Father, what made you decide to become a Priest?  It is a question often asked but not easily answered.   For me, the seeds were planted during Forty Hours Devotions at the Annunciation Parish in Philadelphia.  Devotions consisted of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for three consecutive days.  Along with the assigned parishioners, two altar boys knelt in adoration every hour.  In the evening, the recitation of the Rosary was followed by a stirring homily and Benediction. 
    On the closing night, Msgr. John Tolino would hold high the monstrance as he intoned the inspiring hymn of Saint Thomas Pange Lingua Gloriosi.  Then the Eucharistic Procession began.  As the people filed out of the pews, schoolgirls dressed in white strewed flower petals.  Next came the altar boys robed in our red cassocks and white surplices.  Priests from the surrounding churches preceded the Blessed Sacrament carried under the canopy, as glorious Gregorian melodies filled the air. Our Divine Savior blessed His people of the Annunciation Parish with untold graces.  
    It was then that I knew!   One day, I wanted to walk with the Priests.  Many years later, lying face down in the sanctuary of Saint Augustine’s Cathedral in Tucson, I recalled those solemn Eucharistic Processions.  At the conclusion of the Litany of the Saints, I was ordained a Priest of Jesus Christ for all eternity.  Tu es Sacerdos in Aeternum!
    In our country, vocations to the Priesthood are dangerously low.  It is a cause of constant concern.  Who will offer the Holy Sacrifice and hear our Confessions?  Who will anoint us with the Oil of Salvation when we begin our journey into eternity?   From whom will we hear the Gospel preached?   Literally, we must bombard heaven with our pleas for pious Priests.   
    As people of faith, we know that Our Lord will hear us.  Think of Sixteenth Century England!   In the year 1534, as Hilary Belloc recorded, one hundred percent of England was Catholic.  By the year 1634 over ninety percent had lost their faith, many without ever realizing it. 
    After the death of Henry VIII, a fierce persecution of the Church began.  Mass was absolutely forbidden as fear filled the hearts of Catholics. The penalty for harboring a Priest was the forfeiture of all possessions.  A second offense resulted in life in prison.  Priests caught offering Mass suffered a far more fearful fate.   Without mercy, they were hanged, drawn, and quartered.  Despite these dreadful dangers, a remnant of Catholics remained.  At grave personal peril, they hid the few remaining Priests.  English Catholics risked all so that they could have Priests who would offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
    “Where sin abounds, grace abounds the more,” Saint Paul has taught us.  Astonishingly, a number of young men came forward.   Secretly, they were smuggled to seminaries in France and Rome.  After years of prayer and study, these stouthearted, saintly Priests returned to England in order to offer Mass for the people. 
    Father Edmund Campion was one of many such heroic Priests.   Eventually, the Elizabethan authorities captured him as he was about to offer Mass.  After suffering severe torture on the rack, Father Campion was hanged, drawn, and quartered in London on December 1, 1581.   
    Pious tradition tells us that the blood of this holy martyr splattered the robe of a young man present at the execution, inspiring him to become a Priest.  Seven years later, he also was called to shed his blood for offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  Father Henry Walpole, after being racked repeatedly, was hanged, drawn, and quartered.   He was one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
    My dear friends, Our Divine Savior will never abandon His Church.  He will continue to call brave young men to the Priesthood.  Despite a pagan society with its lust and greed and pride these men, armed with the courage of Christ, will approach a Priest and say: “Father!  I want to be a Priest!”
    Saints Edmund Campion and Henry Walpole!  Pray for us!   Mary! Queen of the Clergy!  Send pious Priests to our Diocese and to the Universal Church!


                Father Richard J. Rego, S.T.L.