Our new Parochial Vicar, Fr. Philip Neri Powell, O.P. began his assignment at St. Dominic parish on December 11th, 2011.

I was born in Greenwood, MS and raised in small towns all over Mississippi and Louisiana. In 1978, we settled in Byhalia, MS where my mom, dad, youngerbrother and his family still live. I attended Ole Miss, eventually earning a Ph.D. in literature. In 1999, my application to enter the novitiate for the Southern Dominican Province was accepted and I headed off to San Antonio, TX for a year. After simple vows in 2000, I joined my fellow students at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis, MO to complete the M.Div.  Immediately after taking solemn vows in 2003, I had the opportunity to spend a year studying as a visiting grad student at Blackfriars Hall at Oxford University. I was ordained a deacon there in July of 2004. The next year was spent in an internship at the University of Houston Newman Center, working with the students and staff of campus ministry. In May of 2005, fr. Scott Daniels, OP and I were ordained to the priesthood at St. Peter's in Memphis, TN. I was assigned to our priory in Irving, TX to work as the volunteer ministries coordinator for the campus ministry of the University of Dallas. While serving at U.D., I also taught undergraduate and grad courses in theology and English. In the fall of 2008, I moved Rome to study philosophy. Just this last October, I finished the license in philosophy at the Angelicum in Rome. Before joining the OP, I've held some interesting jobs to help pay the bills: microbiology lab assistant; convenience store clerk; battered women's shelter bouncer; and team leader for an adolescent psych ward.