Newly ordained Paulist priest celebrates Thanksgiving Mass at home parish in Layton

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Paulist Father Evan Cummings celebrates a Mass of Thanksgiving May 26 at St. Rose of Lima Parish, where he was baptized. Concelebrants are Father Clarence Sandoval, pastor; and Paulist Fathers Charles Brunick and Michael Kallock, who were pastors at the parish in the 1980s. Fr. Evan was ordained a priest on May 18 by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York, the mother church of the Paulist Fathers.

LAYTON — In a homecoming of sorts, Paulist Father Evan Cummings celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving on May 26 at St. Rose of Lima Parish, where he was baptized as a child and where his parents remain active in various ministries.

Concelebrating the Mass were Fr. Clarence Sandoval, pastor; and two Paulist priests who were former pastors, Fr. Michael Kallock, CSP and Fr. Charles Brunick, CSP. Fr. Evan’s parents, Kevin and Kit Cummings, were lectors at the Mass of Thanksgiving.

Fr. Evan was ordained a priest on May 18 by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, the mother church of the Paulist Fathers in New York City.  

Fr. Evan grew up in Clearfield. After earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Utah State University, he joined the Paulists and received a Master of Divinity degree from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

At the Mass of Thanksgiving, he said was he was honored to celebrate one of his first Masses as a priest at St. Rose of Lima Parish. He thanked the congregation for attending and for their prayers.

“Thanks so much. It means the world to me. It means more than I can truly ever express,” he said. “Thank you so  much for all of your prayers and support of me.”

In addition, he thanked the parish’s Knights of Columbus for their support of his seminarian education, and his concelebrants. He added special thanks to his friends and family who were in attendance, and he thanked his parents for the gift of a chalice and paten, which are traditional gifts given to a newly ordained priest.

Fr. Sandoval, who first met Fr. Evan when the older priest was pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Logan, where USU is located, said he was grateful to have walked with the younger priest on his journey. “I think it’s a gift to walk with someone who listened to that call, and responds to that call,” he said. “And now he’s going to be a gift not only to his family but a gift to St. Rose of Lima [Parish], but also to the Paulists. …”

Although St. Rose of Lima Parish was founded by the Paulist Fathers in 1948 and Paulist priests led the parish until 1989, Fr. Evan was unaware of this connection when he was discerning his call to the priesthood. He discovered the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, the formal name of the Paulist Fathers, while researching religious orders on Wikipedia.

The first religious community of priests created in North America, the order was founded in New York City in 1858 by Servant of God Isaac Thomas Hecker.

Fr. Mike, who was pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish from 1980 to 1986, said he thinks there is a spiritual connection between the founders of the parish and Fr. Evan’s vocation. “Through God, everything is connected,” he said, “It all fits together.”

For his first priestly assignment, Fr. Evan has been appointed the associate director of St. Thomas More Newman Center at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.