With the installation of Fr. Dennis Backer, St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Clearwater has a pastor for the first time since the 1980s.

Fr. Backer isn’t new to St. Luke’s, he’s served as its parochial administrator for the past four years where he had all the responsibilities of a pastor, including the financial and spiritual needs of the parish. The only things he didn’t have were a set term and the right of appeal (if called to another parish).

“I love the fact that I can now put down roots,” said Backer. “I believe my true vocation is as a rural priest.”

With his installation he was given a six-year term with the option of renewing for another six years.

Growing up in St. Paul Park the youngest of nine children, Fr. Backer has been religious all his life. As he grew older, he realized the jobs he’d held that he enjoyed the most were the ones that had direct contact with people.

“You have the opportunity to affect someone in a very positive way,” he said. “The priesthood is a way to do that. As a priest you’re invited into people’s lives during key moments both tragic and joyful.”

Fr. Backer had felt the call to priesthood right out of high school but didn’t respond to it, mostly because his parents couldn’t afford to send him to college.

Eventually, however, he joined and started attending the Cathedral of St. Paul and within a month he was starting to serve the mass. Within two years he was entering into the seminary.

“There’s a saying,” said Backer. “When you put God on hold, he doesn’t go away.”

The Cathedral of St. Paul had offered a ‘Called by Name’ weekend that he attended where they talk about priesthood. During the program there was an opportunity to submit someone’s name if one felt they would be a good candidate for becoming a priest or nun.

“I debated on my own name but decided if this was what the Lord wanted it would happen,” said Backer. “Two people put my name in.”

He began attending St. Thomas, majoring in Catholic Studies and minoring in Philosophy and Phycology. 

“The first week I asked myself what I was doing,” admitted Backer. “I was 39 years old and a freshman in college. What I kept going back to then and now was the phrase of Jesus saying, ‘I never promised it would be easy, I only promised I would be with you always.’”

After four years in minor seminary he took another four years of major seminary. During his seventh year he was ordained a transitional deacon, which was when he started wearing his clergy collar and could preach and perform the sacraments.

At the end of his eighth year he graduated with a Master of Divinity, and on May 26, 2007, he was ordained a Roman Catholic priest at the Cathedral of St. Paul, where it had all started.

As an associate pastor his first parish was St. Hubert in Chanhassen, his second was at the Church of the Epiphany in Coon Rapids. In 2010 he became the parochial administrator for the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Immaculate Conception Marysburg; a year later he was named pastor for the first time.

Fr. Backer’s next parish was in Rogers at Mary Queen of Peace, where he was pastor and also became the Rogers Police Chaplin, a job he enjoyed greatly.

A four month medical leave of absence in 2014 forced him to leave both positions, however, he was next sent to St. Luke’s.

“I’m hoping being installed as their pastor is as much a blessing to them as it is to me,” he said.

Unlike some priests, Fr. Backer wears his collar nearly all the time when he’s out in public.

“For me it’s a visual sign of what I represent,” he explained. “I always wear it when I travel, and twice at the Denver Airport someone has come up to me and asked if I was a Catholic priest. One asked me to hear her confession and the other wanted to pray with me; her sister had just attempted suicide.”

Wearing the collar also means he’s sometimes subject to people who are angry with the church.

“I’ll take that price,” said Backer. “I’d rather that someone who needs to speak to a priest is able to recognize who I am.”

On Aug. 11, St. Luke’s held an installation ceremony during their 10 a.m. mass to honor and welcome Fr. Backer as their new pastor. He was officially installed July 1.