Geeklog Site

CARDINAL RIGALI PROTESTS MOVE TO FUND ABORTION IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:16:15 -1000

DATE: June 30, 2009

FROM: Don Clemmer, USCCB Department of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Public funding of abortion rejected by Americans Lawmakers cannot both fund abortion and claim to reduce abortions

‘Worst of all times’ to inject the divisive issue of abortion funding

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chair of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to members of the House Appropriations Committee today urging them not to fund abortions in the District of Columbia. Last week the House subcommittee considering the Financial Services appropriations bill for 2010 voted to permit direct public funding of abortion in the nation’s capital.

[more]

Cardinal Rigali said that the subcommittee’s action “effectively nullifies the Dornan amendment,” which for a total of 18 years has prevented public funding of elective abortions in the District. He said this move, “presumably the first step in a broader effort to restore such funding throughout the federal government,” is misguided for three reasons. “First, public funding of abortion is rejected by the American people, as numerous surveys of public opinion have shown,” Cardinal Rigali said. He also noted that Catholics recently sent “tens of millions of postcards to their elected representatives in Congress, opposing…any weakening or reversal of current appropriations riders on abortion.”

“Second, no lawmaker or Administration can support such a policy change and still claim to support ‘reducing abortions.’ The evidence is overwhelming, and universally recognized by groups on all sides of the abortion issue, that the availability of public funds for abortion greatly increases abortions,” the bishops’ Pro-Life Committee Chair argued.

“Third, this action takes place as Congress is working to win broad support for a much-needed major reform of our health care system,” Cardinal Rigali noted. “This is the worst of all possible times to be injecting the divisive issue of public abortion funding into the debate on government health policy.”

Cardinal Rigali concluded by urging the full House Appropriations Committee to reverse the subcommittee’s action and retain the funding ban in current law. The full text of his letter is available at:www.usccb.org/prolife/Rigali-DornanAmendment-2009.pdf.

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Keywords: Cardinal Rigali, USCCB, pro-life, Archdiocese of Washington, abortion, abortion funding, women’s health, abortion reduction, abortion rate, common ground

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ORTHODOX-CATHOLIC CONSULTATION STUDIES NATURE OF COMMUNION, AUTHORITY

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 09:29:08 -1000

DATE: June 26, 2009

FROM: Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, USCCB Department of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON—The seventy-sixth meeting of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation took place at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York, June 1 to 3. The session, hosted by the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), was co-chaired by Metropolitan Maximos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh and Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

[more]

At the meeting the Consultation continued its study of the 2007 agreed statement of the international Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, “Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church. Ecclesial Communion, Conciliarity and Authority.” The members heard analyses of the text, also known as “The Ravenna Document,” from a Catholic perspective prepared by Leavenworth Sister of Charity Susan Wood and Father John Galvin, and from an Orthodox perspective by Father Nicholas Apostola. These presentations will form the basis of a draft common response to the international document that will be considered at the next meeting.

The Consultation also heard two presentations of points of convergence that have emerged in its ongoing study of primacies and conciliarity in the Church. One text was prepared by Jesuit Father Brian Daley and Vito Nicastro, Ph.D., and a second one, from an Orthodox perspective, by Father James Dutko. The authors of these two studies will prepare a draft agreed statement on this theme for consideration at the fall 2009 meeting. In addition, Father Joseph Komonchak offered reflections on a presentation given in 2003 by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at a Catholic-Orthodox symposium in the Vatican on Petrine Ministry, “Introduction to the Theme and Catholic Hermeneutics of the Dogmas of the First Vatican Council.”

During the meeting, members of the Consultation informed one another about major events in the lives of their churches. These included the death of Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and the election of Patriarch Kirill, the international Oriental Orthodox-Roman Catholic Dialogue, the Vatican delegation at the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the Feast of St. Andrew, the Commencement address of President Obama at the University of Notre Dame, recent events in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, the lifting of the excommunications of the bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X, recent events in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the Holy Land, "The Leadership of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Significance of Canon 28 of Chalcedon: a Statement by the Faculty Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology,” the relationship between the two Romanian Orthodox jurisdictions in North America, the meeting in the Vatican of a group of Catholic Bishops and aboriginal leaders from Canada with Pope Benedict XVI, the situation of the Orthodox Church in America and the election of Metropolitan Jonah, and the establishment of the Archbishop Demetrios Chair at Fordham University.

Members gathered for a memorial service (Panachida) presided over by Metropolitan Maximos to commemorate the death forty days earlier of Rev. Protopresbyter Stephen Dutko, the father of Rev. James Dutko, an Orthodox member of the Consultation.

Archbishop Pilarczyk shared with the members of the Consultation that, with his imminent retirement, he intends to resign as Co-Chairman of the dialogue. Metropolitan Maximos expressed gratitude to the Archbishop for his seven years of service. The Consultation presented Archbishop Pilarczyk with a copy of the book, “The Rublev Trinity,” by Gabriel Bunge. Archbishop Wilton Gregory, the Chairman of the Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, intends to name a new Catholic Co-Chairman of the Consultation in due course.

The seventy-seventh meeting of the Consultation is due to take place from October 22-24, at Saint Paul’s College in Washington.

In addition to the co-chairs, the Consultation include Orthodox representatives Father Thomas FitzGerald (Secretary), Father Nicholas Apostola, Father John Erickson, Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Ph.D., Father James Dutko, Paul Meyendorff, Ph.D., Father Alexander Golitzin, Robert Haddad, Ph.D., Father Robert Stephanopoulos, Father Theodore Pulcini, and Father Mark Arey, General Secretary of SCOBA (staff).

Additional Catholic members are Jesuit Father Brian Daley (Secretary), Thomas Bird, Ph.D., Sylvain Destrempes, Ph.D., Father Peter Galadza, Chorbishop John D. Faris, Father John Galvin, Father Sidney Griffith, Father Joseph Komonchak, Father Paul McPartlan, Father David Petras, Sister Susan K. Wood, Vito Nicastro, Ph.D., and Paulist Father Ronald Roberson, who serves as staff.

The North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation is sponsored jointly by the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. Since its establishment in 1965, the Consultation has issued 22 agreed statements on various topics. All these texts are now available on the USCCB Website at http://www.usccb.org/seia/orthodox_index.shtml and the SCOBA website at http://www.scoba.us/resources/orthodox-catholic.html

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09-151

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Ordination of Jon Cabico will be Featured LIVE on Catholic Hawaii

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:15:43 -1000

Beginning Monday night, June 29, 2009 at approximately 6:00 p.m., the ordination of Jon Cabico at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in Honolulu will be shown live on this website. The link will be posted no later than 5:30 p.m. on Monday. Stay tuned and get ready to log on. Only the first 100 people to log on will have access for viewing. LINK WILL NOT WORK AFTER 100 PEOPLE ACCESS. Link will be inactive after the ordination.

Click here to watch live.

U.S. BISHOPS, CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES CALL FOR GREATER COMMITMENT TO HELP POOR AROUND THE WORLD IN CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:56:43 -1000

DATE: June 25, 2009

FROM: Don Clemmer, USCCB Department of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Catholic organizations focus on impact of climate change on poor

Urge greater funding to help poor affected by climate change worldwide

Cite call to care for creation and the ‘least of these’

WASHINGTON—Leaders of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) said they were encouraged by provisions aimed at protecting the poor and vulnerable at home and abroad in the latest climate change legislation, but added that they were “very concerned about the inadequate funding for assisting the poorest people and countries on earth” to help them adapt to the impact of climate change.

[more]

In a June 22 letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace, and Ken Hackett, president of CRS, called the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454) “groundbreaking legislation” that “begins a serious and overdue effort to face up to moral and environmental challenges and represents an important beginning.”

Bishop Hubbard and Mr. Hackett cited the call for Catholic bishops and many in the faith community to “care for creation” and for “the least of these” and noted that they were “deeply disappointed” that funding for international adaptation falls far short of what is initially needed and that additional increases for such funding is pushed too far into the future.

“Catholic Relief Services is already experiencing the tragic consequences of climate change in the lives of people living in poverty,” they added, noting that CRS is helping over 100 countries adapt to the impact of climate change through health, agriculture, water and emergency preparedness programs.

Hubbard and Hackett expressed their support for provisions protecting low-income people from potential rises in energy costs resulting from the legislation, as well as measures helping not-for-profit and faith-based institutions become more energy efficient.

“As the legislative process moves forward,” they said, “we look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to increase funding for international adaptation assistance and taking a major step toward caring for creation and protecting ‘the least of these.’”

Full text of the letter can be found online at: www.usccb.org/sdwp/ejp/climate/2009-06-24-let-crs-usccb-to-congress-climate-change.pdf

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Keywords: U.S. House of Representative, letter, Catholic Relief Services, CRS, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, U.S. bishops, USCCB, climate change, H.R. 2454, American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, international adaptation, poverty, funding

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METHODIST-CATHOLIC DIALOGUE EXPLORES EUCHARIST, ENVIRONMENT

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:52:38 -1000

DATE: June 24, 2009

FROM: Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, USCCB Department of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WASHINGTON—Care for one’s bodily health is linked to care for the body of the Church and for material creation, Methodist Bishop Timothy Whitaker said in a sermon during the second meeting of Round 7 of the Methodist-Catholic Dialogue at St. Paul’s College in Washington, June 15-17.

[more]

Bishop Whitaker, who co-chairs the dialogue with Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington, drew on the body image from the New Testament to show that Christ’s redemption embraces all of creation and implies respect for the natural environments in which parishes and church agencies are located.

The dialogue between the United Methodist Church and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) dates back to 1966, and has covered a broad range of theological and moral topics. In the current round, participants are examining Christian responsibility for the environment from the perspective of the Church’s rich sacramental heritage.

Recently, religious leaders have spoken about global climate change and its impact on people in poverty. The National Religious Partnership on the Environment has called particular attention to the hardships that will burden the poor if policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not carefully structured. Representing the Partnership as a guest speaker, Walter Grazer said that it is incumbent that policies “create new well-paying, climate-friendly jobs and assist workers who lose their jobs as a result of new climate regulations and other policies.”

The dialogue draws expertise from scholars whose specialties are in either ethics or sacraments. Their conversation hopes to produce an adult education instrument to enable laity from both churches to respond to the current ecological crisis from the vantage point of believers who celebrate God’s gift of creation in every Eucharistic liturgy.

Two presentations were given by Msgr. Kevin W. Irwin, Dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America. In the first, Msgr. Irwin traced developments in Eucharistic doctrine found in papal documents from Pius XII to Benedict XVI. Later, Msgr. Irwin explored the symbolic language of the Eucharist to show the connection between the work of making bread and wine and the work of redemption. “The very bread and wine themselves are human gifts through which we receive the richest of divine gifts,” he said.

Kendall Soulen, Ph.D., of Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, spoke on Methodist sources for connecting sacraments and ecology. The writings of John Wesley, along with the hymns of his brother Charles Wesley (sung in both Catholic and Methodist communities), presuppose a theology of creation that emphasizes the glorification of God in the natural world.

Father Francis Tiso, Associate Director of the USCCB Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, explored environmental themes in the monastic tradition. Monks and nuns always have emphasized the harmony between the natural beauty surrounding their settlements and the life and worship that takes place within the monastic enclosure, he said.

In addition to Bishop Skylstad, Catholic participants also included Father James Massa (staff); Jesuit Father Drew Christiansen, Editor, America Magazine; John Hart, Ph.D., Boston University; and Angela Russell Christman, Ph.D., Loyola College in Maryland.

Other Methodist participants included Rev. Betty Gamble (staff); Edgardo Colon-Emeric, Ph.D., Duke University, and Karen Westerfield-Tucker, Ph.D., Boston University.

The next meeting of the dialogue is scheduled for December 15-17, at St. Paul’s College in Washington.

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BISHOPS OF G8 COUNTRIES URGE THEIR LEADERS TO PROTECT THE POOR AND ASSIST DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AT JULY G8 SUMMIT

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:50:33 -1000

DATE: June 24, 2009

FROM: Don Clemmer, USCCB Department of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bishops note that those who contributed least to current crises may suffer the most

Urge G8 not to cut international aid for poor countries as result of economic crisis

Ask G8 leaders to combat climate change and protect the most vulnerable people

WASHINGTON— In a letter to leaders participating in the G8 Summit in Italy, July 8-10, the presidents of the Catholic bishops’ conferences of the G8 nations urged Summit leaders to “take concerted actions to protect poor persons and assist developing countries.”

[more]

The bishops observed that poor persons and nations have contributed the least to creating the economic crisis and to the human cause of global climate change, but in both cases are likely to suffer tragic consequences.

The conference presidents wrote: “Our moral tradition commits the Church to protecting human life and dignity, especially of the poorest, most vulnerable members of the human family. In the faces of poor persons the Catholic Church sees the face of Christ whom we serve in countries throughout the world.”

The G8 leaders include President Obama and the heads of state of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom. Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), signed the letter, dated June 22.

The bishops reiterated Pope Benedict XVI’s call that foreign assistance to developing countries not become a casualty of the financial crisis. They wrote: “Ironically poor people have contributed the least to the economic crisis facing our world, but their lives and livelihoods are likely to suffer the greatest devastation because they struggle at the margins in crushing poverty.” The bishops called for “deepening partnerships with developing countries so that their peoples can be active agents in their own development, participating in political, governmental, economic and social reforms that serve the common good of all.”

Moving to the issue of global climate change, the bishops noted that “poor countries and peoples who have contributed the least to the human factors driving global climate change are most at risk of its harmful consequences.” They wrote: “Concrete commitments should be agreed upon and mechanisms should be created to mitigate additional global climate change and to help poor persons and developing nations adapt to its effects as well as to adopt appropriate technologies for sustainable development.”

The bishops concluded, “The G8 Summit takes place in the shadow of a global economic crisis, but its actions can help bring a light of hope to our world. By asking first how a given policy will affect the poor and the vulnerable, you can help assure that the common good of all is served. As a human family we are only as healthy as our weakest members.”

The full text of the letter can be found on the USCCB Web Site at www.usccb.org/sdwp/international/2009-g8-ltr.pdf.

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Keywords: G8 Summit, leaders, letter, bishops conferences, Cardinal George, presidents, global poverty, the poor, developing countries, foreign assistance, economic crisis, climate change, USCCB, International Justice and Peace

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CATHOLIC BISHOPS, CATHOLICS HEALTH CARE, UNIONS FIND COMMON GROUND ON RESPECTING RIGHTS OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:58:55 -1000

DATE: June 22, 2009

FROM: Don Clemmer, USCCB Department of Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Unprecedented Dialogue among Leaders of Catholic Health Care, Labor and Bishops leads to ‘Guidance and Options’ on new ways forward on applying Catholic Teaching in workplace

WASHINGTON—The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), along with leaders from Catholic health care and the labor movement, released “guidance and options” for creating a fair process for health care workers to decide whether or not to form a union. Outlined in a new document entitled Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions, the principles reflect a unique and ground-breaking consensus between Catholic health care employers and unions and are the result of a dialogue that began more than a decade ago.

[more]

The document can be found on the USCCB Web site at: www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/respecting_the_just_rights_of_workers.pdf

The three-way dialogue was initiated by the USCCB in an effort to find common ground on alternative approaches for carrying out Catholic social teachings on the rights of workers to freely choose whether or not to be represented by unions.

“Though they had different perspectives and points of view in many areas, the participants shared the conviction that it is up to workers—not bishops, hospital managers, or union leaders—to decide how they will be represented in the workplace,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who chaired the dialogue. “This remarkable dialogue produced an unprecedented agreement because of the principles of Catholic social teaching and the quality of the leaders involved.”

The new Guidance and Options document offers seven key principles for appropriate conduct by both employer and union representatives that will help ensure that employees are able to make an informed decision without undue influence or pressure from either side. The document suggests that unions and employers agree, in writing, on the specific ways they will:

demonstrate respect for each other’s organization and mission,
provide workers with equal access to information from both sides,
adhere to standards for truthfulness and balance in their communications,
create a pressure-free environment,
allow workers to vote through a fair and expeditious process,
honor employees’ decision regardless of the outcome, and
create a system for enforcing these principles during the course of an organizing drive.

“This approach depends on civil dialogue between unions and employers focusing on how the workers’ right to decide will be respected,” said Bishop William Murphy, Chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and a dialogue participant. “By placing workers at the center of the process, the group affirmed the core of Catholic Social Doctrine.”

Guidance and Options does not bind individual bishops, hospitals or unions. Rather it offers principles and practical alternatives for leaders of Catholic health care and unions who want to avoid the tension and conflict that often accompanies organizing drives. More than 600,000 employees work in nearly 600 Catholic hospitals nationwide.

It took more than two years to reach agreement on the new principles, which build on the recommendations of an initial working paper issued in 1999 by the USCCB Subcommittee on Catholic Health Care and Work. In December 2006, the USCCB reconvened leaders of Catholic health care and unions to develop additional, practical guidance for achieving the recommendations in the original “A Fair and Just Workplace” paper.

“Because Catholic Health Care is a ministry not an industry, how it treats its workers and how organized labor treats Catholic Health Care are not simply internal matters, but should reflect Catholic teaching on work and workers, heath care and the common good,” said Cardinal McCarrick..

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Keywords: USCCB, CHA, Labor, health care, workers, rights, union, guidelines, Respecting the Just Rights of Workers

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YOU ARE INVITED: An Evening of Sacred Song

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:58:21 -1000

Click here for PDF flyer for distribution. (Coming soon)

2009 CATECHETICAL SUNDAY MATERIALS BEING OFFERED ENTIRELY ONLINE

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:53:48 -1000

DATE: June 22, 2009

FROM: Don Clemmer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

USCCB offers resources for parish catechetical leaders, teachers. Materials useful for catechist or teacher in-services, adult faith formation

Families can download materials directly for free

[more]

WASHINGTON—The Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced that, for the first time, the major Catechetical Sunday materials will be offered entirely online. The theme for Catechetical Sunday 2009 is “Catechesis and the Proclamation of the Word.”

The Catechetical Sunday materials, entitled “Celebrating the Catechetical Year 2009-2010 With Resources for Catechetical Sunday 2009,” are available in English and Spanish and will assist parishes in celebrating Catechetical Sunday. They offer a variety of items for use throughout the 2009-2010 year. They can serve as resources for parish catechetical leaders, catechists, Catholic school teachers and parishioners. These resources can be used in catechist or teacher in-services, parish adult faith formation, family enrichment, personal prayer and retreats.

Family resources include a guide for Bible enthronement, reflections for Advent and Lent, and articles like “Word, Sign, Symbol, Ritual” and “Sharing the Word of God at Home.” With all materials available online, parishioners will be able to access them directly and free of charge. The major Catechetical Sunday materials will not be offered as a printed book or CD-ROM. However, as in past years, the USCCB Publishing Office will provide printed copies of prayer cards, family commitment cards, posters, and certificates for sale.

Catechetical Sunday is celebrated annually on the third Sunday in September in parishes across the United States, this year falling on the weekend of September 20, the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

“Celebrating the Catechetical Year 2009-2010 With Resources for Catechetical Sunday 2009” are available online at http://www.usccb.org/catecheticalsunday. Orders for the various printed materials are available through USCCB Publishing at http://www.usccbpublishing.org.

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Keywords: Catechetical Sunday, Evangelization and Catechesis, USCCB Publishing, online publishing, Web materials, parish resources, catechists, retreats, faith formation, Catholic school teachers, September 20

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Meet Jon, soon to be Hawaii�s newest diocesan priest

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:35:44 -1000

With the laying on of hands, a weight will be lifted off his shoulders and a new life will begin

By Anna Weaver | Hawaii Catholic Herald

Three weeks before his ordination for the Diocese of Honolulu, having completed his seminary studies in Washington, D.C., Jon Cabico was back in Hawaii preparing himself spiritually and practically for his 6 p.m. June 29 ordination Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace.

[more]

[Click here for link to Hawaii Catholic Herald news story]

Cabico will be the first local-born priest to be ordained for the Diocese of Honolulu since Fathers Scott Bush, Konelio Faletoi and Marvin Samiano received the laying on of hands by Bishop Joseph A. Ferrario 17 years ago.

“There’s always that normal fear of the unknown,” Cabico said on June 3. “Relying on God’s graces, I’m prepared as I need to be for the work ahead even though I sometimes don’t feel like it.”

A five-day retreat after his May graduation, attending the New Jersey ordinations of two seminarian friends, and speaking with them about their ordination experiences have helped prepare Cabico for his own big day.

“[They said] it was that kind of weight off their shoulders and now they’re just looking forward to their first assignments,” he said.

At 41, Cabico has taken an atypical path to the priesthood. He and his two younger brothers grew up attending Our Lady of Good Counsel in Pearl City and thinking about a job, marriage and kids. Becoming a priest was not on his mind when he received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Pacific University and went on to work as a control mechanic for The Gas Company in Hawaii.

It wasn’t until his 30s that Cabico began to recommit himself to Catholicism, going on Missionary Basic Christian Community and Basic Christian Community retreats and becoming an active lay minister at Our Lady of Good Counsel. He says it took the encouragement of a priest to decide to try out the seminary at age 36.

Cabico’s decision took his family by surprise, but his parents are both supportive of his vocation.

“They know the life of a priest is not necessarily all fun and games, so they worry about the difficulties ahead,” Cabico said. “But yet they’re happy.”

His brothers, he says, laughing a bit, have accepted his becoming a priest but “don’t fully understand why I would even consider this.”

Cabico headed to Theological College at the Catholic University of America in Washington in 2003, spending two years studying philosophy and four years earning his master’s in divinity.

“I went in thinking, ‘I’m still trying to figure out where God is really calling me,’” he said. “I took the attitude that I was invited to serve as a priest. It wasn’t the thought that, ‘I’ve got to become one.’”

During summer breaks from Catholic University, Cabico served at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa on Oahu, Maria Lanakila Parish on Maui, St. Catherine Parish on Kauai, Sacred Heart Parish on Oahu, and St. Michael Parish on the Big Island. He said those assignments helped get him through each successive school year since he experienced some “disillusionment about Christian community life.”

“The reality is [seminarians] are like any other community where there is the normal human tendency to the negative side,” he said.

It was a pastor at a summer assignment who told him the comforting words, “I’m glad you’re not happy in the seminary because you’re not called to serve in the seminary. You’re called to serve in a parish.”

While the seminary could be disappointing, Cabico also said, “The good men that I have met, that I have studied with, who are going into or already went into the priesthood, give me hope. That the church will continue to be given good pastors, good priests, and that I might possibly be numbered among them, God willing.”

As Cabico prepared to be ordained a transitional deacon on May 30, 2008, he knew he was called to the priesthood. He says that his vocation coming later in life “might help me to have a better understanding of what people are going through in their own lives … in terms of being a faithful Christian and dealing with daily struggles.”

After his May 29 ordination, Cabico will become the parochial vicar (associate pastor) at St. Elizabeth Parish in Aiea. He will celebrate his first Mass, or Mass of Thanksgiving, at his home parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel, on July 4 at 5:30 p.m. He’ll be using incense instead of fireworks that day, and joked, “Hopefully, I don’t make the coals go flying everywhere.”

People at Our Lady of Good Counsel are very proud that one of their own is being ordained, which can be embarrassing at times.

“It’s just me,” the future priest insisted. “I’m just Jon.”