Meet the Priest Behind ‘Ask a Priest’ — Giving Guidance on Some of Life’s Toughest Dilemmas
Today’s secular world throws curve balls at us all the time. Ask A Priest is a Q&A feature at regnumchristi.com where anyone can ask questions and find some guidance on some of life’s toughest dilemmas on subjects from liturgy and prayer to moral questions and current events, providing a trustworthy forum for dependable Catholic guidance and information.
Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC, is the voice behind the Ask a Priest forum. Years ago, he had been thinking of doing more writing, and he began looking for a suitable venue. Teaching at Mater Ecclesiae College at the time, a school in Greenville, Rhode Island, for Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, Fr. Edward recognized that his students were confronted by a very challenging world. “Soon they would be facing pastoral problems that would have been unthinkable a few decades earlier. Was there a way I could try to continue to help them, once they were in full-time ministry?”
Little by little, the idea of a question-and-answer format came to his mind. A fellow Legionary, Fr. John Bartunek, LC, liked the idea and offered encouragement.
Then, one day at Mater Ecclesiae Fr. Edward bumped into Lucy Honner, the Consecrated Woman who was overseeing the RC Spirituality center at the time. During his brief conversation with her, the idea of an online Q&A forum started to gel.
At Ask a Priest, Fr. Edward tries to field just about any question that people send his way. In this way, he hopes to signal to people that the Church cares and has something to offer, no matter what their problem or difficulty is.
Originally, Ask a Priest was envisioned as a resource primarily for Regnum Christi members. It would aim to impart formation about moral issues as well as Regnum Christi spirituality and methodology. The reality, however, turned out to be much different, with a much wider reach. Many people who send in questions aren’t Catholic or Christian, or even believers. Inquirers to Ask a Priest have included cradle Catholics with limited formation, protestants and evangelicals puzzled by the Catholic idea of Sacred Tradition, Muslims looking to convert (at risk of their lives), and even a self-proclaimed atheist who inexplicable felt drawn to contemplative religious life. “There is rarely a dull day when one goes through the inbox,” says Fr. Edward, whose overarching goal is to ultimately help people come closer to Christ and to understand what the Church can offer in terms of counsel and the sacraments.
There is no single theme running through the questions that Fr. Edward receives: it could be anything from Is Eavesdropping a Serious Sin?, to What Can I Do About My Jealousy? , or
What If I Pray a Lot But Don’t Feel Closer to Jesus?. Answers are searchable by a wide range of topics, including marriage and family, moral issues, the Bible, the Sacraments, and sin and repentance. What the questions have in common, says Fr. Edward, is the general search for truth. “Many folks sense that the wisdom of the word is thin broth – it’s not nourishing to them.”
It is also clear to Fr. Edward that many people haven’t been educated well in the Catholic or Christian faith, or even in basic human values. “In earlier generations, people had extended families and stable communities to teach them about the value of marriage and family and hard work, along with the virtues of chastity and modesty and the worth of human life. The world has changed, and many people feel rudderless.”
Born in Philadelphia, Fr. Edward worked in journalism and was active in the pro-life movement before entering the novitiate of the Legion of Christ in 1992. Fr. Edward was ordained to the priesthood in 2001, taught theology and Scripture at Mater Ecclesiae College. He holds degrees from the Regina Apostolorum Athenaeum in Rome, Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut, and Northwestern University in Illinois. He was an assistant publisher of the National Catholic Register and Faith & Family magazine and a past editor of the Zenit news agency’s English edition, and has also written for ePriest. Fr. Edward also worked in spiritual retreats in the Northeast, New England, the Midwest, and the South and assisted with mission work in Mexico.
Today, Fr. Edward lives in one of the Legionary communities in the Atlanta area, where he is blessed to serve as a chaplain to the Consecrated Women of Regnum Christi, and occasionally has the chance to help with Mass and confessions at a nearby school and parish. Much of his day is dedicated to ecclesial relations work for the territorial directorate.
You can ask a question, or read the answers to hundreds of questions, by visiting Ask A Priest, or subscribe to receive the latest questions and answers by email twice a week here.
