At the rectory at Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, eight active diocesan priests share a home, pitch in to help with chores, and frequently get together to watch a ball game together at the end of the day.
It’s an arrangement that is so uncommon, it may be the largest community of diocesan priests in the United States.
For these Tulsa priests, who range in age from early 30s to a priest in his late 70s, living together is preferable to living alone, as many diocesan priests do.
Father Brian O’Brien, the rector of the cathedral, told the Register that living in community may not be for everyone, but it suits him.
In his previous assignment, at a parish in Stillwater, Oklahoma, he lived in a newly built six-bedroom rectory designed to house all of the priests from the area, a demonstration, he said, of Bishop David Konderla’s commitment to prioritizing the well-being of priests.
“There are a lot of statistics on how guys are feeling isolated. Some guys thrive living by themselves, but I don’t want to live by myself if I can avoid it,” Father O’Brien, who is 50 years old and was ordained in 2007,
