Father Stuart Long greeted the world with a fighting spirit throughout his entire life. Although he spent his youth excelling in physical competition, it was in his final years that a battle within his own body—one he knew he would lose—brought the victorious grace of God to each person he encountered.
A movie about his life, titled “Father Stu,” was released earlier this year. Catholic actor Mark Wahlberg dramatically plays Father Stu. The film recounts the true story that, while in seminary, Father Stu was diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a debilitating terminal illness that causes progressive muscle weakness and damage.
Although he grew physically weaker by the day, he did not hide his suffering. Instead, he gave himself to others. Known for his directness and honesty, Father Stu transformed the lives of countless people from all walks of life.
A jagged journey to the priesthood
Father Stu grew up in Helena, Montana, in an agnostic family. An intense and outgoing young man, he excelled athletically but often found trouble.
When he entered Carroll College in the Diocese of Helena, a priest encouraged him to channel his energy into boxing. Father Stu won Montana’s Golden Gloves heavyweight title in 1985.
He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and writing. He moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, but he never broke through the industry. He began dating a young woman who wanted him to become Catholic. Although he initially dismissed the idea, a near-fatal motorcycle accident led him to reevaluate his life. He entered the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, and at the moment of his baptism, he felt a call to become a priest.
Father Stu finally answered the call after several years of discernment. He returned to his hometown to begin priestly formation through the Diocese of Helena at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon. Catholic Extension Society supported his education as a seminarian.
Father Stu learned about his disease near the end of his seminary formation. Bishop George Thomas decided to ordain him as a priest in 2007 regardless of the grim prognosis of health.
Father Stu said during his ordination,
I stand before you as a broken man. Barring a miracle, I’m going to die from this disease, but I carry it for the cross of Christ, and we can all carry our crosses.
Father Stu’s final offering
For his first years as a priest, Father Stu served at two parishes—both supported by Catholic Extension Society. He was known as a good confessor because of his own ups and downs in life. His parishioners appreciated his sense of humor and down-to-earth nature.
He also returned to his old fighting grounds at Carroll College to celebrate Mass and meet with young adults. Father Marc Lenneman, who attended seminary at the same time as Father Stu and currently serves as the director of vocations for the diocese and associate chaplain at the college, described the powerful experience of worshipping with the physically weakened priest.
“People were just constantly reduced to silence, a real reverential silence, because you could see the offering,” he said. “And that’s the same offering of Christ, who suffers on the cross and gives everything for us.”
During his last Mass at the college, Father Stu did not have the strength to lift his arms to present the host, so the altar servers lifted it for him. One of them was just ordained a priest in June.
Father Lenneman said people had courage put in them by their time with Father Stu. He did not hide his brokenness. It made him accessible and vulnerable.
“It became a way that the grace of God would flow to people,” said Father Lenneman.
The disease progressed rapidly, and in 2010 he moved into Big Sky Care Center, a nursing home in Helena. From his wheelchair he continued to perform Mass and listen and speak with anyone who visited him. His honest and unflinching spiritual counsel transformed everyone with whom he met.
Word of his healing guidance spread like wildfire. As he neared the end of his days, the line of people outside his room waiting to meet him grew longer.
Three employees at Big Sky converted to Catholicism. One woman, who met and was prayed over by Father Stu when she was told her unborn child would die in utero, miraculously gave birth to a healthy child. Everyone was astonished except Father Stu. The parents named him the child’s godfather.
Since his passing in 2014, stories of his transformative witness have abounded—marriages healing, personal lives being set aright, young men considering a vocation to the priesthood and countless people expressing a greater love for the Church. His inspiring story will hopefully continue to grow through the film, “Father Stu,” released nationwide during Holy Week in 2022.
“Father Stuart Long embodied courage and faith in a special way,” said Bishop Austin Vetter of Helena.
He continued,
His courage was bound closely to the will of God. Rather than choosing circumstances that demanded courage, he chose to courageously embrace the circumstances of his life and give all he had to love and serve Christ.”
Catholic Extension Society is honored to share the accomplishments of Father Stuart Long, a finalist for the 2022-2023 Lumen Christi Award. Visit this page to read the other inspiring stories from this year’s finalists.
