By Rich McDowell

Fr. Ronnie Madden, pastor of Christ the King Parish, celebrated his 50th Anniversary Mass June 6, 2020. The road he traveled to get to this point in his life had many twists, turns, and a few bumps.
In 1963 at the seminary novitiate when he was 17, they had a rule of silence, and while we were on a 30-day retreat. “I got an opportunity to go out to a dentist.” Said Madden, “There I found a Time Magazine,” said Madden, “and smuggled the magazine back to seminary and passed it around. That was a mistake. One of the seminarians was caught with it, and it was traced back to me.”

“On the day of Profession,” Madden said, “in a class of over 40 novices, I was the only one not called to take the oath. A priest told me to take a few weeks off and think about whether I still wanted to become a priest.” Madden determined he did wish to be a priest.

Six years later, Madden was ordained in St. Patrick’s College, Carlow, and shortly after that came to the U.S. to minister in the mission diocese in Savannah, Georgia.

About six months after arrival in Savannah, he was approached by the Selective Service. “They wanted to enlist me. I told them I was a priest, said Madden.” They wanted proof, but no paperwork could be found, the Diocese hadn’t filled out the paperwork. So he had to start the process of getting a green card.

One of his first assignments was to the then Naval Air Station in Albany—NAS Albany. During his time in Albany, the chaplain got sick, so he helped out. They liked him, and flew him out to a ship 400 miles off the coast of Jacksonville, FL. That was the beginning of his desire to become a Navy chaplain. So he went to Raymond W. Lessard, then bishop of Savannah, and asked to join the Navy. Madden said, “He didn’t go for it. But I persisted and was always turned down.”

Then one year, Savannah hosted a Knights of Columbus convention. The guest speaker was to be the chief of chaplains, Rear Admiral Fr. John O’Connor, who would go on to be the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. As luck would have it, Fr. Madden had an opportunity to speak with the Chief of Chaplains O’Connor and told him he wanted to be a Navy Chaplain.

Fr. O’Connor was seated next to bishop Lessard that night. The next day, Fr. Madden was told he could join the Navy. He went to Newport, Rhode Island, to attend Officer Training School. One night he went out on the town with some Marines, there was an incident, and he was injured. The higher-ups found out about it, and his orders were changed. He was deemed to be ideally suited to be a Marine Infantry Chaplain.

He deployed three times with the Marine Task Force. He was preparing to deploy a fourth time when he got orders to report immediately to China Lake Naval Weapons Center in California. The chaplain there had become ill. Fr. Madden protested, the Marine Corps protested, but in the end, he found himself in front of China Lake’s admiral. “The admiral thought I was insulting him by turning up in a Marine uniform,” said Madden. “I calmly told him that that was the uniform I had gone to work in that morning.”

Fr. Madden retired from the Navy as a Captain, no small feat, in 1999 and planned to live in San Diego. That’s when he learned the Savannah Diocese still “owned” him. He was told that after two years, he could go to where ever he wanted. That was 21 years ago.

He was assigned to St. Anne, Columbus, with additional duties as a counselor for Pacelli High School. Another “extra duty” was ministering to Christ the King, a mission church in Hamilton, Ga. At the time, Sister Philomena Fogarty was trying to get a new church built. When she was murdered, Fr. Madden took over and began looking for land and raising money.

Naysayers looked at his plans and said it couldn’t be done, but Fr. Madden persevered, and in 2006 the parishioners had a new church in Pine Mountain, and it was debt-free.

During all this, Fr. Madden said he fell in love with the work, fell in love with Pine Mountain and the people. “I hope it was a good deal for Christ the King. I hope they can say I served them well. I’ve grown to love it and enjoyed being their priest more than I ever had.”

To see more photos from Fr. Madden's 50th Anniversary celebration, taken by parishioner Ben Dodds, please click here.