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January 27, 2022While on a pilgrimage in 1997 in Spain, Father Michael Knipe said, “I stood in a courtyard in Salamanca with a guide, a priest friend and parishioners on a pilgrimage from Fatima to Lourdes and Rome. I was memorized, less by searching for the frog among the plateresque facade of the 16th century building, than the story of the Dominican Fray Luis de Leon and the connection of the university with the Church in the New World. Then and there, I desired to study here, somehow, some way.”
On Dec.15, Father Knipe earned a doctorate in canon law from the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. Father Knipe, a priest in the Diocese of Tulsa, is Oklahoma's first person with a doctorate in canon law since the late 1950s.
It has been a long and winding road for Father Knipe in his Christian journey. He grew up Methodist. He was born in southern Iowa and moved to Tulsa as a youth. While in college in Tahlequah, he studied history and criminal law and found himself asking what he was going to do. He had observed the local priest, Father Jake Males, “totally at peace with the Lord.” He entered the seminary and was ordained a priest in 1988.
In 2016, Father Knipe asked and was granted a sabbatical to go to Colombia to be immersed in Spanish and to start working on his doctorate. After nearly five years of study, he finished his thesis titled, “A Canonical Historical Study of Chapter Two of the Reform of Marriage at the Council of Trent.”
Due to COVID travel restrictions, Father Knipe’s final defense of his thesis wasn’t until Dec. 15. Father Alessandro Calderoni, a priest friend from Tulsa, was there for support.
“I walked to the university where I found Father Mike, in the chapel, silent in prayer before his defense. As we walked together through the great halls of the university, I felt transformed back in time, as if going back to the times of Trent. The Aula Magna where the defense took place was truly a sight to behold,” he said.
Father Knipe has served as pastor at a number of parishes in the Tulsa area. He also served on the tribunal for the diocese. He said he is proud and modest about the work the tribunal in Oklahoma has accomplished. He thanked many people, including Archbishop Emeritus Beltran, Father Fred Schuyler, S.J., and Deacon Kasper Weigant.
Father Rick Stansberry, who serves in the marriage tribunal for the Archdioese of Oklahoma City, said, “It will be a tremendous asset for the whole state to have someone with a doctorate in canon law working with us. I am looking forward to working with him on a number of issues, and have great expectations.”
Charles Albert is a freelance writer for the Sooner Catholic.
