Great diversity among ordinands is a blessing

By Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond

We are right in the middle of one of the most important times of the year for the Archdiocese of New Orleans – the ordination of men to the transitional diaconate and to the priesthood. You ordained four men as transitional deacons for the archdiocese last Saturday, and on Saturday, June 5, you will ordain five new priests. How excited are you?

We're very blessed in the archdiocese to have men who are willing to enter the seminary and engage in serious discernment to examine whether or not they are called by God to serve as a priest. I have to offer great accolades, first of all, to our faculty and staff at Notre Dame Seminary and St. Joseph's Seminary College for the very strong formation programs they offer to men who are discerning God’s call to the priesthood. They help to form them in the ways of the Spirit so that they can know God's call. In our Catholic theology, a person coming forward and saying that he is called to the priesthood is only one dimension of the formation process. The faculty at the seminary has to be able to acknowledge the person’s gifts and to confirm the call that the person believes he has from God. That vocational assessment goes to the bishop, who works in collaboration with the seminaries, in order for someone to be called to holy orders. It's not enough for a man to say, “I think God is calling me to be a priest.” He has to carefully go through at least six years of formation to have the faculty and other formators recognize the call and then present him to the archbishop.

The men being ordained have different backgrounds, cultures and faith journeys. What does that say to you?

As I mention at every ordination, each person comes with a different story. Each person has different strengths. We are blessed by the diversity of culture that we have in our presbyterate as well as in the seminary. Sometimes people criticize dioceses for their great diversity of priests, but let us not forget that we are a universal church, and it's important that each diocese, in some way, reflects that universality. What one culture and one race brings to the diocese is complemented by other cultures and races. For the last few weeks, we’ve had the statue “Angels Unawares” on the front steps of Notre Dame Seminary. The statue depicts 160 migrants throughout all of history leaving their homelands for freedom and safety. Some of the men we are ordaining have gone through arduous journeys of their own to reach the United States. It is a wonderful witness that we are called to welcome the stranger.

How would you assess the new ordinands as a group?

I know that they are men who have invested themselves in prayer. They are men who have invested themselves in the formation program of the seminary. They have committed themselves to human formation, spiritual formation, academic formation and pastoral formation.Those are the four dimensions of formation that bring about a balance in a person's life and reflect their ability to serve the people of God, the church. They all come with different gifts.

This year’s ordinations will have a much larger congregation than was possible last year during the coronavirus restrictions.

The ordination is always a time when family and friends, from near and far, can come together and speak by their presence on behalf of the people of God. We don't just congratulate these men; we thank God for them. We thank God for their vocation. We thank God for their families and for anyone in their lives who has helped form them and helped awaken the call. The cathedral will be full this year, and that will be a great blessing. 

Some of the new ordinands come from Latino countries where Spanish was their first language. I know you have said they are not being ordained solely to do Hispanic ministry.

We are blessed by having many different ethnic groups and different ethnicities represented in the priests of the archdiocese. But just because a person belongs to a particular ethnic group or race, they're not limited to serving that particular culture. When possible, we would like for them to serve in multicultural parishes. Though they will always have a special love in their heart for their own people from whom they came, they are ordained for all the people of God in the archdiocese. The promise of obedience that they take at diaconate ordination and at priesthood ordination is that they will go where there is a need and not where there is a particular preference. I ask all Catholics in the archdiocese to pray for these men and for their perseverance in their vocations.

Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to [email protected].