July 29, 2004

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — They came from Vietnam and Venezuela, from Poland and the Philippines and from throughout the United States.

They were widowers in their 70s, single men in their 20s and everything in between. They had worked in publishing, architecture, law and farming, and one had even been a chef.

But uniting these men was a desire to serve God as Catholic priests.

Although the total number of U.S. ordinations was not available, the priestly ordination class of 2004 represented a continuation of several recent trends in U.S. ordinations to the priesthood.

Preliminary results of an upcoming "Report on Survey of 2004 Priestly Ordinations" by Dean R. Hoge of the Life Cycle Institute at The Catholic University of America in Washington showed a rise in the average age at ordination to 37, up 2.2 years since 1998 and 0.2 years since last year's class.

Hoge also found that the percentage of new priests who were born outside the United States was continuing to rise, from 24 percent in 1998, when his research began, to 31 percent in 2004.

But each new priest had his own story to tell of the path that had led him to ordination.

Taking one of the more roundabout routes to priesthood was Father Stephen Forrest, a new priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Born to an Indian mother and a Scottish father and raised in London, he spent three years in Turkana, Kenya, with the Missionary Community of St. Paul the Apostle before beginning seminary studies in Wisconsin in 1999.

He was ordained by Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan along with Father Rafael Rodriguez, a former maritime lawyer from Venezuela.

In San Antonio, the ordination of Father Philip Chung-jin Kim was the conclusion of a path that had begun years ago in South Korea, when he worked as an office boy for war correspondents with Stars and Stripes newspaper during the Korean War. One of those correspondents brought him to Texas, where he went to college, married, had two children, was ordained a deacon and was widowed in 2001.

Now 72, the new Father Kim said his ordination was the last wish of his wife, Mary Agnes.

Another older ordinand, 70-year-old Incarnate Word Father Samuel H. Leonard, said the priesthood represents a "fuller expression of what I was doing" since he and his late wife, Mary, chose "a radical life of faith" in 1979 and he quit his job as a furnace salesman, working only odd jobs.

"We lived on no regular income," he said. "We lived totally on divine providence. I have many stories to tell (of) how God in his faithfulness took care of us."

Now serving at St. Kilian's Parish in New Bedford, Mass., the father of 10 and grandfather of 20 said that while his flock has increased in number his long-term vocation as a shepherd "remains about the same."

Father Thomas J. Mescall, 56, and one of the 14 men ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago this spring, also was married and has two children, but his 11-year marriage was annulled in 1985. He began studies for the priesthood after working as a lawyer and judge in New Mexico for many years.

Of the 14 new Chicago priests, five are from the United States, four are from Poland, two are from Mexico and one each comes from Peru, the Philippines and Vietnam. They include Father John Zurek, 43, who was a sous-chef for the Hyatt Hotel chain before he pursued the priesthood.

"My culinary background taught me that the most important thing is to treat people hospitably," he said. "If one person gets upset, they'll tell 20 people and you lose 21 customers. If one person is happy with their experience, they'll tell 20 people and you'll gain that many customers. You need to see their needs."

Another class of 14, in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., included only two U.S.-born priests, with others hailing from Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland and Singapore.

The eight new priests of the Archdiocese of Washington included new priests from El Salvador, Spain and the Philippines. But the U.S.-born contingent featured only one native Washingtonian, with the others growing up in New York, Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Miami saw the ordination of seven men in two separate ceremonies; four were ordained priests of the Archdiocese of Miami, while the other three became new priests of the Dominican religious order.

The new archdiocesan priests came from Cuba, Haiti, Poland and Puerto Rico, while the new Dominicans were from Colombia, Puerto Rico and Michigan.

Cuban-born Father Michel Garcia, 30, grew up in a town with no priests and did not make his first Communion until age 18. He credited his grandmother and mother with keeping the flame of faith alive at home.

In Orlando, Fla., Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey ordained six men from six different countries — Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Poland, Ireland and the United States.

Of the four new priests of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, three came from the United States and one from Cameroon in West Africa.

Father Ty Hullinger, a former landscape architect who became a Catholic as an adult, is the second of four boys in his family to become a priest. His brother, Father Jon Hullinger, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan.

Maryknoll Father Edward J. McGovern, a former criminal prosecutor in New York and a new priest at 48, said being the only person ordained this year as a Maryknoll priest never led him to doubt that his future lay in Maryknoll and its ministry.

Before ordination, Father McGovern's work with Maryknoll took him to Korea, China, Japan and Cambodia; he was scheduled to return to Cambodia in September to work in the AIDS ministry there.

The three new ordinands in the Archdiocese of San Francisco included a 74-year-old widower and former Wall Street wizard, a refugee from Vietnam and a former teacher of English as a second language who hails from Louisiana.

The ordination class of six in the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, was the largest group to be ordained for the diocese in 25 years. The six, from a broad range of backgrounds, call each other DB for "Diocesan Brother," as a sign of the close bonds they have forged.

"It's an honor to be ordained with these guys," said Father Michael J. Lumpe. "We have a good fraternal bond, and what better way to center your fraternity than around Christ?"

Father Daniel Hoehn, 42, said the call to the priesthood could be heard in the most unlikely places. He said he discerned his vocation while tending 10,000 hogs in his home town of Manhattan, Ill.

The Diocese of Memphis is blessed to have 16 priests from other countries working here.

• Father Mathew Joseph, M.C.B.S, , pastor of St. John Church, is from Kerala, India.

• Father Matthew Burra, A.L.C.P. from Tanzania is associate pastor of Holy Rosary Church.

• Father Mathew Joseph Panackachira, M.C.B.S., from the Emmaus Province in India is associate pastor of St. Michael Church.

• Father James Vellankal, from Thirumardy, India is associate pastor of St. Mary Church in Jackson and at St. John Church in Brownsville.

• Father Alphonso Carew, associate pastor at the Church of the Holy Spirit is from Freeman and Bo, Sierra Leone in West Africa.

• Father Faustino Maramot from Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines is serving the diocese through prison ministry.

• Father Chima Nwamadi from Nigeria is chaplain at Saint Francis Hospital.

• Father Benedict Kim, S.V.D. from Sun-Chon, Korea is serving the diocese at Sacred Heart Church.

• Father Dominic Nguyen, S.V.D. is from Viet Nam and is at Sacred Heart Church.

• Father Joseph Vu, S.V.D. from Viet Nam is pastor at Sacred Heart Church.

• Father Joseph Nguyen, associate pastor at St. Ann Church, is from Viet Nam.

The following priests are expected to arrive in Memphis over the next few weeks to serve the diocese.

• Father Francis Chiawa from Nigeria will be an associate pastor of St. Louis Church.

• Father Herbert Ene from the Diocese of Enugu-Nigeria will be an associate pastor of Holy Cross Church in Paris.

• Father Peter Makalla, A.L.C.P. from Tanzania will be an associate pastor at St. Ann Church in Bartlett.

• Father Delfin F. Manzano, who will serve as associate pastor of St. Paul Church, is from San Jose in Mindoro, Philippines.

• Father Anthony Onyekwe, from Nigeria, will be an associate pastor of St. Mary Church in Jackson.

• Father Jolly Sebastian, M.C.B.S., from India, will serve as associate pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Germantown.