Stu Long was a classmate of mine during seminary days at Mt Angel. His story was like the story of many of other seminarians – people that you might never have expected being calling to discern the priesthood. His story, however, was more unique than most – and his path certainly more twisty. His life has now become a movie by Mark Wahlberg.

After having seen the movie, I can say that it’s about as accurate as one could fit in 2 hours. They combined a lot of real life people into a few characters for simplicity – but I remember almost all these stories in the movie. I highly recommend going to see it. It’s the very kind of person that God often calls and you might find discerning a call to religious life.

If you’d like to read more about Fr Stu, check out these links:

• Knights of Columbus article
• WATCH: ABOUT FATHER STU 
• WATCH: WAHLBERG INTERVIEW

Here’s a news clip on the movie from a local Helena Montana news report:

And this clip exactly matches a lot of the stories Stu had and as I remembered him