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Newsmagazine Bringing the Good News to the Diocese of Fort Worth Vol. 27 No. 6 July 2011 Diocese ordains three to priesthood Bishop Kevin Vann invokes the Holy Spirit as he ordains Father June 4, 2011 Story and Photos by Kathy Cribari Hamer Kheim Van Nguyen to the priesthood for the Diocese of Fort Worth. In 1989, he joined the he Diocese of Fort Worth welcomed Congregation of the Mother Co- Redemptrix in Missouri; 22 years three new priests this month, and their after that, just this month, he was ordained to the priesthood for the long journeys had multiple points Diocese of Fort Worth. “Part of the mystery of life is of embarkation: Dallas, Phoenix, fi guring out what God wants you to do,” said Father Phillip Petta, who Chicago, Wichita, and Th u-Duc, Saigon, Vietnam. had carried a reverence for the popes since Pope John XXIII, in the early ‘60s when he was a child. “Everyone But no matter their ages, must be lived according to God’s fi gures it out. It takes a lot of prayer, occupations, or GPS coordinates, all will, I began to think I wanted to and you have to do your best.” three men told a universal story. become a priest.” Fr. Phil was inspired to be A vocation is a lifelong presence, During a treacherous small boat a priest in 1998, while he was they each said, and it is known only trip from Vietnam to the United an Episcopalian. “I knew I was to God. Th e mystery is simple: when States, Fr. Khiem promised the supposed to be a Roman Catholic Bishop Kevin Vann invokes the Holy Spirit as he ordains Father will the vocation be recognized? Blessed Mother that if he survived, priest before I was a Catholic!” Richard Kirkham to the priesthood for the Diocese of Fort Worth. “I believe I realized my vocation he would become a priest. Later, he said. He was confi rmed into in 1974 or 1975 at age nine or 10,” as a young man, he renewed that the Catholic Church in 2003, said Father Khiem Van Nguyen. “It resolve while spending a month in called Sister Donna Ferguson, was during a Sunday Mass. When a hospital recovering from an auto I heard my pastor say that our lives accident. SEE ORDINATION, P. 24 Deacons Petta, Kirkham, and Kheim prostrate themselves before the altar of St. Patrick Cathedral, signifying their unworthiness of the offi ce and their dependence on God and the Bishop Kevin Vann invokes the Holy Spirit as he ordains Father prayers of the people to be able to perform their ministry to God and his Church. Philip Petta to the priesthood for the Diocese of Fort Worth. PAGE 2 NORTH TEXAS CATHOLIC, JULY, 2011 ShepherdOur Speaks Vacation is an ideal time to refl ect on the Word of God Dear Brothers and We are already in the heart of the summer, Without love, even the most important at least in the northern hemisphere. activities lose value and do not bring joy. Sisters in Christ, Th is is the time in which the schools are Without a profound meaning, everything closed and in which most vacations are we do is reduced to sterile and disordered s we begin these concentrated. Even the pastoral activities activism. And who gives us love and of the parishes are reduced, and I myself truth if not Jesus Christ? So let us learn, summer months, now have suspended audiences for a period. It brothers, to help each other, to cooperate, is therefore a favorable moment to give is a time for us to pause but fi rst of all to choose together the better A fi rst place to what is eff ectively the most part, which is and will always be our and refl ect upon the many gifts important thing in life, that is to say, greater good. (Ibid) listening to the Word of God. and blessings that God has given — Angelus Address, July 18, 2010 With all this in mind, vacation is not us in our lives, especially the gift a time to take a vacation from practicing Refl ecting on the well-known passage and living out our Catholic faith! Vacation of life and the gift of our faith from the Gospel of John where Martha is does not give one a dispensation from the busy working and providing hospitality, obligation to attend Mass on Sunday. Even that sustains us in our daily lives and Mary is sitting at the feet of the Lord, when we travel, we still have the obligation and the many challenges that we the Holy Father reminds us that while work to attend Mass on Sunday wherever we are, Bishop Kevin Vann and the tasks of daily life are necessary and we have the responsibility to make the often face. and always before us, Mary has chosen the appropriate plans ahead of time to be sure As I refl ect over the past several weeks, better part because she is focusing on what that we can attend Mass while we are away. as busy as they have been, it has been such role as catechists in the life and mission of ultimately is most important and what will Especially in our technological world today, a tremendous blessing for me as I have had the Church is an indispensable one, for you last for eternity — our relationship with there are many tools at our disposal that can the privilege of celebrating the Sacrament of are truly instruments of Christ bringing God. We cannot allow even the busyness of help us locate when and where we can go Confi rmation with so many of our young others into communion with the Person of our lives and the many things that need to be to Mass wherever we are, tools like www. people throughout the Diocese as well as Jesus Christ and his Church — in a sense done, to keep us from our relationship with masstimes.org, and there is even an app for almost 100 adults at St. Patrick’s Cathedral you truly step into the mystery of Christ God. Th e Holy Father again states: your smart phone that can give you Mass on Pentecost. I know these past several handing on not your own teaching, but times and locations wherever you are. weeks have also been the occasion for many the teaching and very Person of Jesus. As Christ's word is quite clear: no scorn Th is is also a good time to remind First Communions as well as the reception Pope John Paul II teaches in his Apostolic for the active life, nor much less for the ourselves of how we are to properly prepare of about 1,000 new Catholics across the Exhortation on Catechesis Catechesi generous hospitality; but a plain reminder ourselves for Mass and of the proper attire Diocese at Easter Vigil. All of this is a great Tradendae, “What assiduous study of the of the fact that the one thing that is truly and reverence we should show when we sign that the Church is alive and growing word of God transmitted by the Church's necessary is something else: listening to the attend Mass, even when we are on vacation. not only here in North Texas, but all around Magisterium, what profound familiarity with Word of the Lord; and the Lord is there First, one must be properly prepared to the world as more and more people respond Christ and with the Father, what a spirit of in that moment, present in the person of attend Mass and receive Holy Communion. to and accept the Catholic faith. Th is calls prayer, what detachment from self must a Jesus! Everything else will pass and will be Th ree things are necessary for one to to mind the words of the Second Vatican catechist have in order that he can say: ‘My taken away from us, but the Word of God worthily receive Communion. First, one Council in the Dogmatic Constitution on teaching is not mine!’" (6). Th ank you for is eternal and gives meaning to our daily must be in the state of grace, that is, if one the Church, Lumen Gentium, which teaches your work and know that all you are doing activity (Ibid). is in the state of mortal sin, then one must “the Church is in Christ like a sacrament is making a big diff erence in the life of the receive the Sacrament of Penance before or as a sign and instrument both of a very Church and in the world! Vacation, far from being a time to set receiving Holy Communion. Th is however, closely knit union with God and of the Th ese days of summer are also a time aside our obligations of our faith, is actually does not mean that one should not attend unity of the whole human race” (1). Th rough for vacation and getaways in which we take an ideal time to refl ect upon the Word of Mass; one must still attend Mass on Sunday these Sacraments of Initiation, we are truly some time away from the busyness of life God and the Lord’s presence in our lives. but cannot receive Holy Communion until seeing Christ working through his Church and school and the many other activities that Th is time away from the busyness and one has gone to Confession. Second, one is as the instrument of salvation in the world, take place during the other times of the year.