Father Doug Hennessy presided over Mass at Holy Trinity Church for a decade prior to his retirement in 2013. But the parish was very familiar to him well before then.
Growing up in Bloomington, Hennessy attended Holy Trinity with his family and graduated from Holy Trinity Grade School and High School [now Central Catholic High School].
Hennessy's life of service to the church and its flock are being honored at this year's History Makers Gala. Hennessy is one of three McLean County changemakers who will be recognized June 18 at Illinois State University.
Born in 1938, Hennessy's father owned and operated a stockyard, where he worked as a teenager. And the younger Hennessy loved playing baseball and basketball. He said Bloomington was a great town to grow up in, but he never thought he’d end up coming back.
“I think if you go into a Catholic grade school and high school, at some time, you thought about becoming a sister or a priest,” he said. “I thought about it there.”
Hennessy said he felt called to the priesthood while studying at the University of Notre Dame. He signed up, graduated from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa, and prayed he would not be sent to a seminary that taught in Latin.
He was sent to Rome.
“They not only taught in Latin,” he said. “The textbooks were in Latin. The oral exams were in Latin — proving to me that God has a sense of humor.”
Hennessy’s time in Rome corresponded with the Second Vatican Council [often referred to as “Vatican II”], a committee convened by Pope John XXIII to reform and modernize church practices to accommodate an increasingly secular world.
“I was there the first two years of the council,” said Hennessy, who was ordained in 1963. “I was very excited by Vatican II and I liked the changes.”
One of the biggest changes at the council’s conclusion in 1965 was that priests were encouraged to face congregants and deliver Mass in their vernacular languages.
“I wanted nothing to do with Latin when I got out of Rome,” Hennessy said. “I think it greatly helped for most people to understand what was going on.”
Hennessy was assigned as the second assistant at a parish in Macomb. The first assistant was Father Joseph Kelly, a notable mentor who later became chaplain of Normal’s St. John Paul Newman Center.
“I tell people I learned theology in Rome and I learned to become a priest living with Joe Kelly for three years,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy worked in various roles at the Peoria Diocese and served in a handful of parishes before ending his career back at Holy Trinity. He didn’t aspire to leadership, preferring to be a parish priest.
'It's all of us'
Hennessy said he was surprised to learn he'd been named a McLean County History Maker.
"I couple of people have written saying I helped them along the way or encouraged them," he said. "Those are the things you do in the priesthood anywhere, but I did it here in McLean County — where I never thought I'd be."
His highest priority, Hennessy said, has been to show people they’re loved by God.
“They’re part of the church; it’s not just me,” he said. “It’s all of us. I think that’s what I want people to understand most of all.”
Hennessy felt Pope Francis was guiding the church in this direction. And with the appointment of Pope Leo XIV, he couldn't have guessed an American would serve that role during his lifetime.
But during Hennessy’s 50-year career, participation in the Catholic church has plummeted, recently threatening the closure of Bloomington-Normal parishes, including Holy Trinity.
“Partly, we’re a very secular society,” he said. “It’s not the people my age who aren’t coming. The next generation is coming less. The next generation is coming even less.”
Presented the idea of a “Vatican III,” Hennessy didn’t think that would solve it. But he thinks church leaders could benefit from using accessible language and themes young people relate to.
“The message comes from the gospel, so there’s not much we can change there,” he said, “but we need to speak it in a language that people understand more clearly and that’s relevant for our lives. It’s not telling them what to do, but we want to know what the Lord wants them to do.”
The other part, Hennessy said, is rebuilding trust after several investigations revealed the church’s attempts to cover-up incidents of child abuse. In Illinois, a May 2023 report by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul identified more than 450 clergy credibly accused of abuse, including four priests who abused children while working in McLean County.
“No doubt, the sexual abuse crisis hurt us tremendously,” Hennessy said, but he’s hopeful the church can recover, in time.
“I’m probably not going to live to see it,” said Hennessy. “Our God’s in charge, I’m not.”
