What brings the faithful to an ordination?

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press 

What brings the faithful to an ordination? What does it mean to them?
For Denise Vose, of St. Theresa Parish in Blackstone, it started with a giving tree tag.
For parents from St. James Parish in South Grafton, it was a special opportunity for their sons.
Then there are the mothers of the ordinands themselves.
About 200 people came to St. Paul Cathedral last Saturday for the ordination of Fathers Lucas M. LaRoche and John L. Larochelle, who both grew up in the Worcester Diocese.
Bishop McManus gave the new priests the traditional instruction about being holy, administering the sacraments, and following the Good Shepherd, who came not to be served but to serve, and to seek and save the lost.
“It was beautiful – just what I expected,” Mrs. Vose said after attending the Mass and meeting Father Larochelle.  “Finally, after all the prayers and cards when he was in seminary – finally I got to meet him.”
She had first picked out his name some years ago from a Christmas giving tree that included seminarians. Mrs. Vose said she chose Father Larochelle’s name because it’s the name of her favorite aunt, Dolores LaRochelle of Attleboro.
“From then on I was always corresponding with him,” and continued to pick his name from giving trees, Mrs. Vose said. But they hadn’t met in person until Saturday.
“He was very gracious,” she said. “As soon as I said, ‘I’m your cousin Denise Vose,’ he knew who I was. That was the running joke.”
But, Mrs. Vose said, “It’s a connection. … That’s what Jesus wants us to do … make connections, love one another.”
Now she looks forward to hearing both new priests preach, as they’ve been assigned to parishes working with her parish on renewal in the area.
She also enjoyed talking with Father LaRoche’s mother while waiting in line for his blessing.
“The ceremony – it was just beautiful,” his mother, Ann-Mari LaRoche, told The Catholic Free Press. “I always tell people: ‘For people who have never been (to an ordination), you need to go.’ … The symbolism is very powerful.”
But she was perhaps even more touched by thank you gifts her son gave her and her husband at his first Mass the next day at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, one of the church buildings of Annunciation Parish in Gardner.
There he presented her with the maniturgium, the cloth with which he wiped his hands after the Bishop anointed them with chrism, a consecrated perfumed oil. Mrs. LaRoche said this cloth symbolizes that the new priest’s mother was his first protector – in her womb.
Father LaRoche gave his father, Brian LaRoche, his first confessional stole. (He’d already heard a confession Saturday evening.) Mrs. LaRoche said the gift of this stole proclaims that a new priest’s father was the first to teach him about justice and mercy.
“That might have been the highlight of my weekend,” Mrs. LaRoche said. She said there were not many dry eyes when their son presented these gifts, reviving old traditions like some of his classmates are doing.
These gifts are to be buried with her and her husband someday, she said. When they meet God they can say that they gave him their first son.
Father Larochelle’s mother, Virginia Larochelle, also rejoiced in her son’s ordination and first Mass. “What a blessing it is for the whole family and the extended family,” she said. Last summer two of her daughters had “COVID weddings” with limited attendance, she said.
“So it was kind of extra rejoicing that John got his day,” she said. “Everything opened up for John.”
His only living grandparent – her mother, Mary Sheehy, 88 – was determined to come, and did so despite having had hip surgery, Mrs. Larochelle said.
She said her son did well at his first Mass, celebrated the next day at St. John Parish in Worcester for his late father, Gervais Larochelle, and their other deceased family members.
After the ordination, Julie Koss-Stephany, of Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in Worcester, recalled meeting Father Larochelle praying outside the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Worcester. It was neat to follow him on his journey to the priesthood, she said. She sometimes saw him at Mass at her parish, which has a monthly gathering to pray for vocations, seminarians and priests.
Her daughter Gina Koss-Stephany, also from Our Lady of Czestochowa, said she met Father Larochelle when they were both in the young adult group Pure in Heart. She recalled the day he told them he was pursuing priesthood.
“It was exciting because it was someone you knew,” she said. “It gives you that personal connection to the priesthood.”
For some people, it wasn’t a connection with the ordinands that brought them to the ordination.
After Cindy Taillefer and her family, from St. James Parish in South Grafton, received Father Larochelle’s blessing, she said they didn’t know him. But Father Donato Infante III, director of the Office for Vocations, had invited her son Carter to be an altar server.
“It was really amazing to see all of the priests come in, just how they came together” to lay hands on the new priests, she said. She said it was her first ordination.
Her husband, James Taillefer, said he’d been to an ordination in the Episcopal church as a child. He said it was beautiful to see Saturday’s ordination all come together.
Carter’s response came in one word: He was “speechless.”
Serving with him was a friend from St. James, 14-year-old Steven Caya, whom Father Infante also invited.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the boys,” said his mother, Lynda Caya, who felt blessed to be part of it all.      
“It was a nice service – first ordination for me also,” added her husband, Steven Caya.

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