Fr. Charters’ 50 years as a priest have been a lesson in adapting By Bill Brewer Father Tom Charters has been nominated for the Lumen Christi Award, Catholic Extension Society’s highest honor. It’s fitting recognition for a priest who has served the Catholic faith for more than 50 years. Father Charters is marking his fifth decade in the priesthood this year, and as the Glenmary Home Missioners priest looks back, he’s filled with much gratitude, many good memories—and some heartbreak—for his time as a priest with the Glenmary order. Ordination anniversaries are difficult for a priest to keep to himself, but that doesn’t mean Father Charters didn’t try. The pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Erwin, who is known for his humility and a personal preference to be “behind the scenes,” only alerted his congregation to the milestone on Pentecost Sunday, June 8, when they noticed photographers taking... Read more →