Catholic Standard and Times - Vocations Supplement

Whether they responded to an early or a late vocation, all four of the folowing priests credit the exemplary witness of a priest in their own life with helping them to say “yes” to God’s call.

Father Michael Picard
When Father Michael Picard realized he might have a priestly vocation, he was just a few weeks away from finishing high school and preparing to enter Drexel University.

Father Picard, who has been the pastor of St. Andrew Parish in Newtown for the past 19 years, expected to pursue a career in medicine.

Then his pastor asked him about his plans. He also asked the young graduate-to-be whether he had ever thought about being a priest.

He hadn’t. He was going to be a doctor, and that was that.

But two weeks later, Father Picard went to visit his pastor, and told him that he could not stop thinking about the priesthood since their conversation.

In what seemed a hasty decision at the time, Father Picard entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary to discern whether he should become a priest instead of heading to Drexel University. The rest is history.

“I saw it as an opportunity to respond to what God was calling me to do,” Father Picard said.

He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese on May 21, 1966, and his first assignment was at Corpus Christi Parish in North Philadelphia, where he was assistant pastor.

Since then, he’s worked in an office of the Archdiocese, served as the principal of Lansdale Catholic High School and taught and served as vice principal at Cardinal O’Hara High School.

Now he sees his role first and foremost as a father to his spiritual family at St. Andrew, providing for their spiritual needs through the sacraments.

“My happiest moments are to see people celebrating the Eucharist on Sunday and participating in many of the ministries we have,” Father Picard said.

He continues to be interested in medicine and serves as a board member for St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, but Father Picard realizes that his calling was to become a spiritual doctor.

“There is a great need for healing of people’s souls,” he said. In addition to the sacraments, according to Father Picard, “priests can provide a great sense of healing for those in need … through spiritual counseling, preaching and adult faith formation.”

Father Armand Garcia
Father Armand Garcia, on the other hand, began to think about becoming a priest as a fourth-grade boy, but it was many years before he answered the call.

“There was one monsignor — he was my pastor. And he was five-feet, but he had a huge smile and always seemed happy,” said Father Garcia, who is now parochial vicar at St. Joseph Parish in Downington. “His faith and his demeanor stuck with me, and when I was young, I thought, ‘Someday I’m going to be like him.’ Like any normal boy, I would play and pretend to be a priest.”

But it was not until he was 30 years old and a business owner in his home country of the Philippines that Father Garcia followed up on his childhood attraction to the priesthood.

“In the end, I thought I was going to be in the Philippines. I thought I was done with school,” he said. “I thought if I was a priest, I’d be a priest in the Philippines, and America would just be my vacation spot. Then I ate all my words,” he said with a laugh. “I’m living here. I studied again, and I’m a priest of this Archdiocese.”

He returned to Philadelphia because his mother was in the city, and he never left again.

Ordained in 2005, Father Garcia says his priestly life is “like a box of chocolates.”

He says he cannot be happier, whether he’s offering the sacraments, ministering to the small Filipino community in his parish, working with young couples preparing for marriage, or working with his young parishioners.

“Yes, the people get their leadership and inspiration from priests,” he said. “But at the same time, we, the priests, get our inspiration from the different members of the parish. This is a big parish, so you really see saintly parishioners out there. You also see a lot of families, and that really excites and energizes us.”

Father Charles Zlock
Father Charles Zlock feels enthusiasm about the young people to whom he ministers as chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania’s Newman Center, and as assistant pastor at St. Agatha and St. James Church in the city’s University City section.

“We have close to 1,000 students that attend Mass every week — which is pretty remarkable when you know that people are saying, ‘How do we get young people to Mass?’” Father Zlock said.

“And they do everything,” he said: “Lector, music, sing. Eucharistic ministers, acolytes. I am one of four priests who helps, encourages and trains them for that.”

In addition, many of the upper classmen at Penn attend retreats to foster their own spirituality, and then plan and lead a yearly retreat for the incoming freshmen, Father Zlock said.

The students also run Bible study, rosary and catechetical groups, attend Eucharistic adoration, and run an ecumenical and interfaith group to help foster peace and understanding on campus. There are also various projects to aid the poor and needy in the community, he added.

Father Zlock has long known how powerful young Catholics can be.
He, himself, did not become a priest until he was in his 30s, when he encountered the young adult charismatic group in Philadelphia that was led by now-retired Msgr. Vincent Walsh, whose witness changed his life.

“They were having monthly charismatic meetings and it wasn’t unusual to have between 100 and 300 people there,” he said.

At that time, Father Zlock was a young professional in the midst of a career crisis. One day, on his way to visit a friend, he began praying about what to do.

He had never even thought of the priesthood, but as he was driving, he received the call. Two months later, he entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

He was ordained in 1994, and he has never looked back.

“I make a distinction between ‘the vocation’ and ‘the assignment,’” he said. “Even when I have had some rough assignments, and bad days, I have never, blessedly, questioned the vocation.”

Father Stephen Thorne
Father Stephen Thorne was born into a large and strong Catholic family of eight brothers and sisters and faith-filled parents. His uncle, Father Vance Z. Thorne, S.V.D., a Philadelphian, was a priest of the Society of the Divine Word missionaries, which was rare for African-Americans at the time.

His uncle’s joy and enthusiasm in his vocation made an impression on Father Thorne as a boy and a young man, which would later lead him on the same path into the priesthood.

His uncle was present for his ordination in 1998, and shared with Father Thorne all the priestly wisdom learned from his own 51 years of experience before his death two years ago.

Father Thorne also credits the priests at his childhood parish, Our Lady of the Holy Souls, for fostering his vocation.

“I wanted to do something of service, so with these influences, I pursued the priesthood,” said Father Thorne, who is now the director of the Office for Black Catholics and the pastor of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus Parish in Philadelphia. “The priesthood is a gift from God, and its about service and drawing people closer to the Lord,” he said.

In his nine years as a priest, Father Thorne has served as parochial vicar at St. Katherine Parish in Chester, which is a large, multiethnic parish, and taught at the former Saint John Neumann High School for Boys. In his present assignment in the Office for Black Catholics, he works to bring the Church to more African-Americans, while also bringing their unique gifts to the Church.

And as a pastor at St. Thérèse, he is continually humbled when he realizes how “God uses an ordinary kid from a row home in Philadelphia to give His love and hope to the Church.”

Father Thorne said he tries to emulate the many happy, healthy, holy priests who influenced him, in the hope that he, too, will someday lead other African-American men to the priesthood.

CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith can be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.

Seminarians on vocations:
‘You’re gradually turning the volume up on God’s voice’

WYNNEWOOD — When Charles Ravert was a boy, he marveled at super heroes as he pored over his favorite comic books.

“I always compared priests to super heroes,” he said. Ravert, now 20 and a seminarian in second college at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, was raised in St. John the Baptist Parish in the Manayunk section of the city.

He was a fourth-grader at St. John the Baptist School when he began pondering what to be when he grew up. “I put the priesthood on the list with everything else — from being an astronaut to the president,” he said.

That same year, Ravert came to a deeper understanding of what it means to be of service to others.

“The priesthood was the only one that seemed rooted in reality,” he said. When he realized that, the priesthood trumped even the presidency.

An alumnus of Mercy Vocational High School in Philadelphia, he served as an altar server from sixth grade until he was in college.

Ravert encountered a few detours before he entered the seminary. During his first two years in high school, he pushed thoughts of the priesthood to the back burner. In his junior year in high school, he became a certified nursing assistant, and was earning good money. He also had a girlfriend. Still, he knew he had a decision to make about his future.

“The priesthood was lingering in the back of my mind, coming off the back burner,” he said. “But it felt like a weight. I felt like Atlas carrying the world on my shoulders.”

After high school, he attended Community College of Philadelphia for a year on a scholarship.

After more prayer and discussions with priests, he said, what had been the stressful burden of a priestly vocation “started turning into a joy to carry. I just needed to go in full force and do it.”

That he did. The priests who helped him in his discernment process includes Father James R. Casey, now a parochial vicar at St. Madeline Parish in Ridley Park.

“The Seminary’s fantastic,” Ravert said. “I had never lived away from home before. Once I got into the groove of the schedule, and of getting to know the guys really well, it felt like a family more than a school or an institution.”

In addition to his seminarian brothers, Ravert appreciates the priest mentors on campus and the fact that a chapel is just a short walk from his room.

Praying before the Blessed Sacrament helps in his discernment, he said: “Just knowing that He is there … I can really [hear] Him calling me more and more in the chapel. …

“Hopefully, one day it will even get to the point where He’s, like, screaming in my ear. It’s like you’re gradually turning the volume up on God’s voice.”

Ever since John Weber was a child — he is now a seminarian in third theology at St. Charles — he knew he wanted to be a priest.
Like many boys, he used to play priest, but his vocation started to crystalize when his father, Robert, converted to the Catholic faith while Weber was in grade school.

“I remember him receiving the sacraments,” and how much joy that brought him, Weber said. “I thought, that’s really what I want to do — to bring people to the faith, and give them the sacraments as well.”

Now Weber, who turns 26 on Jan. 14, has come to a deeper understanding of what the priesthood really is: “It’s a very attractive life, being able to imitate Christ and be Christ for other people, and to celebrate the sacraments for them.”

Weber, who belongs to SS. Philip and James Parish in Exton, said his favority subject is systematic theology.

The biggest challenge of being a seminarian is also its biggest blessing, he said: “The life is so counter-cultural to what everyone else in the world seems to be doing.” At the same time, it can be a blessing for a man discerning his call to be surrounded by like-minded people, Weber said — and to be “in an environment where you have daily Mass … available to you.”

Addisalem Mekonnen, 26, a seminarian in first college, was also able to hear his call to the priesthood through prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. He often visited the perpetual adoration chapel in his parish, St. Francis de Sales in Southwest Philadelphia.
A native of Ethiopia and a convert to Catholicism, he is an alumnus of his parish grade school. He graduated from a public high school, and also attended Community College of Philadelphia before entering St. Charles.

So far, he thinks it’s a good fit. “I feel right at home. I feel a deep sense of peace,” he said.

Mekonnen appreciates the support of his pastor, Father Zachary W. Navit, “a cheerful priest. … I’ve learned a lot from him.”

“I really feel that I’m called to become a priest,” Mekonnen added. “I want to serve Christ through His people. God willing I become a priest, I want to sanctify souls and help people to attain holiness, and to serve Christ through all stages of life.”

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.

WYNNEWOOD — Father Christopher B. Rogers, the director of the Vocation Office for Diocesan Priesthood, sees himself as a “facilitator of the Holy Spirit” — and not a recruiter — for young men discerning whether they have a call to the priesthood.

His office on the campus of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, he says, is really “less an office, and more a window through which young men can come and see the gift of priesthood and God’s call in their life.”

When Father Rogers first meets with a young man in the process of discernment, he strives to put him at ease and assures the young man he is not signing on a dotted line that day. Many such visitors have begun their inquiry by checking out the vocation office’s Web site and, in fact, Father Rogers recommends it as an early point of contact with his office. Other men are referred to him by priests they know.

Either way, when they meet him, he said, he makes sure “they know quite clearly that in speaking to me, they’re not going to be forced into anything. I’ll state to them, from the beginning, that I’m not a recruiter — that I can’t ‘give’ them a vocation.”

Rather, Father Rogers said, “we talk about what’s happening in his life. He often will share thoughts of the priesthood. That’s a huge step” — particularly for a young man still reluctant to let others know he thinks he may be hearing God’s call.

“Here, you can talk to a priest who’s familiar with these things,” he said, “and that’s usually a big help.”

Father Rogers describes what a priestly vocation really is, and what such a vocation might mean to his young visitor. He describes life at the Seminary, and takes each young man on a tour of St. Charles to see seminarians immersed in prayer, study and recreation.

Before each young man leaves, Father Rogers suggests that he continue his discernment through prayer, spiritual direction and Church-related service projects. He might ask someone who teaches CCD, for example, to view that work in the light of a possible vocation as a priest. He also invites each visitor to discernment days and nights, and to retreats sponsored by his office.

“God is already at work in the hearts of these men, but often they don’t really see how, or what it might mean — what God’s inviting them to,” he said. “In accompanying them along the way, in listening to them, I just try to point out what might be the invitation that is before them.

“Knowing that I do not ‘give’ the vocation — it’s not for me to ‘recruit’ them — it certainly is for me to facilitate what I believe God might be inviting them to.”

For more information, contact Father Rogers at (610) 667-5778 or e-mail: frcrogers@adphila.org. Access the vocation office Web site at www.heedthecall.org.

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.

Priesthood discernment days and nights in the Archdiocese

Priesthood discernment programs at the Archdiocesan Office Center in Philadelphia and at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, sponsored by the Archdiocese’s Vocation Office for Diocesan Priesthood:

Discernment Gatherings
Semi-monthly gatherings to pray, discuss and explore the priestly call of Christ.

• 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Monday of the month from February through May at the Archdiocesan Office Center, 222 N. 17th St., Philadelphia.

St. Charles Overnight
March 7-8 (Friday-Saturday; registration begins at 5 p.m. Friday.)
April 5-6 (Saturday-Sunday; registration begins at 5 p.m. Saturday.)

May 16-17 (Friday-Saturday; registration begins at 5 p.m. Friday.)
The overnight on the campus of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood gives young men who are at least 16 years old the opportunity for liturgical and communal prayer, private prayer, Eucharistic Adoration and a period of quiet reflection.

It also affords the young men the chance to meet with other participants, priests and seminarians from St. Charles.

The May 16-17 overnight includes the priesthood ordination of St. Charles’ Class of 2008 at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 17, at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter & Paul in Philadelphia, and concludes at noon Saturday.

Vocation Retreat at St. Charles
February 22, 23, 24 (Friday-Sunday)
The retreat on the campus of St. Charles Seminary begins with dinner at 5:15 p.m. Friday and concludes at noon Sunday.

The weekend is geared to young men, ages 17 to 24, who are discerning a vocation to the diocesan priesthood and would like more information about Seminary life, prayer and how to continue the discernment process.

There will be conferences, panel discussions, quiet time, free time for gym and participation in the community prayer of the Seminary.

For more information and to register for all programs, contact Father Christopher B. Rogers, director of the Vocation Office for Diocesan Priesthood, at (610) 667-5778 or e-mail frcrogers@adphila.org. Access the vocation office’s Web site at www.heedthecall.org.

— Compiled by Christie L. Chicoine, CS&T Staff Writer