Dominicans to hit 55 with ordination on December 12.
By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
THE Dominican Province of the Assumption’s priest numbers will expand to 55 when Br Vincent Magat is ordained to the priesthood on December 12 at St Dominic’s Church, Camberwell, Victoria.
Sydney Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher OP will ordain Br Vincent and will also ordain Br Paul Rowse to the deaconate on his journey to the priesthood.
“It’s breaking the drought for us, but we always have in mind that vocations have to be nurtured as the candidate and the Order discern, which takes time,” said Fr Anthony Walsh OP, Dominican Master of Students. “We live in an age of instant results, but vocations take something a bit more.”
Br Vincent’s ordination will bring the number of Dominican priests in Australia to 35.
The Province of the Assumption includes New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
A number of candidates from the Order’s Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea Vicariate also will complete their studies in Melbourne next year.
Fr Anthony, 43, said the Order has enjoyed a surge of interest since World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, when Bishop Fisher was frequently seen in his Dominican habit, and then-Deacon Mannes Tellis, now a priest, proclaimed the Gospel at the closing Mass at Royal Randwick Racecourse.
The Order has never been a major force in Australia, he said, even in the 1950s when other Orders received a surge in vocations, and the ordination of Br Mannes in December 2008 was the Order’s first in Australia for over ten years when Fr Anthony and the Order’s Vocations Promoter, Fr Dominic Murphy OP, were ordained.
Br Vincent, 27, was born in Slovakia, moved to Australia aged 15 and joined Corpus Christi College, the seminary of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, upon graduating from Glen Waverley Secondary College.
He developed a love of community life and for study while at Corpus Christi, and was attracted to the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) charism, who are devoted to study and preaching the Truth of the one God who revealed Himself in Jesus, the Word made flesh. P
articularly appealing to Br Vincent was the Order praying the Divine Office – the daily prayers of the Church – together as a community.
Br Paul, 28, was drawn to the Dominicans through the Frassati Circle, a small lay faith discussion group with a discernment subtext started in the Parramatta Diocese in 2000.
Both are drawn to a life of contemplation – no talking is allowed in the hallways of their dormitories – and they live a “semi-monastic” life, while staying involved in the community through university, school, prison and hospital ministry.
Dominican candidates spend six months as postulants studying theology before a one-year novitiate; then, after four years in temporary vows, make solemn vows.
Then ordained a deacon, they spend half a year in pastoral placement and the other half in study, then are ordained priests.
Br Vincent will be chaplain to the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Sydney campus next year, while Br Paul will be on diaconal pastoral placement in the second half of next year after he finishes his Master’s thesis.
l Robert Galea, “the singing seminarian” from Malta who has been studying for the priesthood at Corpus Christi College and has released CDs of Catholic music, will be ordained to the Deaconate by Sandhurst Bishop Joe Grech at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Bendigo on November 20.
He will be ordained to the priesthood in Malta next year.