It’s a wonderful life

Perhaps the call to priesthood is a mystery, part of the mystery of life itself

By Fr. Gerald Curry, S.F.M.
March 2002

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The first memory I have of my vocation to the priesthood is as a boy of ten. I was walking home from the circus with a friend who asked me what I was going to be when I grew up. I remember answering that I wanted to be a priest. It was the first time I had said these words to anyone.

(R-L): Deo and Devi Kernahan present Fr. Curry with Exploring World Religions, a Catholic high school world religions textbook containing an article on the Scarboro Missions Interfaith Desk and its interfaith activities. As Editor of Scarboro Missions magazine, Fr. Curry began featuring articles on interfaith dialogue in 1990. Deo, a Hindu, was an important figure in the Toronto interfaith community and collaborated with Scarboro Missions through the work of the Interfaith Desk. Deo passed away last December. (R-L): Deo and Devi Kernahan present Fr. Curry with Exploring World Religions, a Catholic high school world religions textbook containing an article on the Scarboro Missions Interfaith Desk and its interfaith activities. As Editor of Scarboro Missions magazine, Fr. Curry began featuring articles on interfaith dialogue in 1990. Deo, a Hindu, was an important figure in the Toronto interfaith community and collaborated with Scarboro Missions through the work of the Interfaith Desk. Deo passed away last December.

About six years later I remember giving the same answer when asked by a family friend. I went to university with the same thought in mind; it was not an overpowering thought but it was definitely there. Upon entering university I signed up for Latin and philosophy, courses necessary to enter the seminary. It was during these two years that I discussed my future with a priest friend. We discussed priesthood and the road to it and the different ways one could live the priesthood.

Did I want to be a parish priest, a teacher-priest, a missionary priest? Did I want to belong to a religious order? My friend, Fr. Vince MacLellan, suggested I meet with a priest from the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society who at that time was visiting the university in search of vocations.

The summer following my third year of university Fr. Vince accompanied me on a visit to Scarboro Missions. I remember meeting Fr. Tom McQuaid (then Superior General of Scarboro Missions) and Fr. Tom O’Toole who was getting ready for his departure to Japan. A year later I joined Scarboro Missions and six years later joined Fr. O’Toole in Japan.

My years in the seminary were happy ones, full of purpose, deepening my understanding and my desire to become a priest. My family was very supportive, although they wondered about my choice to go so far away from home, quietly preferring that I stay and be part of the local diocese.

Although it seems like yesterday, it has been 42 years since I was ordained by Bishop William Power of the Diocese of Antigonish. Most Scarboro missionaries are ordained in their home diocese. It is this home diocese that nurtured our faith and our vocation to priesthood. As Scarboro missionaries we try to maintain close ties with these communities of faith. It is true to say that we go to mission in their name as well as in the name of Scarboro Missions which enables our journey to far off lands.

It is relatively easy to write about my journey as a priest. It is much more difficult to explain why I felt so called. Perhaps it is because I grew up in a community of faith, and faith and church were important to my family. I remember the priests at our parish as being ‘all things to all men,’ helping others with their struggles and helping them to understand the Catholic faith.

I have heard couples speak of their call to married life—what brought them together, sometimes over great distances; what attracted them to each other... Many found this difficult to explain. I feel the same about my call to priesthood. There is mystery about it, part of the mystery of life itself.

My experience has led me to understand priesthood as a call to journey with people, to share their “joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties” (Vatican II). It is a journey in which we strive to take on the mind of Christ and live our lives following His example. As Catholics we celebrate and nourish this journey in the Eucharist and sacraments of the Church.

Would I do it over again? Well, of course I would. It has been a wonderful life with so much to be thankful for, and fulfilling in so many ways.

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