Archbishop Barry Hickey ordained Deacon Benny Calanza to the priesthood, to be followed moments later by Deacon Rodrigo Tomala. Both men were formed through their studies at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Fremantle and the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary in Morley, run under the auspices of the Neocatechumenal Way. They bring to 83 the number of priests ordained by Archbishop Hickey since he became Archbishop in 1991 – a remarkable diocesan figure for Australia.
By Bridget Spinks
The “paradox” of the ministerial priesthood is that a priest must be a “dispenser of the divine” while also being human, “subject to faults and failings,” Archbishop Hickey said, addressing the congregation present to witness the first two ordinations in the newly completed St Mary’s Cathedral on 6 August.
In the nearly 20 years as Archbishop from 1991 to 2010, Archbishop Hickey has ordained over 80 priests, a remarkable number for any diocese in Australia.
The two new priests the Archbishop ordained for the Perth Archdiocese, Rodrigo Tomala from Ecuador and Benny Calanza from the Philippines, were the 82nd and 83rd deacons upon whom Archbishop Hickey has conferred priesthood.
During the ordination, both candidates were examined by the Archbishop and questioned on their intentions and resolve to carry out the duties of the priesthood.
Archbishop Hickey focused his homily on the fourth test of the candidates’ intentions for the priesthood:“Are you resolved to consecrate your life to God for the salvation of His people, and to unite yourself more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered Himself for us to the Father as a perfect sacrifice?”
What is being asked of the deacons in this question is whether they are willing to consecrate themselves totally to God and God’s people and whether they are going to seek to become one with Christ in their priesthood, he said.
Archbishop Hickey said that this call is “almost impossible to fulfil perfectly” but it is the way God works; “He takes human beings and gives them the special permission to reflect Jesus”.
“The Son comes to us through the Word, through the Holy Spirit, through the priest in his ministerial vocation,” Archbishop Hickey said.
At the Transfiguration, the divinity of Christ was revealed to Peter when a voice from the cloud that came and overshadowed Jesus said ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to Him!’
“We see a glimpse of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. His humanity was already evident but this showed there was more to Jesus than meets the eye. He is the Son of the Father. His divinity and humanity are there for us to see,” he said about the Transfiguration.
Archbishop Hickey said that while each priest is expected to reflect Jesus’ divinity and humanity, at some point that vision will be blocked through the priest’s own human faults and failings.
“God forgives and we must forgive,” he said, encouraging the two new priests to remember the way St Peter fell when he denied Christ three times, despite seeing Christ’s divinity revealed in the transfiguration.
“He was reinstated, but not only that, He was made Head of the Church,” Archbishop Hickey said. He concluded by encouraging the new priests to “Rely on the grace of Jesus, the forgiveness of God and the strength of the Holy Spirit”.
After the homily, the ordinands moved forward to the sanctuary to stand before the Archbishop. Then they promised obedience to the Archbishop and his successors. While they prostrated themselves on the sanctuary, a litany of the saints was sung in the style of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
The Archbishop then stood alone and invoked the Holy Spirit, praying that the Lord would bless these two men whom He had chosen for the priesthood. After this, he laid his hands on the two – the outward sign that symbolises the conferral of the Sacrament. All 45 clergy who were present for the ordination, including Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, then came forward to pray over the newly ordained.
Then the new priests knelt before the Archbishop as he prayed the Prayer of Consecration and invested them with the stole and chasuble and anointed their palms with the Oil of Chrism.
After the presentation of the gifts to the newly ordained, the new priests were welcomed to the presbyterate with a kiss of peace. At the conclusion of the Mass, Archbishop Hickey announced the appointment of Fathers Calanza and Tomala.
Fr Rodrigo will serve as Assistant Priest at St Mary Star of the Sea Parish, Cottesloe, while Fr Benny will serve as Assistant Priest in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Rockingham.
Fr Rodrigo and Fr Benny were trained at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Morley, a seminary Archbishop Hickey inaugurated in 1994 to prepare seminarians for the diocese and for the new evangelisation according to the programme of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
‘Redemptoris Mater’ seminaries are diocesan and international.
This means that the Bishop decides where the priests will be appointed but should they not be required by that Archdiocese they would be at the service of the Church.
Under a gentleman’s agreement with the Way, Archbishop Hickey can release priests ordained from Redemptoris Mater after two years’ service for missionary work anywhere in the world, or retain their services for the needs of the Archdiocese.
There are now over 60 of these seminaries around the world ever since Pope John Paul II inaugurated the first ‘Redemptoris Mater’ seminary in 1987 in Rome.
Normally, after ordination, the priest must serve two years in a parish before he may be sent on mission.