Mark Dunmire is preparing for a rather unusual ordination to the priesthood.

Dunmire, a deacon, will be ordained as a priest by Bishop Edward C. Malesic at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg at 10 a.m. Saturday. The church will be mostly empty. Because of covid-19 concerns, only his family will be allowed inside.

Others will have to view the event via livestream on the diocesan website and Facebook page.

This wasn’t the ordination Dunmire had anticipated. Then again, this also isn’t the life he had once expected.

Growing up in Lower Burrell, Dunmire’s family went to church on Sundays. He said they weren’t “overly religious.”

Dunmire recalled a single lesson his parents instilled in him: Be kind to others.

Dunmire graduated from Burrell High School before attending and graduating from Robert Morris University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in media arts. There, he developed a passion for photography.

Dunmire recalled meeting with Hollywood editor Pasquale Buba while studying at Robert Morris. He said Buba told him he’d have to choose between his family or a Hollywood career; he couldn’t have both. For Dunmire, that was the end of Hollywood aspirations.

“I had to lose that dream entirely,” he said.

But, as Dunmire said, everything happens for a reason.

He began talking with his priest at St. Margaret Mary Church in his hometown of Lower Burrell. His priest, Father James Gaston, soon suggested he consider the priesthood.

“I said, ‘No, thank you,’ and I ran for two years. I knew there was a call there, but I was afraid of it,” Dunmire said.

Rather than immediately turning to the priesthood, Dunmire said he spent two years praying about the decision.

He couldn’t hide from his destiny forever. In 2013, he joined the seminary. He attended his minor seminary training at St. Mark Seminary in Erie before moving to Saint Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore.

Dunmire said his family supported his decision to enter the priesthood.

After seven years in seminary, the covid-19 pandemic disrupted Dunmire’s final semester. He had to leave the seminary in mid-March. He returned home to St. Margaret Mary to finish his workload remotely.

“There’s no playbook for this,” Dunmire said. “We’re figuring this out as we go, and I think we’re doing a fine job. It all comes down to proper discernment and prayer.”

Nonetheless, Dunmire said it was disappointing to leave the seminary under such unusual circumstances. His ordination date was delayed by a week.

His chalice was already engraved with his original ordination date. It will forever be a reminder of the complicated circumstances leading to his ordination day.

“Where we’re at in the world is so unprecedented that we don’t know what’s happening. The key is that we remain open and flexible to what comes,” he said.

In the midst of these challenging times, Dunmire said he hopes his ordination will be an example of his most important message: hope.

“My biggest message is hope,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how bad things get, no one can take away hope. Ordination is that hope, that light in the darkness.”

With many churches forced to close or operate at limited capacity because of covid-19, Dunmire’s message of hope is even more poignant.

“The domestic church is the first church and that’s where we’re called to right now. God has pushed a giant pause button on the earth. We can reinvent our faith and that’s wonderful,” he said, referencing the importance of emphasizing faith in the home.

A pandemic isn’t the only challenge Dunmire will have to contend with as he begins his journey in the priesthood. Today’s world is also plagued with racial injustice and violence — which have recently led to widespread protests and unrest.

Dunmire said he’s ready to do his part to heal those wounds through his ministry.

“The Church should be the one on the front lines, setting the precedent for what is OK and what is not OK,” Dunmire said. “Racism and prejudice are not.”

Dunmire hopes to use his position in the priesthood to educate people on matters of racial injustice.

“We need to find ways to take our Catholic social teaching, our faith, and invest that in our community,” he said.

Dunmire added that the Church also organizes food banks and other community outreach programs to help those in need.

“This is a very hard job,” Dunmire said. “But it’s so satisfying because you’re helping people. It never gets old.”

He will be dedicated to practicing what he preaches.

“I cannot preach on something that I don’t believe in — and I don’t. You can tell when someone’s being genuine, and I pray I can remain genuine,” he said.

As he navigates a difficult road to his ordination, Dunmire is nonetheless preaching the power of positivity.

“The world is so negative, and we have to focus on the positive more. The more we focus on the positive, the better life becomes,” he said.

One way Dunmire focuses on the positive is by building Japanese robot model kits. It’s his metaphor for life.

“There are often points where you are working on a kit and cannot figure out how that smaller part or section fits into the larger picture.,” he said. “So much of pastoral ministry is like that as well. We don’t always see the grand picture, but God has the plans laid out and asks us to follow them. In this way, model building mirrors what I plan to do in my ministry. It is in working the small day-to-day tasks that it adds up into a much larger picture.”

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