-
February 11, 2022BY BILL DOYLE | CFP CORRESPONDENT
Seminarian Peter Bui believes he was destined to become a priest even before he was born.
“You can call it destiny or God’s providence,” he said from Theological College, the national seminary of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
When Mr. Bui’s parents belonged to the former Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Worcester, Phuong Van Nguyen was a seminarian at the church. After Mr. Bui’s mother became pregnant in 1992, Nguyen asked to be godfather. Like them, he was from Vietnam.
“They didn’t even know each other,” Mr. Bui said, “but I guess he felt drawn to my parents and he asked. My parents agreed. It was such an honor for them to be asked that.”
After his ordination in 1993, Father Nguyen was assigned to Christ the King Parish as associate pastor and in 2002 was temporary administrator at Our Lady of Vilna. He was the first of Mr. Bui’s many mentors.
Unfortunately, Father Nguyen drowned in a fishing accident on Good Friday in 2004. Mr. Bui was one of the altar servers at Father Nguyen’s funeral at Our Lady of Vilna.
“I think at the funeral, the seed of the vocation was planted,” Mr. Bui said.
He still prays at Father Nguyen’s gravesite when he can.
“I believe that prayers work and he continues to guide me on my journey,” Mr. Bui said.
Mr. Bui, 29, is scheduled to become a deacon in May and to be ordained a priest next year. He said if Partners in Charity didn’t pay for his seminary education, he couldn’t have afforded to attend. The cost of seminaries varies, but the average is about $40,000 a year, and seminarians attend for six to eight years.
“It’s definitely a blessing, for sure,” he said, “and I also see it as a responsibility to bear fruit with what Partners in Charity has given to me. Like Jesus says, ‘With the talents that we receive, we need to bear fruit with it.’ So that’s what I hope to do for our diocese.”
“Men have to be free to enter and truly discern whether God is calling them to be a priest,” said Father Donato Infante III, director of the diocesan Office for Vocations at the Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies. They would not be free to discern if they had to worry about “putting themselves into a debt that a priest’s salary would never be able to pay off,” he said.
Father Infante said his office occasionally receives donations from the Serra clubs, Knights of Columbus and others, but the annual Partners in Charity support accounts for his office’s entire regular budget.
Partners in Charity finances more than 20 organizations and agencies in the diocese. The fund-raising goal is once again $5 million. Last year, 89 percent of that goal was achieved even though church attendance dropped because of the pandemic. Donations can be made through parishes, by visiting Partners-charity.net or by calling 508-929-4366.
The 2022 theme of Partners in Charity is “Be the Face of Christ,” and Mr. Bui plans to become the face of Christ for his parishioners someday.
“I really hope that I can be Christ to them and bring Christ to them. And in turn, as we grow in holiness together, they’ll be Christ to me. Many people already have,” he said.
“Seminarians are also the face of Christ in the Church,” Father Infante said, “because they show that God is still calling people to the priesthood, and it gives hope to people that in the future there will be more priests to do the work that the Church needs to do.”
Father Infante and others have served as the face of Christ to Mr. Bui, he said.
“First and foremost,” he said, “our vocations are sustained by prayers. So they pray for us, they help us grow and then they mentor us. We have a lot of good priests in our diocese and to become a good priest it requires a lot of mentorship.”
His other mentors include Father James S. Mazzone, pastor at St. John, Guardian of Our Lady in Clinton and former vocations director; Father Edward D. Niccolls, pastor at St. George Parish in Worcester; Father Robert A. Grattaroti, pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Charlton; and Father Juan D. Escudero, pastor at St. Rose of Lima in Northborough where Mr. Bui spent last summer.
Each summer, the diocese assigns the seminarians to a parish or ministry. While working summers at parishes, Mr. Bui accompanied priests when they brought Communion to the sick in homes and hospitals and helped officiate at wakes and funerals. At St. Joseph, he also worked with youth on Bible studies, breakfasts and canned food drives.
Mr. Bui felt the call from God, but held it off while attending Assumption University as an undergraduate. He didn’t decide to enter seminary until 2017, after finishing graduate school at Assumption, while working as a business analyst in Boston.
“I tried to run away from the call for a long time,” he said. But he’s glad he finally answered it.
“Peter, like any of our seminarians, is striving for holiness, he’s a very prayerful person,” Father Infante said. “He also always has a smile on his face. He’s very upbeat and cheerful, and I think that joy comes from his relationship with Jesus Christ, that he knows our Lord and is in a relationship with him, and that joy is infectious.”
Father Infante said Partners in Charity pays for tuition and health insurance for the seminarians, as well as insurance and maintenance for two diocesan vehicles for the seminarians’ use. Partners also supports the annual vocation retreat and monthly vocation dinner and provides seminarians with resources, including books on priesthood and discernment.
Partners also funds the Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies. Currently, three seminarians studying at Assumption reside there. Also, seminarians who need to study English have lived in the House of Studies. Partners pays for the upkeep of the building, which is also used by the Hispanic-Latino Ministry, the diocesan Catholic Committee on Scouting, a priest fraternity group, and for planning meetings for the youth ministry office.
Just recently, the House of Studies had problems with the heating system and needed to replace thermostats that had been in use since 1965.
“We got our money’s worth on those,” Father Infante said.
There are 22 other seminarians in the diocese who attend Theological College; St. Mary’s in Baltimore; Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland; St. John’s in Brighton; and Pope St. John XXIII in Weston; and in Rome. Eighteen of the seminarians grew up in the United States; 16 of them in the diocese.
