rev. dale craig

 Fr. Dale is a Priest of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity who was called to the community as a young man, a lay missionary in 1986.  At that time he met the Founder of the Community, Fr. James Flanagan, as well as the Co-founder, Fr. John McHugh.  Being drawn to missionary life he served with Father John for a year in Belize, Central America; during this period he began to find himself considering to the vocation the the Sacred Priesthood.  

Although this was the case, he nonetheless returned to his family in Montana for another four years finishing his studies in Civil Engineering along with working for a short stint.  He never was able to shake the consideration that God was possibly calling him to the Sacred Priesthood of Jesus Christ.  After a time of resistance he finally embraced the call and entered seminary in 1991, later being ordained on June 7th, 1997, the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Following  Priestly ordination he served in various places and missions of the community; his first assignment was at the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota which lasted ten years.  Following this time he served for around six years in administration within his religious community.  In 2013 he was asked to become Pastor of Most Holy Trinity Church in Phoenix Arizona which continued until his present assignment here at St. Gertrude the Great in Mora in the spring of 2021. 

With great blessing and joy I am now serving in the Mora Valley, the place in which our Founders Fr. Jim and Fr. John were called to establish the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity in 1958.  I consider it an enormous pleasure to be here at the heart of The Society of Our Lady.  Although our Founders passed away in different places their wishes were to be buried in Holman, the place of our infancy as a community.  Now, serving here in the Mora Valley, I am with them and the people of the Mora Valley they so deeply loved.  What a gift! and I deeply rejoice in this call.