25th First Profession
Father Ambrose Bennett
Birth name: William Robert
Birthplace: Socorro, New Mexico
Entrance: 1998
First profession: 1999
Final profession: 2002
Ordination: 2004
Education: Bachelor’s in comparative literature, Princeton University, 1996
Licentiate in sacred theology, Monastic Institute, Pontificio Ateneo Sant’ Anselmo, 2006
Service in the archdiocese: Theology and Spanish teacher, St. Louis Priory School, 2000-01, 2006-15
Monastic librarian, 2006-19
Assistant priest, Oratory of St. Gregory and St. Augustine, 2007-17
Assistant librarian, St. Louis Priory School, 2013-18
Service outside the archdiocese: Parish priest, St. Mary’s Church, Stanley, Falkland Islands, 2019-24
About Father Ambrose Bennett: St. John Henry Newman said, “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission — I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his — if, indeed, I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good, I shall do His work; I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling. Therefore I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him… He does nothing in vain; He may prolong my life, He may shorten it; He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers, He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide the future from me — still He knows what He is about.”
