National Vocation Awareness Week, Nov. 6-12

For National Vocation Awareness Week, Nov. 6-12, the Hawaii Catholic Herald posed three questions to Father Rheo C. Ofalsa, diocesan director of vocations.

What is a priest?

In short, a (Catholic diocesan) priest is a man who, in union with his bishop, celebrates the sacraments that were instituted by Jesus Christ himself while he walked the earth in his humanity. All other actions of the priest are ancillary to that primary mission of continuing the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and Reconciliation. When a priest celebrates the sacraments, he does so in the very person of Jesus Christ. In other words, when a priest says, “This is my Body,” “This is my Blood,” or “I absolve you of your sins,” it is Jesus Christ himself who does so through his priest.

This is because Jesus Christ established an inseparable unity between his own mission and that which he entrusted to his apostles: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent me” (Mt. 10:40); “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects Him who sent me” (Lk. 10:16); “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn. 20:21). The mission of the apostles is nothing other than the mission given to Jesus Christ by the Father.

In their turn, the apostles entrusted the authority they had received from Jesus Christ to other disciples, appointing them brother bishops, priests, and deacons, in order to fulfill the command of Jesus who sent them to all people in every age. The Apostolic Tradition, unbroken since the time of Christ himself, remains with us even today.

If someone feels he has a calling to be a priest, what should he do?

The first thing that a man should do is pray. He should ask the Holy Spirit for the purification of his intentions and to desire only what it is that God desires. Second, he ought to speak with his parish priest for further guidance in his discernment. Eventually, that discussion might lead to a formal meeting with the diocesan vocations director, who will continue the process from there. While a man is in this early discernment phase, there are a few things that he should keep in mind in particular.

First, the process of discerning the call to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ involves much more than the efforts of a single individual, even by the man so called. Imagine a man who falls in love with a woman and wants to marry her. That movement toward marriage involves much more than the man’s desires and decisions. At a bare minimum, the woman whom he seeks to marry has complete freedom in accepting or rejecting any proposal that he might offer. Further, friends, family and other colleagues might also have a certain insight into the relationship of a particular couple, and their contribution to the discussion of marriage might influence how a couple moves forward toward marriage. Or they might have other advice to consider with regard to the practicalities of preparing for married life.

Similarly, becoming a priest involves much more than a man simply deciding that for himself, in isolation from discernment on the side of the church. The bishop must “say yes,” so to speak, to the man who makes his desire known to become a priest. And just as friends and others have some influence with a couple moving toward marriage, so also do the people of God — in particular, seminary faculty, brother seminarians, and others — have a contribution to make in recommending a man for the priesthood, and preparing him for priestly ministry.

Second, the fullness of a vocation is revealed through time. A man doesn’t need to know if he’s called to become a priest from day one. That knowledge will be revealed over the course of many years, within the context of his seminary experience, and through the guidance of his bishop and those to whom the bishop has entrusted his seminarians.

What is the formation process for a candidate for priesthood?

Becoming a Catholic priest entails a radical change in a man’s way of life, through which a priestly identity is formed and revealed. And like any process of growth, this takes a great deal of time. Men who are accepted as potential candidates for the Catholic priesthood for the Diocese of Honolulu can therefore expect to spend between seven to nine years as seminarians, living and studying at a seminary, prior to beginning their ministry as ordained priests of Jesus Christ.

Because the Diocese of Honolulu does not operate its own seminary, Honolulu seminarians are sent to various seminaries on the mainland. For those without a college degree, our seminarians spend their first four years at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon, majoring in philosophy with courses foundational to their future studies in sacred theology. The funding for college education is the responsibility of the college seminarian. At the end of college seminary, a man can expect to receive a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy.

In lieu of college seminary, our men who already have a bachelor’s degree would enter into the seminary program as pre-theologians at either Mount Angel or Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, California, undergoing an abbreviated two-year philosophy curriculum at cost to the Diocese of Honolulu; again attending courses designed to prepare them for future studies in sacred theology.

After college seminary or pre-theology, our men continue their studies at Saint Patrick’s Seminary in California, or Sacred Heart Seminary at Hales Corners, Wisconsin. Seminarians receive a master’s of divinity degree upon graduation from their studies in sacred theology.

Also, ordinarily after their second year of theological studies, our seminarians take what is called a “pastoral year,” during which they live and work at one of the 66 parishes in the Diocese of Honolulu, in order to gain practical experience in parish ministry. Following their pastoral year, seminarians return to the seminary for their final two years of academic studies.

At the end of his seminary “career,” if approved by all responsible parties, the bishop ordains the seminarian a priest of Jesus Christ.

This information, and other information relating to the Priesthood for the Diocese of Honolulu, can be found at http://catholichawaii.org/catholic-living/vocations/diocesan-priesthood/