Bishop to ordain priests, deacons on next two weekends

By Tanya Connor

Bishop McManus is to ordain two men priests for the Diocese of Worcester at a 10 a.m. Mass June 7 at St. Paul Cathedral. Tomorrow at 10 a.m. in the cathedral he ordains 10 deacons; five permanent and five transitional.
Rev. Mr. Charles P. O. Omolo, who is to be the Diocese’s first Kenyan priest, said the African Catholic community of the Diocese is to participate in his ordination and Mass of Thanksgiving.
He said his father, John Omollo Milugo, and brother, Benedict Otieno Milugo, are to arrive here from Kenya June 5 and stay until June 12. His mother, Helen Milugo, who attended his diaconate ordination in 2012, and his sister, Trizah Koyi Milugo, are not expected to be  coming in from Kenya, he said.
Rev. Mr. James M. Boland, of St. Bernadette Parish in Northborough, is also expecting family members and other special guests at his ordination. His mother, Virginia (Cole) Boland, said that those planning to attend include her and her husband, Thomas, and their other son, Michael, all of Northborough, and daughter, Sister Pio Maria of the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist in Ann Arbor, Mich. Scheduled to join her are two of her order’s foundresses, Mother Mary Assumpta and Sister Joseph Andrew.
Everyone is welcome to attend the ordination Mass, and a public reception for the new priests afterwards in the cenacle in the cathedral’s lower level.
The Mass is to be broadcast on Charter TV 3 at 1 p.m. June 8 and 10 a.m. June 11. It will also to be available for viewing at www.worcesterdiocese.org or www.Vimeo.com/dioceseofworcester.
Following are brief biographies of the men to be ordained to the priesthood.
James Boland was born Dec. 25, 1985 in Framingham. He attended Margaret E. Peaslee School, Northborough Middle School (now Robert E. Melican Middle School) and Algonquin Regional High School, all in Northborough, and Springfield College, where he got a bachelor’s degree in athletic training. He got his master’s of divinity from St. John’s Seminary in Brighton this spring.
His summer assignments have been at St. Paul Cathedral, St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fitchburg, The Institute for Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and Immaculate Conception Parish in Worcester. Immaculate Conception’s pastor, Father Walter J. Riley, is to vest him at the ordination.
The new priest is to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at 2 p.m. June 8 at St. Bernadette’s in Northborough. A public reception follows in the Charbonneau Activity Center of St. Bernadette School.
He is to celebrate another Mass of Thanksgiving at 10 a.m. June 15 at Immaculate Conception in Worcester.
Charles Omolo was born Feb. 5, 1983 in Kenya. He studied at St. Gabriel’s Minor Seminary in Kenya and Spiritan Missionary Seminary in Tanzania.
In 2006 he came to the United States to study for the priesthood with the Glenmary Home Missioners and attended Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky.
In 2009 he was accepted by the Worcester Diocese to prepare for the priesthood here. He studied at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton for three years, and got his bachelor’s in sacred theology and master’s of divinity from St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore this spring.
His summer assignments were at St. Christopher Parish in Worcester, Holy Angels Parish in Upton, and St. Mark Parish in Sutton. Last year he did a pastoral year at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Upton. Father Thomas E. Mahoney, retired co-pastor of St. Gabriel’s, is to vest him at the ordination.
The new priest is to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving at 10:30 a.m. June 8 at St. Gabriel’s. Rev. Mr. Omolo said they are to use the Mass of Hope, the Mass setting he composed and used for his diaconate ordination. A public reception is to follow in the parish hall.
He is also planning to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in Kenya this summer.