Meet the 2022 Inductees

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022

ANNOUNCING

THE 2022 RECIPIENT of

The CARMELITE STAR Award

Fr. Dan O’Neill, O.Carm.

The Carmelite Star Award is a symbol of our grateful recognition to those who have an enduring commitment to our Carmelite mission, namely to lead an active contemplative life in service to Christ and His Church.

Fr. Dan O’Neill, O.Carm.

“My name is Fr. Dan—I’m a Carmelite.” So begins Fr. Dan’s introduction of himself before most sermons or events. Of course, that is true on a practical level. Fr. Dan is indeed a Carmelite, but perhaps no one has been a finer example of what it means to be a Carmelite in OLMC’s recent memory than Fr. Dan O’Neill, O.Carm., who is the recipient of the Carmelite Star Award at this year’s Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

OLMC has been blessed with many Carmelite pastors and priests who have answered the Carmelite call to serve with zeal for the Lord, but it was Fr. Dan’s dedication to his vocation that transformed Our Lady of Mount Carmel in just four years, bringing her from tragedy to vibrancy.

Raised in Englewood, NJ, Fr. Dan attended St. Cecilia’s Church and St. Cecilia’s Grammar School; he went to the high school seminary in 1957, when he was not yet 14 years old. Fr. Dan says, “Therefore, I have been a Carmelite my entire life.”

Fr. Dan was ordained in 1969 at St. Cecilia’s. He served in high schools in Los Angeles and Chicago, on the Carmelite Mission Band as a traveling preacher, and was a vocation director. He has worked in six parishes: St. Joseph in Demarest, St. Mary in Closter, St. Gelasius, an inner-city parish in Chicago, St. Anastasia in Teaneck, St. Cecilia in Englewood and as pastor of OLMC in Tenafly. Fr. Dan is now retired.

Fr. Dan served on many Carmelite boards and committees and was the treasurer of the Carmelite Province in Chicago for six years. Always a voracious reader, Fr. Dan earned an MA in English from Notre Dame and a Doctor of Ministry from University of St. Mary of the Lake in Chicago.

Yet, for all of Fr. Dan’s many accomplishments in the Carmelite Order, it was his dedication to his vocation and his constant desire to serve that brought him to OLMC where passionate leadership marked his tenure as pastor, along with his many accomplishments!  In his time as pastor, Fr. Dan led the OLMC community in expanding ministries to our Filipino community, founded our Peruvian Medical Mission, started OLMC’s Book Club, fostered interfaith dialogue with our Jewish brothers and sisters at Temple Sinai, expanded our Confirmation program, and hosted working homeless families as part of our Family Promise Homeless Shelter program.

“I am grateful and appreciative to be added to the Hall of Fame and the wall of Carmelite fame as one of the 27 Carmelite pastors,” Fr. Dan says. Now we get to say “thank you” to our friend and leader – an example of living a true life of service in the Carmelite tradition.

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