Only three days after their May 25 ordination, Fathers Philip Conklin, Michael Maloney and Joseph Wappes visited their alma mater, St. Charles Borromeo School in St. Anthony.
They wanted to give something back for all they had received from the school and the St. Charles Borromeo parish community they grew up in.
“We’re baby priests — we’ve been priests for three days,” said Father Wappes, 26, to fourth and fifth graders, before launching into some memories he has of a fourth-grade project learning about U.S. states. “I did Maine, anybody do Maine?”
Father Maloney jumped in, “Delaware?” and a yes rose from one student.
Father Conklin, 36, said he remembered when the school didn’t have a playground (now there are two, he pointed out) and every student played football in the parking lot. “So, every day at recess, we just played football.”
The priests’ guide May 28 was St. Charles’ principal of 10 years, Danny Kiefer. The school is doing well, Kiefer said, growing enrollment from 246 students in 2015 to 364 students this year. In addition to the fourth and fifth graders, Kiefer led the three men on visits to kindergartners with cart races in the gym; preschoolers in a classroom; second and third graders at recess playing kickball or entering an enclosed area for gaga ball (a mix of dodgeball and handball, with the goal of hitting players below the knees to force them out of the playing area); first graders in a classroom and sixth, seventh and eighth graders eager to hear stories from the men about their decisions to pursue the priesthood.
Their visit provided a glimpse into what all 13 recently ordained priests for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are doing to serve the Church, each in their own way, even as they take a short break between their ordination Mass and their first priestly assignments effective July 1.
Father Michael Van Sloun, director of clergy personnel for the archdiocese, said the priests have a month free to be with family and friends. One common activity is attending the ordinations of men from other dioceses with whom they went to seminary, Father Van Sloun said.
“The guys love the break,” Father Van Sloun said, particularly after a minimum of eight years of study in their formation as priests.
Asked by The Catholic Spirit why they came to St. Charles Borromeo to visit with the students, 26-year-old Father Maloney — a classmate of Father Wappes’ in grade school at St. Charles, at St. John Vianney College Seminary (SJV) in St. Paul and during more studies for the priesthood in Rome — said it was “a great opportunity to give something back to the school for all it’s given me, for all the faith it instilled in me, for all it taught me.”
It also brought him hope, knowing the school continues to grow, Father Maloney said.
Father Wappes said he was filled with joy and gratitude during the visit. “Just very grateful for all the years of formation and love I received here through the teachers and classmates. And then joy at how God might use us to inspire these children and their teachers.”
Father Conklin said when he left St. Charles Borromeo after eighth grade, he didn’t feel a deep attachment to the faith. But since then, he can see more clearly that the school taught the basics of the faith clearly and well, and that priests of the parish were inspirational and “solid, so solid.”
Father Maloney and Father Wappes showed their chalices to students and explained that they were ordination gifts from family and friends. Father Maloney pointed out that his once belonged to a former pastor at St. Charles Borromeo, the late Father Paul La Fontaine. Father Wappes’ chalice was a gift from his grandparents, Richard and the late Mary Ann Hawkins.
“It is gold and silver; we want to give our best things to God,” Father Wappes said, as he explained sacred symbols on the chalice including grapes and wine, the sacred heart of Jesus and the fleur-de-lis to signify Mary.
An exchange between a first grader and Father Conklin drew laughter as the student asked Father Conklin, “Why didn’t you bring your chalice?”
“I forgot it. That’s it. I just forgot it,” said Father Conklin, in mock self-defense.
“OK, next time,” the student chided, drawing out the word time.
“Next time I promise to do my best — to try to remember — to bring my chalice,” Father Conklin said, laughing.
Father Wappes told eighth graders that during a high school visit to SJV he began taking the idea of the priesthood seriously.
One student asked if the process of becoming a priest was complicated.
“Yes, maybe,” Father Maloney said. “But people help you through it. Father (David) Blume (former director of the archdiocese’s Office of Vocations) helped us. If you think you might be called, talk to the vocations director, or Father (Troy) Przybilla (pastor of St. Charles Borromeo and a former vocations director).”
Father Conklin told the students he went to church but wasn’t particularly invested in his faith while growing up. He served in the Air Force as an air traffic controller and began to pray more.
“It’s a calling (from God),” Father Conklin said. “It’s not something you do for yourself. I didn’t want to be a priest. But I started praying a couple of years before studying to be a priest. I just heard this calling.”
