By Matthew Hodgson
FOUR young men were formally accepted by the Church as candidates for the priesthood at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney on 16 May.
Samuel Lynch, 40, Emmanuel Seo, 33, Peter Kwak, 29 and Gregory Morgan, 23 – all seminarians for the Archdiocese of Sydney – moved a step closer to presbyteral ordination with Cardinal George Pell’s formal acceptance of their candidacy to the priesthood.
The candidacy ceremony at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney came at the conclusion of the monthly “Cathedral Sunday” undertaken by Good Shepherd seminarians.
Cathedral Sunday commenced with a morning of solitude and silence on the seminary grounds, in which seminary spiritual director Fr Ed Travers MSC gave a conference on the significance of admission to candidacy and described it as a significant step in the journey of priestly formation.
This journey consists of three distinct stages: separation (and ordeal), transition and incorporation. A young man entering a seminary is separated from ordinary life and undergoes a transitional phase where their goal is human and spiritual maturity.
In describing the final phase of the “rite of passage”, Fr Anthony Percy, Rector of the Seminary of the Good Shepherd, said “he re-enters society with an enriched persona – not a different one”.
In his homily during Holy Mass at the Cathedral, Cardinal Pell thanked God for the generosity of the candidates in responding to their call to the priesthood and for the care offered to them by the seminary staff.
The Cardinal urged others to step forward and accept the call to priestly and/or religious life, noting that unless young men and women step forward into leadership roles, the vitality of the Church will begin to wane. He proclaimed, however, that”this is not happening and it won’t happen”.
Fr Percy said that the four young men are a sign of great hope for the Church.
There are a variety of backgrounds amongst the group.
Mr Lynch is a Sydney-born former lay employee of the Archdiocese; Mr Seo and Mr Kwak are both parishioners of the Korean Catholic Community in Silverwater and Mr Morgan is an English-born graduate of the Sydney secondary school Redfield College.
Mr Morgan described candidacy as a “small but significant step”.
“The prospect of ordination has become more realistic now and I am very excited,’’ he said. “A lot has gone in to these last five years.’’
Fr Percy noted that the diversity amongst the group is symbolic of “the rich diversity and unity of the Church”.
Two more students from the Seminary of the Good Shepherd were up for candidacy as Eastertide drew to a close: Luke Verrell (Archdiocese of Canberra-Goulburn) and Duane Fernandez (Diocese of Wollongong).
– Matt Hodgson is a student at Good Shepherd Seminary studying for the Archdiocese of Perth.