PRAIRIE DU CHIEN — Fr. Paul Fagan, CP, a native of the Diocese of Madison area, is celebrating 55 years of ordination to the priesthood.
Father Paul was ordained on June 11, 1960, at Maryknoll, N.Y. He was assigned to the Diocese of Shinyanga in what was then Tanganyika Territory, now Tanzania.
After 47 years as a missionary, he was incardinated into the Diocese of Shinyanga, in which he has served all of his 55 years as a priest.
Friday, June 26, will be a day of great joy in the Diocese of Madison. On that day, Bishop Robert C. Morlino will ordain six men to the priesthood at St. Maria Goretti Church in Madison
MADISON — Worldwide Marriage Encounter in the Diocese of Madison and the Madison Serra Club are joining efforts to celebrate priests on Sunday, Oct. 26, observed as Priesthood Sunday.
In cooperation with the diocesan Office of Vocations, volunteers with Marriage Encounter and the Serra Club are sending cards to all priests in the diocese.
For 11 years, Worldwide Marriage Encounter has proclaimed a World Priest Day to honor the men who have dedicated their lives to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church through the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Consider a newly ordained Pallottine priest whom skeptics thought would never make it to the priesthood. This same man, a kindly looking person with a flowing white beard, within a century established a Marian renewal movement in the Church that touches all continents.
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A special grace of my priesthood is the privilege of participating in the annual Diocesan Presbyteral Assembly held at Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells from September 21 to 24.
The Presbyteral Assembly grew out of the landmark Madison Diocese Emmaus retreat in 1980, which was intended to bolster the spiritual lives of us priests. It did.
Since I was in high school work at Beloit Catholic High, I rarely was able to attend diocesan functions, but I was free during summers. During summer school, I learned that this was also true of priests who taught high school in other dioceses. I was happy that Bishop Cletus F. O’Donnell asked all active priests to attend.
Msgr. Frank Bognanno of the Diocese of Des Moines was chosen to lead the Emmaus retreat. The bishop of Des Moines was Bishop Bullock, who later became our bishop. Father Frank returned to Madison for Bishop Bullock’s anniversary celebration. He also led an inspiring priests’ retreat in 2002.
As many regular readers know well, the Catholic Herald celebrated the recently-concluded Year of Faith by publishing a variety of articles, stories, and information to assist the faithful of the Diocese of Madison in rediscovering and deepening their knowledge and practice of authentic Catholic faith.
One of the periodic features that the Herald offered during the Year of Faith was called “From the Archives,” in which full or partial articles from across the 65-year history of the Madison edition of the paper were reprinted.
In the process of preparing these features, I have spent a good amount of time pouring through the extensive archival records of the paper and have been surprised and fascinated by what I learned about life and activities in the diocese from 1946 to the present day.
The December 9 observance of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was a special one for three men.
Bishop Robert C. Morlino encouraged everyone to appreciate the “beauty” of the priesthood as he prepared to ordain Deacons Vincent Bryan Brewer, Garrett Buchanan Kau, and Stephen Christopher Petrica to the priesthood for the Diocese of Madison on May 24 at St. Maria Goretti Church.
Dear Friends,
“The love of Christ compels us (2 Cor 5:14),” says the second letter to the Corinthians. That love, which is made manifest to us in the person of Christ, is the most beautiful thing that there could ever be. It is beautiful because God is love. He is love and He is beauty itself.
Our three new priests in the Diocese of Madison seem to be following trends, according to a survey of priests being ordained in the United States this year.
Fr. Vincent Brewer, one of our newly ordained priests, has a degree in technical communication management and worked in the telecommunications industry before he entered the seminary. He attended Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Mass., which prepares candidates for the priesthood between the ages of 30 and 60.
Another of our new priests, Fr. Stephen Petrica, was ordained an Anglican priest and decided to enter the Catholic Church. He then sought to become a Catholic priest and was accepted by the Diocese of Madison. He studied at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.
Our third newest priest, Fr. Garrett Kau, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He did not follow the later vocation path, since he became involved at St. Paul’s University Catholic Center at the university. He attended a men’s retreat featuring a panel of priests speaking about their vocations. After that, he looked into Church vocations and “decided to take the plunge” and apply for seminary studies.
By and large, the age of men feeling the call to the priesthood is gradually increasing, as reported in a new study released by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and reported in an article by Catholic News Service.
