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June 18, 2007 • VOL. 45, NO. 12 • Oakland, CA
Priests celebrate ordination jubilees
65
YEARS OF PRIESTLY SERVICE |
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FATHER MATTHIAS LU Birthplace: Hebei Province, North
China |
| I
can say that I was born a “boy-priest” because I was born
and lived in a house which served the missionary fathers as a House
Church. Under the encouragement of my mother I always wanted to become
a priest so I could distribute the sacraments as the missionary fathers
were doing. When I was about 8 years old, I was appointed once to preach the Gospel on a platform in a crossroad during a festival procession around the streets of Our Lady of China Parish in Donglu near Beijing and Baoding. I learned the Latin prayers to serve Mass and in turn I taught Chinese to young missionaries newly arrived from France and Holland. From them I began to learn English and French as well. At this same time, in my father’s library I found Saint Thomas Aquinas’ “Summa Theologica,” for which I experienced a deep fascination with an irresistible attraction. Ever since, the priestly life and the scholarly intellectual life in me are intertwined into one life inseparably throughout these 88 years. I entered the seminary when I was 9 and spent eight years of study under incredibly difficult social and political circumstances. I felt providentially liberated when an Italian ship transported me from Shanghai to Italy in 1937. I was ordained in Rome in 1942 in the midst of World War II. I returned to China in 1946 to teach in the Catholic University of Peking and began translating the works of Aristotle, Aquinas, and the Church Fathers into Chinese. I was sent to Toronto to do research and when the war in China cut off all my support, I volunteered to serve at a parish in Thorold, Ontario, which has been the center of my priestly life to this day. My priestly services have always been multilingual. It is a pleasant memory of my saying Mass with the French-speaking Vietnamese refugees at the end of the Vietnam War, when they arrived in Hayward and Oakland, and working with the newly established Korean community in San Leandro. My Italian ministry brought me into contact with numerous Italian groups in Nova Scotia and the Acadian coast as well as the Italian Catholic Federation in the Bay Area. Their success also makes me feel grateful for the gift of my priesthood I received from Rome. |
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| 60
YEARS OF PRIESTLY SERVICE |
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FATHER DOMINGOS JAQUES Birthplace: Cuncolim
Salcete, Goa, India |
| During
my priestly life I found joy and fulfillment in my ministry even though
I suffered with a great deal of pain, especially when I was assigned
to serve in different countries. I have been in America now for almost
42 years. I have always loved the people who were assigned to me, especially the sick, bedridden and the CCD children, and I could very much feel their return of love for me. When I was pastor at St. Ambrose Parish, I realized that my homebound parishioners only received Meals on Wheels during the week. I started a committee of volunteers to provide meals on Sundays, which continues to this day. During the first week of each month, I visited these parishioners; the Eucharistic ministers took the sacrament to them the remaining weeks of each month. I am now 88 years old and it is the joy that my ministry enabled me to give of myself that has meant the most to me. If anyone were to ask me today if I would be a priest in this difficult time, I would tell them that I would choose the priesthood over any other profession. I now say Mass at my home with the help of my caretaker who does the readings. I am happy and continue to enjoy my priesthood. |
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MSGR. WILLIAM J. MULLEN Birthplace: San
Francisco, California |
| I
was ordained June 14, 1947, by Archbishop John Mitty, in the old San
Francisco Cathedral. Thus began 60 years of service in the Church.
It has been a time of great happiness, great fulfillment, and I hope great service to the people of God. I have never regretted my choice and I'd do it all over again. God's love for me has been unbelievable. His gift of the Eucharist has been the outstanding event of my life, as is the devotion to the Blessed Mother. I hope that I have done some good, and for this I thank God. The 60 years have gone by in a flash, and my gratitude to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is total. |
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50
YEARS OF PRIESTLY SERVICE |
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FATHER DANIEL CARDELLI Birthplace:
Fall River, Massachusetts |
| Fifty
years looking ahead may be a long way off. Fifty years looking back
is a short time. The life of a priest is hard work, but most fulfilling. I cannot think of anything else I would rather be than a priest of Jesus Christ. The role is never boring or dull. It is exciting because I, as a priest, deal with people's lives from their moment of birth to the day of death. My greatest joy and strength comes from the privilege and awe of celebrating Mass. I said "Wow" 50 years ago and I still say "Wow" today. I thank God for my parents, my family, teachers and priest friends. I owe special thanks to Bishop John Cummins for his friendship and support. Thanks, also, to the many special people and friends in my life over the years, especially those in St. Isidore Parish who helped and supported me as pastor. Would I do it all over again? Most definitely, yes! |
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FATHER THOMAS LESTER Birthplace: Portland,
Oregon |
| These
50 years in which I have been given the gift of priesthood have been
one marvelous moment of grace in which the Lord has uncovered for
us the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price. The treasure that
God reserved for this generation was given in the person of Angelo
Giuseppe Roncalli, Bishop of Rome as Pope John XXIII. He urged us to pray for a new Pentecost. He showed us how to attend to the Holy Spirit, God's surpassing gift. He gave us the Ecumenical Council, where, in the midst of hard labor, Mother Church rejoiced as the Spirit opened up for us the good news of the Gospel. For the unspeakable gift of priestly ministry I can only utter my feeble "Thanks" to God, the Holy One, blessed is He. For the gift of priesthood in this moment of grace I must say, "Praise Him!" To you who are in Christ, I add that my thanks to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, includes you. Thanks to you who have so patiently supported my being a priest. Together we praise and thank the source of all blessings! |
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| 40
YEARS OF PRIESTLY SERVICE |
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FATHER Birthplace: Cincinnati,
Ohio |
| Except
for one year in a parish, I have served as a priest in an education
or formation setting. The spirituality, rule, tradition and community
of the Marist Fathers and Brothers have always been the context, inspiration
and support for me in presbyteral ministry. As a Marist, I try to be a priest according to the mind and heart of Mary, Mother of Mercy. Father Jean Claude-Colin, founder of the Society of Mary, the Marists, called upon all Marists to serve the Church in complete obedience to the Holy Father, with honor and respect for the bishop, in cooperation with the diocesan clergy and with the highest esteem for other religious. |
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FATHER SEAMUS FARRELL Birthplace: Birmingham,
England |
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FATHER RICHARD MANGINI Birthplace: Concord,
California |
| My
vocation to the priesthood came to me as a child. I remember walking
to Sunday Mass as a very small child with an older teenage cousin.
My mother stayed at home with younger children and my father worked. I remember being drawn into the liturgy of the old Tridentine Mass and to personal prayer. I went to catechism, and then to Queen of All Saints School when it opened in 1949. And as was the custom then, I entered the minor seminary high school of St. Joseph's College in 1954. Over the 40 years of living and practicing priesthood, I have come to understand its essence as a wonderful, powerful and simple reality – to live and show the life-giving and healing love of God. That is the work of the ministry given to the Church, celebrated in its liturgies and demonstrated in countless actions of service. And to do it wholeheartedly and enthusiastically – in the Roman Catholic tradition. That has been my vocation from the beginning and it has been my life for the last 40 years. I think that I have grown and matured over those 40 years. I can remember the nervousness and awkwardness of the beginning years, but now I am very much myself and a priest for Jesus Christ. I have perfected the skills, have become a good priest and do well what God called me to be and to do. I do hope that someone else who reads this will want to do what God called me to do over 60 years ago. |
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25
YEARS OF PRIESTLY SERVICE |
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FATHER MARIO BORGES Birthplace: Island
of Faial, Azores, Portugal |
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FATHER SAL MACIAS Birthplace: Durango,
Mexico |
