Question and answer: Vocations during Catholic Schools Week

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

SOUTHBRIDGE – Ever wonder what it’s like to be a priest? Wish you could ask questions about his job or personal life?

Students at Trinity Catholic Academy got to do that last Friday – and they took the opportunity eagerly. For Catholic Schools Week, priests visited classrooms. Among them were Assumptionist Fathers Luc Martel and John Franck, temporary administrator and associate pastor, respectively, of St. Anne and St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge.

Father Franck started with sixth–graders by asking where they were from, then responding, “What a mixture – and you all get along?” So began a fun, sometimes funny, give–and–take that lasted throughout the class.

When he asked how their religion and social studies teacher, Nicole Ladd, is, he was told, “Amazing!”

Even though teachers give tests?

“We need tests and quizzes,” was one response.

Some students had serious questions.

What do you do if someone tells you in confession that he killed someone?

Father Franck said he needs to urge the penitent to tell the police, “but I can’t say anything; that’s sacred time.” If priests reported what was told them, people might not confess all their sins.

“He’s really confessing to God,” Father Franck explained. “I’m only there as a representative of the Church ... a go–between.”

“Do any of you get upset when altar servers mess up?”

Father Franck said he thinks it’s good if someone wants to serve, and he doesn’t want to make that harder; he gently points out mistakes.

“Are you an altar server?” he asked his questioner.

“Yes, I mess up a lot.”

Father Franck said he remembered when he messed up.

What does he do if a toddler interrupts his homily?

“I have had somebody have a heart attack,” he answered, adding that he had to stop to address the need.

“What is it like reading the Gospel?

“It makes you humble,” the priest replied. “Who am I to be doing that?”

Mrs. Ladd asked how he discerned the call to priesthood.

At first, his father wanted him to play football, he recalled.

“In eighth grade I was still trying to figure things out,” he continued. When a priest joined him and others playing basketball, it occurred to him that if the priest, like him, enjoyed the sport, maybe he himself could enjoy priestly ministry. Discernment, of course, had to go deeper over time.

“Do you ever wear a normal, like, t-shirt?” a student wondered.

Father Franck said he dressed as he did (like an Assumptionist) that day “just for you”; in his room he doesn’t wear the same clothes. He told a student sporting a “Naples” top that “Mine doesn’t say ‘Naples’; it just says ‘Florida.’” (Students were out of uniform as a Catholic Schools Week treat.)

“We’ve been learning about different ways to pray,” Mrs. Ladd said. “What’s your favorite way to pray?”

Father Franck said he likes to read the Scriptures for Mass sentence by sentence, word by word “and let the Gospel speak.”

Sometimes he just wants to be quiet and be with God.

“I do other kinds of praying, but those are my two favorite,” he said.

A student said that one of her favorite parts of the day was meditation – sitting in silence listening to readings; “it’s a time to take your stress away.”

In response to a question from Mrs. Ladd, Father Franck said, “My favorite saint is John the Baptist. He was out in the desert. He was preparing the way of the Lord. He was a runner – the forerunner.” (Father Franck enjoys running for exercise.)

“Have you ever been visited by the Holy Spirit?” he was asked.

“I think sometimes I’ve heard the Holy Spirit speaking, but it’s not like, ‘Hello [there],’” he replied. He talked about ways of experiencing God, like seeing a sunset and thinking about who made it possible.

Concluding his time in the hot seat, he told students, “You guys were great!”

Eighth–graders had some similar questions for Father Martel, and he shared some different experiences.

He had trouble picking one favorite book of the Bible or saint, but said he finds himself attracted to the book of Ezekiel; “it rings bells within me.” So many things “just jump off the page.”

He said he hoped students have that experience in English class, when a subject is expressed well.

Speaking of favorite saints he said, “I have too many. ... I would stress Francis of Assisi. I spent 40 years outside of this country, and 24 of those were in Italy.” There, he was privileged to see places where St. Francis had been.

When he was chief financial officer for the Augustinians of the Assumption worldwide he also visited Assumptionist communities in many other countries.

The boy who attended Notre Dame Elementary and High schools in Southbridge and has been a priest for almost 52 years also met people who have now been canonized. Working at the Holy See, he interacted with St. John Paul II.

“The other one is Mother Teresa,” he said. “It’s a funny story. I almost knocked her down. ... One day I was rushing ... she was rushing, and – boom! I did meet her in a strong way!” (You could call it a blind corner where they converged.)

Asked about Revelation and the end of the world, he focused on ways God reveals himself: “The face of God is Jesus,” and “God is always at my side. The light is green; I tell him, ‘Thank you.’”

And thank you to the priests, who share their lives with Catholic school students – and many other saints and sinners.