the only person who envisioned expect it. Former Heidelberg Campus Minister Sister Margaret SlowickBurns in the priesthood. Years later, as he was serving on a number remembers getting ready for Catholic Mass in Herbster Chapel oneof committees in his parish and participating in a retreat, he asked Sunday back in the early 90s.for prayers for discernment. In what would prove to be a case of be I remember he was at the altar, setting things up for that eveningscareful what you wish for, that priesthood question came up again. Mass. He looked so natural and at home in that setting, something toldBy that time, he had enrolled in a couple of seminary classes to study me he had a vocation to be a priest, she said. So I asked him if he hadScripture when the proverbial lightbulb went off. Burns had his ever considered it. oh dear! moment.Ed Burns, 95, shrugged it off. He had an idea that hed like to becomeIn 1998, he began full-time seminary studies, graduating in 2004 with a communication professor. After all, thats one of the options hishis Master of Divinity degree from The Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati, communication/theatre arts major at Heidelberg prepared him to do.near his home. He was ordained into the priesthood later that year.He did, in fact, teach at Northern Kentucky University for a short time,From 2004-18, Burns served as the Catholic campus minister at Wright but decided the idea and the reality just didnt line up. A sales jobState University in Dayton. I loved being back on a college campus, he wasnt a good fit either.said. I loved working with young people, answering their questions or I was in my early 20s, trying to figure out where I was being called,guiding them to the answers. I was privileged to be there.where my gifts would take me, where I would be able to contributeBut the time came to focus his energy on a new challengeserving something, Burns recalled. As he took stock of his life, he realizeda parish. Burns was assigned to St. Michael the Archangel Parish in what was missing was his connection to his faith. And he rememberedSharonville, Ohio. Today, he is the pastor and the only priest, overseeing that question Sister Margaret asked a few years back. I remembera parish community of 1,600 families, a staff of eight and a K-8 school thinking that maybe the church would help me get to the point ofof 400 students that is soon to expand. making a decision.10|Heidelberg University Bulletin"