“Priests are called to more! The priesthood is an extraordinary life—a challenge, an adventure lived with God, serving His Church.” When you visit the clepriesthood.org website, you are greeted with this message.
As a Church, we are certainly blessed with numerous accounts of how priests lived an adventure with God and enriched the Church and the spiritual lives of others. On October 15, I was blessed to go on a bus trip to St. Anthony Chapel in Pittsburgh, where 5,000 relics are housed. You can see some of them in the photo below…
It was there that we learned about the life of Fr. Suitbert Mollinger. Fr. Mollinger was a Belgian-born priest who was the driving force behind the construction of St. Anthony’s Chapel and its collection of relics. He was born into a wealthy family and was a medical doctor before he received his call to the priesthood. He was devoted to collecting relics and traveled throughout Europe to save them from being destroyed during the Nationalism movement. He was known as a great healing priest who used the relics in his prayer to help heal the sick. Born of wealth, he used his own funds to construct the chapel. Here’s a great example of a man who served the Church on so many levels. In Hebrews, we hear that “every high priest is taken from among men and made their representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb 5:1). Fr. Mollinger is a great example of a priest who offered the gift of himself—even all his wealth—for the good of the community. Here is his picture (with quite the beard!).
Continue to pray for Deacon Ryan Arto and Seminarian Josh Stecz, as they continue in their seminary formation. Also, welcome Christopher Villarreal, a Pre-Theology student from St. Sebastian in Akron, who will be giving a vocation talk at every Mass this weekend.
Thank you for supporting vocations by way of prayer and by being bold in giving our young men the encouragement they need to answer God’s call to serve the Church.
Thank you for your prayers and encouragement,
Fr. Jeremy