Priestly Ordination of Paul Anel, Jean-Marie Porté and Thibault de Pontbriand - France, June 27^th

“True humanity is real par­tic­i­pa­tion in the suf­fering of human beings. It means being a man of com­pas­sion, being at the center of human pas­sion, really bearing with others their suf­fering and the temp­ta­tion of our times: ‘God, Where are you in this world?’” With these words of Pope Benedict XVI in mind, the Heart’s Home family rejoiced to par­tic­i­pate in one of its largest inter­na­tional events to date: the ordi­na­tion of three priests and four dea­cons to the Molokai Fraternity. Among these seven men ordained by his Excellency the Most Reverend Dominique Rey, Bishop of Toulon (Southern France) was Father Paul Anel, member of the Heart’s Home com­mu­nity in Brooklyn.

The cel­e­bra­tion took place at The Immaculate Conception Seminary in La Crau, France, alongside the ordi­na­tion of 27 other men to the dia­conate and priest­hood. Nearly 3000 family mem­bers and friends gath­ered to wit­ness the occa­sion. In his homily, Bishop Rey addressed the obsta­cles pre­sented to priests in our society such as sec­u­larism, cler­i­calism, func­tion­alism, activism, indi­vid­u­alism, and skep­ti­cism. He reminded all those being ordained of their vul­ner­able humanity and warned them against relying on their own abil­i­ties; rather, he urged them to con­tin­u­ously draw wisdom and strength from prayer and the Eucharist. Concluding with a prayer of Consecration to Holy Mary, Bishop Rey reas­sured the men that “God trusted Himself to their weak­nesses.”

The homily echoed the talk on Priesthood given the prior evening by Rev. Thierry de Roucy, founder of Heart’s Home. He quoted the words of Pope Benedict used to con­clude the Year for Priests, “God entrusts to His priests the mis­sion of edu­ca­tion, guiding and sanc­ti­fying His people. […] The only way in which the priest could con­tribute to the sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion of his people is by putting them in con­tact with God’s own sanc­tity. This implies that he him­self be a truly human man, a man of com­pas­sion; that he be a man inhab­ited by Holy Mercy, a man ‘of the con­fes­sional’; a man with one eye looking at the basin and the water to wash people’s feet, and the other eye looking at the Cross.”
The meeting with Father Thierry was imme­di­ately fol­lowed by a vigil of Adoration and Confession. Friends, rel­a­tives, and lay and con­se­crated mem­bers of Heart’s Home from around the world were able to wor­ship alongside the young ordi­nands as they pre­pared them­selves for the momen­tous occa­sion!

After the beau­tiful ordi­na­tion mass, the con­gre­ga­tion formed long lines to kiss the hands of the newly ordained priests and receive their holy bless­ings. That evening, loved ones from the four corners of the world gath­ered as a large Heart’s Home family to share a lively dinner, filled with Neapolitan music and con­ge­nial con­ver­sa­tions. The fol­lowing day, we all gath­ered again, excited to share in the cel­e­bra­tion of the first mass of Father Paul, Father Jean-Marie, and Father Thibault. At the lunch that fol­lowed, the newly ordained priests took us on a trip around the world as they shared pic­tures and music from their beloved mis­sions in New York, Berlin, and Dakar.

How beau­tiful is our Church! How bold is our God to depend on men; to decide that our way to sanc­tity and sal­va­tion is offered through the poor hands of these young min­is­ters of His Mercy!
On the 27^th of June, we wit­nessed the birth of three priests. As wit­nesses of the liturgy, as par­tic­i­pants in the same Eucharist, as mem­bers of the Catholic family, isn’t true that the Lord now calls us to sup­port these young men with our sin­cere prayers and our loyal friend­ship?

May our hearts cry out, “Oh, Lord, give us plenty of saintly priests!”

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