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Eight men ordained priests for archdiocese; one is married
New priests include one from Poland, one from Mexico
By Anna Maria Basquez
The Archdiocese of Denver on the morning of May 21 ordained its first married priest in a class of eight that several in attendance also said is notable for its camaraderie.
Father Dennis Garrou, a former Anglican priest, was among the ordained. Married and the father of three, he became Catholic two years ago. His ordination required approval by Pope Benedict XVI. While other married Catholic priests have been ordained in other parts of the country, and one such priest is serving in the diocese, this is the first ordination of its kind for the Denver Archdiocese.
“It’s seldom that we will welcome the wife of a Catholic priest,” said ordaining prelate Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., after he greeted the immediate family members of the men, including Father Garrou’s spouse Jill, at the altar during the liturgy.
“We’re also grateful to the Episcopal church and other Christian churches that helped in the formation of Father Dennis Garrou. This is an opportunity to pray for the unity of the church,” the archbishop said. “We ask the Lord to accomplish what we’re not able to accomplish on our own.”
The newly ordained priests include Father Michael Bodzioch, Father Geronimo Gonzalez, Father Brian Larkin, Father John Nepil, Father Gregg Pedersen, Father Brady Wagner, Father Grzegorz Wojcik and Father Garrou.
Mass concelebrants included Denver Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley, Bishop R. Walker Nickless of Sioux City, Iowa; Bishop Joseph Martino, retired bishop of Scranton, Pa.; Msgr. Michael Glenn, rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, and Very Rev. Florian Martin-Calama, rector of Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary.
Father Garrou afterward said the archbishop and everyone he encountered in the archdiocese was gracious as he sought ordination. The Promises of the Elect and laying prostrate before the altar during the Litany of Supplication were highlights of the ordination rites for him, he said.
“It gave me an opportunity to collect myself and pray to the saints,” he said. “The whole morning was beautiful.”An estimated 1,000 people filled the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to standing room only.
“I knew if I didn’t get here by 7 a.m., I wouldn’t get a seat,” said Peter Franckowiak, 67, of Littleton, who stood in the back.
Evan Miller, 19, of Lakewood, stepped into the cathedral’s west door 15 minutes before the start of the 10 a.m. Mass.
“You walk one step (in the door) and that’s about as far as you’ll get,” said Miller, who was there to see Father Nepil ordained. Of Father Nepil, he said: “He’s been instrumental in the faith formation of my teenage years. He gave me a good example of living your faith as a young man, showing me enthusiasm about the faith.”
“It increases my faith when I can be at an ordination,” Franckowiak said. “(It’s) a very special day for the whole Church when a priest is ordained. Without our priests, there would be no sacraments, no blessings, no Eucharist. It invigorates the faith to see it.”
Christina Lynch, staff psychologist at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary said the fact that so many of the ordained were local brought many friends, family members and fellow parishioners to the ordination.
“This particular class is very tight,” she said. “They’ve remained very close friends. They have a great spirit about them—a great spirit of community, friendship and priestly heart. They have a lot of commonality, especially in their spirit and love for the Church.”
Fathers Gonzalez, Larkin, Nepil, Pedersen and Wagner attended the Denver Archdiocese’s St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. Father Wojcik attended the archdiocese’s Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary. Father Bodzioch was in formation at Blessed John XXIII Seminary in Massachusetts. Father Garrou’s formation was through the Pastoral Provision for former Anglican clergy and was overseen by Bishop Conley.
Learning should be through the duration of a priest’s life, Archbishop Chaput said during his homily.
“You need to revel in the astonishment of this moment over what the Lord will do with you and through you,” he told the ordinates. He reminded them that Jesus comforted the lowly, the broken-hearted and prisoners and that they must do the same while being messengers of the Gospel.
“Yours is an extraordinary task that cannot be completed without the presence of Jesus in your life,” Archbishop Chaput said. He urged them to remember the importance of developing their Christian life further.
“Your formation has not ended,” he said. “In some ways, it has just begun.”
The archbishop told the men to be attentive to their ministries and to remember that they are servants.
“Jesus warned his disciples, we cannot be brothers to one another unless we are men who are humble,” Archbishop Chaput said.
“We are raised in Christ,” he added, “but it doesn’t mean you’re made more important. In being lifted up, others can see you ... not better, but clearer.
“See that you believe what you read, teach what you believe and, most of all, practice what you teach,” Archbishop Chaput said.
For Father Gonzalez and Father Wojcik, of Mexico and Poland, respectively, there were people translating for their families. Archbishop Chaput said he was grateful that Father Gonzalez can speak both English and Spanish as 52 percent of the Archdiocese of Denver’s faithful is Hispanic.
Mass attendee Richard Drubkowski, who came to Denver from Poland in 1993 at the time of Blessed John Paul II’s World Youth Day visit, said of his compatriot Father Wojcik: “His homilies are very much from his heart. … He has prepared all his life for this kind of work. I wish him well.”
Father Pedersen said he was most amazed by the laying on of hands by each priest present during the Mass.
“I think it’s a tremendous sign of the brotherhood and fellowship of the priesthood,” he said.
Father Wagner said the reading of the Gospel, an account of the Last Supper, was the most emotional part of the ceremony for him “because that’s the love of my life now. My life is to be patterned after God’s sacrifice.”
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