By Fr. Raphael Mary Salzillo, OP
My name is Fr. Raphael Mary and I have been a priest for about a month and a half. I did my philosophical and theological studies at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, CA. I graduated at the end of May and was ordained a priest just a week later. After a whirlwind vacation of visiting family and friends, I arrived at my new assignment – Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle. I am really only a “baby priest” and have a lot to learn. But I would like to share with you a little of my journey and how Our Lord brought me to this point.
My path to the priesthood has been a long and winding one. I grew up in an Evangelical Protestant family, in a little town on the Oregon coast. It was through my mother that I first became interested in Catholicism, at the age of fifteen. Through a long and turbulent process of wrestling with God, I finally decided to become Catholic. Little did I know where this road that I was grudgingly setting out on would one day lead me!
At the age of sixteen, just one year after becoming Catholic, I had a spiritual experience during the Holy Mass that made me suspect that God was calling me to the priesthood. I rejected it out of hand at the time. Even though I loved God very much, I had no desire, nor was I willing to give my life to Him in that way.
As a teenager, I was far from being spiritually or intellectually mature enough to understand clearly what being Catholic meant. I like to say that I became Catholic at fifteen and then spent the next eight years trying to figure out what I had done! Fortunately the Holy Spirit was there every step of the way to nudge me in the direction He wanted me to go (there were times that nudge was less gentle than at other times – the Lord always seems to know just how much force to use).
I studied Applied Physics and was working on my PhD when God started to soften my heart and open me to the possibility that I was being called to the religious life and the priesthood. Thankfully, He put just the right people around me to encourage and support me in this vocation.
It was eight years ago that I finally answered the call by entering the Dominican Order as a novice at St. Albert Priory in Oakland. I made my Simple Profession at the end of my novice year and then began what would be six years of graduate study in philosophy and theology at the DSPT.
As a student at DSPT I found myself engaged in a community of scholars pursuing studies solidly rooted in the Catholic faith and seeking to provide answers to the concerns of our time. The school makes no bones about being faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, while at the same time reaching out to engage in dialogue with many different viewpoints and ideologies. St. Thomas Aquinas is the guiding light and the starting point for both philosophy and theology at DSPT. The school is animated by a conviction that the truths of reason and faith that St. Thomas illuminated so well are still both relevant and necessary in the modern world. Ultimately, the mission of DSPT is to evangelize our culture – to bring the light and truth of Christ to a world that so often seems to have turned its back on him.
My life has changed so suddenly in these past days. Celebrating the Mass daily, hearing confessions, and preaching are all new and fresh for me and I hope they remain so, even as I grow in age and experience. Through it all, I am profoundly grateful for the education I received at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology. DSPT is truly a gem and an oasis in a time when the dictatorship of relativism seems to be so powerful.
There are many others continuing on a similar path toward the priesthood right behind me. So that these students and future priests may enjoy the same solid academic experience I have benefited from, I ask you to consider prayerfully what you can afford to give to the School. Please consider donating your time and your talents or make a contribution to the Annual Fund. When you give of your time or your money to the Dominican School you are directly helping to form the future leaders of the Church, both priests and laity.
I ask for your prayers at this exciting and complicated time as I begin my priesthood. May Our Lord richly bless you and your family and draw you ever closer to Himself.
In Christ,
Fr. Raphael Mary Salzillo, O.P.
