John Ringley To Be Ordained

Deacon John Ringley of St Rose Parish and Deacon Thomas Haber of St Mary’s in Ridgefield will be ordained into the priesthood at a Mass of Ordination on Saturday, May 19, at 10 am at St Theresa Church in Trumbull.

The Most Rev William E. Lori, bishop of the Bridgeport diocese, will perform the ordination. This will be the first priesthood ordination for the diocese presided over by Bishop Lori, who was installed as the fourth bishop of Bridgeport on March 19.

Father F. John Ringley, Jr, 39, was born in Evanston, Ill., on November 26, 1960. One of five children of Frederick and Catherine Oatis Ringley, he grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1981. An accomplished pianist, Father Ringley received his master’s degree in music from the University of Iowa in 1996.

Father Ringley will complete his seminary studies in theology next month at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he has resided at the North American College. He was ordained a traditional deacon in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City last October by Cardinal James Francis Stafford.

Father Ringley’s home parish is St Rose of Lima, where he also completed his internship.

Father Thomas Haber, 30, was born in Chranow, Poland. He received a bachelor’s degree at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield in 1997 and will complete his seminary studies in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome next month, where he has resided at the North American College.

Father Haber was ordained a transitional deacon in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City last October. He completed his internship at St Peter Parish in Bridgeport.

With these two men there have been 59 priests ordained for the Diocese of Bridgeport in the past 12 years. In recent years the diocese has been a leader in the Northeast in the number of ordinations to the priesthood. The diocese currently has 30 seminarians preparing for the priesthood.

“I look forward with great joy to the priestly ordinations of Deacon Thomas Haber and Deacon John Ringley,” said Bishop Lori. “May they be the first of many priests whom I shall ordain for the diocese as the years unfold.”