Introducing Our New Pastor

July 1, 2024

Please join us in welcoming Father Bill Keown (pronounced “Kown”) as our new Pastor at Saint Peter the Apostle Parish, Oakland, MD. Father Bill was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Baltimore by Archbishop William Lori at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen on June 23, 2018.

A native of Kentucky, Father Bill served 20 years in the U.S. Navy as a translator of Russian and Arabic languages. His assignments included duty aboard surface ships, submarines, and aircraft with tours in Japan, Bahrain, California, Georgia, Maryland, and Tennessee. His military career brought him to Maryland in 2007, and it was here that he began discerning the call to priesthood after his retirement from the Navy in 2009.

As a seminarian, he served in the parish communities of St. Paul in Ellicott City, the Catholic Community of South Baltimore, the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, St. Ignatius in Hickory, St. Philip Neri in Linthicum, Our Lady of the Fields in Millersville, the Baltimore Basilica, and he served his deacon year at St. Margaret in Bel Air. He attended seminary at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore where he received his Master of Divinity (M.Div.) and Bachelor of Sacred Theology (STB) degrees.

Father Bill’s first assignment was as an associate pastor in the pastorate of St. Louis Parish in Clarksville and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fulton. Archbishop Lori appointed Father Bill as Pastor of Our Lady of Victory and Catholic Chaplain to University of Maryland Baltimore County on February 15, 2020. In July 2022, Father Bill was appointed to serve as the Director of Deacon Formation for the Archdiocese of Baltimore while continuing to serve as our Pastor.