Clergy Convocation provides priests with learning, fellowship

IC photo by Marie Mischel

+ Enlarge

Father Joseph Frez, who was ordained a priest in January, celebrates Mass in Saint Mary’s Old Church in Park City during the Fall Clergy Convocation.

Twice a year, priests in the Diocese of Salt Lake City gather for a week away from the demands of their parishes, praying together and expanding their knowledge on a specific theme. This year, the focus of the Fall Clergy Convocation, Oct. 4-7, was the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal, but for many of the priests the event is primarily about fellowship.

“We build fraternity, that’s first and foremost,” said Father Kenneth Vialpando, pastor of Saint Joseph Parish in Ogden. “It’s a time to rest and relax, and focus on a theme.”

Father Rick Sherman, pastor of Saint Elizabeth Parish in Central Valley, agreed. “One of the main things is to be together with the other brothers,” he said. “This is one of the few times when we get together.

The convocation is a good time for fraternity, intellectual stimulation and a chance to talk to others who share the same challenges and joys, he added. “Priesthood is a different kind of dimension, so it’s good to connect with the other guys.”

Like Fathers Vialpando and Sherman, Father Joseph Frez also saw the convocation as a time to get to know each other. As a new priest – he was ordained in January – Fr. Frez said the older priests’ years of dedication, faithfulness and hard work offer him and Father Tai Nguyen “a calm, stable and constant zeal to our priestly vocation that we are just starting.”

Fr. Nguyen also was ordained in January. He is parochial vicar of Saint George Parish; Fr. Frez is parochial vicar at Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Kearns.

Each of the newly ordained priests was the main celebrant at a Mass during the convocation. In his homily, Fr. Frez said he was frightened when he first learned he was to celebrate the Mass.

“What could a newly ordained priest say to his brother priests, who have been ordained five or 10 years, or even more than my earthly years on earth?” Fr. Frez asked. “I thought of doing an exegesis on the Gospel, but for sure there are more able Biblical scholars here than I am.”

He wanted to share some pastoral experiences, but didn’t have anything notable to relate after only two months in his parish, and he also decided against talking about spirituality and holiness, he said.

Instead, “I came up with one thing that Tai and I can claim that only the two of us possess: That is our fresh zeal to the priesthood. Newly ordained priests have so much enthusiasm, ideas and things that they want to do in the parish to the point that sometimes they become irritatingly exhausting.”

He contrasted his zeal with a study he read last year that indicated that priests suffer from obesity, hypertension and depression in higher percentages than the rest of the population.

“The fact that more and more of us are overburdened with work means that our zeal for our vocation and ministry can also diminish,” Fr. Frez said. “The more we lose our zeal, the more unfulfilled, unhealthy and unhappy we become, and the more we are unhappy, the less effective our witness to the Gospel is. If we lose our zeal and our joy in our ministry, people will not find God in us.”

To minister with zeal, he added, priests must fall in love with God, he added, and the changes to the Roman Missal can renew that zeal. “The renewal of the liturgy should also be the renewal of our being as priests… a renewal of our ministry and a renewal of our zeal to the priesthood. It should be the renewal of our relationship and love of God that ultimately will decide everything: What we do and who we are.”