With pews packed and aisles full of roughly 3,500 people at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Archbishop Bernard Hebda ordained 13 men to the priesthood, the most since 15 were ordained in 2005.
Ranging in age from 26 to 48, the men enter the priesthood with a variety of backgrounds and talents, the archbishop noted in his homily.
Father Brent Bowman, 44, for example, was in marketing, business development and product innovation; Father Philip Conklin, 36, was in the Air Force; and Father Derek Gilde, 44, had a 15-year career in social work and mental health.
“How God has prepared us is beyond our imagining,” Archbishop Hebda said. “It might still not be clear why the Lord led you to be engineers or air traffic controllers or social workers.
“It may not be clear why he gave you a love of diving, running or science. It might not be clear why he gave you a gift for languages or a soulful voice or a gift for Latin and classical languages.
“But I bet that God is going to use them all — all of those gifts. You bring all of that, all of your history with you today to the altar, and you offer it to the Lord so that he can remind this Church of his superabundant love, so that he can feed his flock in abundance.”
Referring to a passage in the last chapter of John’s Gospel that was read for the Mass — when the risen Jesus prepares a breakfast of fish for the Apostles and asks Peter three times whether Peter loves him — Archbishop Hebda said Peter’s affirmative response is met with Jesus telling Peter to “feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”
“Those statements reveal Jesus’ priority that his beloved flock would always be cared for, that they would be fed,” the archbishop said. “I’m not surprised that the Church would give us that Gospel on the occasion of an ordination.”
“Jesus is the paradigm for what it means to be a shepherd, a pastor, to be pastoral,” the archbishop said. “Jesus, the good shepherd, we hear in the Gospel today, wanted to make sure that his beloved sheep would always be fed. And so, he instituted on Holy Thursday both the Eucharist and the priesthood. They go together. They’re intimately connected.”
It was providential, the archbishop said, that the ordination was happening during the U.S. Church’s National Eucharistic Revival, “and indeed, as one of the four National (Eucharistic) Pilgrimages crosses through our archdiocese” on the way to the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis in July.
On May 24, the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance was passed from the Diocese of St. Cloud to the archdiocese, at St. Albert in Albertville, followed by a procession to St. Michael in St. Michael, Archbishop Hebda said.
“It is a beautiful reminder of Jesus’ desire to feed his flock, that it is so deep that he would give his own body and blood,” the archbishop said.
Noting the importance of the number 12 in Scripture and elsewhere — 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 12 months — Archbishop Hebda said it expresses a fullness, a perfection in God’s order. “We recently celebrated the feast of St. Matthias, who was elected to take Judas’ spot so that the number of Apostles would return to 12. Twelve is significant,” he said.
“But look at these men, my brothers and sisters. Count them. We have more than the fullness here. Thirteen men — 12 plus one. It speaks to the superabundance of Jesus’ love for his Church. Now, it’s not unlike the situation of the 12 Apostles plus our patron, St. Paul, the Apostle born out of due time. Msgr. James Shea has recently written a powerful book, ‘From Christendom to Apostolic Mission,’” the archbishop said. “My brothers, I believe that God is calling you, 13 of you, blessing this local Church with you, 13 soon to be his priests, to be priests for that apostolic mission, like those 12 Apostles and Paul.”
Priests from across the archdiocese concelebrated the Mass, along with Chorbishop Sharbel Maroun of St. Maron in Minneapolis; Auxiliary Bishop Michael Izen; Bishop Joseph Williams, coadjutor bishop of Camden, New Jersey, most recently an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis; Bishop Donald DeGrood of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, who ministered as a priest of the archdiocese; Bishop Wieslaw Spiewak of the Diocese of Hamilton in Bermuda; and Bishop Emeritus Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, a native of St. Paul who served in the archdiocese as a priest and auxiliary bishop and is now living in the Twin Cities.
Also at the Mass were permanent and transitional deacons for the archdiocese, religious brothers and sisters, members of the Knights of Columbus, seminarians, families and friends of the men being ordained and parishioners from across the archdiocese.
“We’ve got people from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the South, from the Midwest, all over. … We’re three generations of family here and it’s amazing,” said Jan George of West Fargo, North Dakota, a sister of Father Bowman’s mother, Peggy, about their family gathering for the ordination.
Peggy Bowman, of Fargo, North Dakota, and George said their family had prayed for decades for a priestly vocation. Bowman said she prayed intensely when Father Bowman told her in 2000 that he thought the Lord might be calling him to the priesthood.
“I prayed for 18 years,” Bowman said of the years before her son entered the seminary.
Family supporting Father Chris Yanta, 29, included his 25-year-old sister, Alice Yanta, a member of St. Timothy in Maple Lake. She teared up thinking about the beauty of the day. Asked what was going through her heart and mind, she said, “Joy, a lot of joy. He’s where he belongs.”
Friends and family also gathered to support Fathers Frankie Floeder, 26; Hjalmar Gudjonsson, 48; Michael Maloney, 26; Sean Mulcare, 28; Michael Panka, 35; Alexander Rasset, 26; Ryan Sustacek, 26; Nicholas Vance, 27; and Joseph Wappes, 26.
Sarah Nigbor of Menomonie, Wisconsin, was in the congregation with her husband, Shane, their four children and her mother, Carol Matara. A friend of Father Gilde’s since kindergarten in River Falls, Wisconsin, Sarah Nigbor said “I am so happy for Derek. I feel like he is doing what he is meant to do in life. I am so proud of him.”
Steve Sustacek — Father Sustacek’s father — said he had never seen his son happier than at the ordination Mass. Father Sustacek’s mother, Jennifer, said her son is a blessing. “We raised him, we taught him, but today he taught us what is important: to be good to people, to love the Lord.”
Rebecca Omastiak and Anna Wilgenbusch of The Catholic Spirit contributed to this report.
