‘Happy priests’ needed, Come Follow Me video series relaunched

By Maria LeDoux
The Catholic Free Press

“He never belonged here.” Father Thiago Ibiapina said his mother would say this about him, a Brazilian native. “I always wanted to live abroad,” said Father Ibiapina in a video interview for the diocesan series, Come Follow Me, though coming to the United States was never a thought in his mind.
The Worcester diocesan TV Ministry in collaboration with the Office for Vocations, the week of Aug. 1, relaunched the video series Come Follow Me. The series is expected to be produced once a month. Father Donato Infante, director of the Office for Vocations, conducts a thirty-minute interview with a seminarian or priest in the diocese to discuss the call to vocation. Most recently, Father Thiago Ibiapina, associate pastor at Annunciation Parish in Gardner, discussed his individual call to the priesthood.
Father Ibiapina grew up in the Northeast side of Brazil where there s a large Catholic community, he said. At the age of 17, following his graduation from high school, he went to seminary. At the age of 22, he was invited to join the Diocese of Worcester. Though he was fluent in Portuguese and Italian, he did not speak English when he came to the United States.
A fellow seminarian at the time, Father Thiago Da Silva, had called Father Ibiapina to discuss his own experience in the Diocese of Worcester and invited his friend to come. “That’s not happening. I am not coming,” Father Ibiapina said in the video interview. He cited that the reason was because he did not speak English, and he did not know much about the United States beyond what “the movies” portray. According to Father Ibiapina, when he thought of the Catholic Church abroad, he thought of the Vatican, not America.
His journey to discerning his call to the Diocese of Worcester began in December of 2015, and in March of 2016 he had his first Skype interview with Father James S. Mazzone, the vocations director at the time. He stated that  he started to have “the assurance that everything would be well,” even if he knew he could also be “extremely comfortable” in Brazil with his family.  
The immigration process went quickly, he said. When he got off the plane in Boston, he did not know where Worcester was and was puzzled why the car ride to his destination was taking so long. Despite all these uncertainties, Father Ibiapina was determined to come to the United States “with an attitude to embrace this culture and the Church.” There were  some cultutral differences that he took note of, such as the use of hymnals in the United States and the lack of hymnals in Brazil. Music is memorized in Brazil, he noted.  
Father Ibiapina also talked about his academic endeavors. Taking an interest in Edith Stein and the philosophical work of Pope St. John Paul II, he practiced his love of reading, through their work, as well as his love for writing, by translating and commenting on the work through various publications. He continues to pursue these hobbies in addition to his pastoral responsibilities.
Now a priest for over a year, Father Ibiapina talked about the “intense” pastoral responsibilities at Annunciation Parish, Gardner. From funerals to care for the sick, to prison ministry and the parish school, there is always work to be done. But, he has found a balance to take care of himself and the parish, all while gaining “a lot” of experience.  
When asked if he ever experienced homesickness, Father Ibiapina was honest in addressing his attachment to his family while acknowledging that holidays are different, but he and his family “just have to face it. It is not much of a secret.”
For those who may be discerning a vocation, his advice to them comes from the parish life. “The life in the parish and the life in the Church is going to give you a good sense of if God is calling you or not, (because) if not, you will be discerning by yourself,” he stated.  
“My parishioners see this, and I hope everyone who approaches me sees this, I am a very happy man. I am fulfilled not only being a priest but living here and belonging to the diocese and my assignments. We have challenges. It is the natural course of things. However, I have been happy … You need happy priests, priests who just give their lives fully.”
“Your vocation is a great gift to our diocese,” said Father Infante.

– The latest episode of Come Follow Me can be found on the Diocese of Worcester Vimeo, or on https://worcesterdiocese.org/come-follow-me.