Bishop calls on new priests to keep Christ in the center of their lives and that of the faithful

Bishop Michael Mulvey ordained four priests at the Corpus Christi Cathedral on Saturday, May 31. It was, the bishop said to the new priests, “a special day in your lives and in the lives of your families, but it is also a unique moment in the life of the entire Church.”

Two of the priests, Father David Bayardo and Father Alfredo Villarreal, are diocesan priests and two, Father Tristan Abbott and Father Michael Slovak, were ordained for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. The day was an important one in the life of the Diocese of Corpus Christi and for the Society of Our Lady the Most Holy Trinity, Bishop Mulvey said.

“This does not happen every day,” he said to family and friends who packed the Cathedral.

It was the end of a long journey of discernment and seminary preparation, but it is also the beginning of what the priests hope will be a long journey in service to God’s church and its people.

Father Bayardo said he told his mother he wanted to be a priest at the age of seven. No one believed him then but when he got ready to commit to the long period of study and discernment his family was very supportive.

“They’re my world. They are the first way I know how to be a Christian, to be Catholic,” Father Bayardo said. “They are the way I’ll know how to be a priest. They are everything.”

Father Villarreal shared this feeling with his brother priest.

“My family played a huge role,” Father Villarreal said. “They have been supportive of my formation. I could not have done this journey without them.”

In addition to supportive parents and siblings, the two men also have uncles that are priests who played important roles in their journey into the priesthood. They were both present at the ordination to vest their nephews in their new ecclesiastical vestments.

In his homily, Bishop Mulvey offered the new priests simple but enduring advice. Using the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, the bishop reminded the new priests that, “Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers.” Everything they do as priests must be centered on Christ, he said.

“The Lord has chosen you, Alfredo, David, Michael and Tristan to serve the priesthood of the baptized through the ministerial priesthood. In that light, you are not to lord anything over the people of God,” the bishop said. “You are not to order, you are not to command or to put yourself above the people of God, but to serve and to serve humbly in the image of Jesus Christ who himself, though divine, emptied himself of his divinity in order to serve. Therefore, you must always seek to acquire the mind and the heart of Jesus Christ.”

The bishop said he was not ordaining them to be social workers but to serve Jesus Christ and his people. He cautioned them that they could not be of service to others if they remained strangers to the life and conditions of the people they were called to serve.

Their mission is to lead everyone to Jesus Christ through the ministry of the word. “The word of God must be at the very heart of your own personal life and your own personal prayer,” Bishop Mulvey said. “Be mindful in your ministry to the word that the Lord God wants to speak to his people through you.” He asked them, as Pope Francis has asked all priests, to prepare well to deliver the word of God to the faithful.

“You are priests of Jesus Christ, priests of his church. I ask you to be a conduit of the word of God and never be an obstacle through speech or through action, which contradicts the word of God,” Bishop Mulvey said.

As priests they will be called to “sanctify the people of God through the sacraments.” Through the sacraments, the bishop said, they would allow Christ to work through them so that he can be present to his people.

“Please be careful administers of the sacraments,” the bishop said. “It is Christ Jesus baptizing that baby; it is Christ Jesus forgiving the sinner in that confessional; it is Christ Jesus himself in your person celebrating his own offering to the Father. It is he who wants to be present in the church today, so that he may shine forth and touch the depth of the hearts of your brothers and sisters. Remember how important it is that he be front and center.”

The bishop asked the four newly ordained priests to be compassionate and clear in the confessional. He told them to be gentle and kind, to welcome the sinner to a new life of conversion and to walk with them.

“Above all brothers, do not judge. And even less, do not condemn; that is not our job. Be there present to your brothers and sisters. In order for this to happen, you must take on the mind and the heart of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Mulvey said.

“My brothers, remain faithful to Jesus Christ. Don't worry about remaining faithful to your bishop, your superior. Don’t remain faithful worrying about the Liturgy of the Hours, saying Mass every day, hearing confessions. Don’t worry about those things. I ask you to be conscious of one thing: be faithful to Jesus Christ. Then, you will say Mass every day with the heart of Jesus. You will hear confessions with his compassion and love. You will seek out the lost because he will urge you to do so,” the bishop said.

He closed his talk to the new priests by offering his friendship and that of his brother priests. “Call me, I am a friend. Share the pain with your brother priests, deacons and laity so that we can all remain faithful,” Bishop Mulvey said.

Father Bayardo has been assigned to Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish, Father Villarreal will be serving at St. Philip the Apostle Parish in Corpus Christi, Father Abbott will serve at Nuestra Señora del Refugio in Nuevo Laredo and Father Slovak has been assigned to Christ the King Parish in Corpus Christi.

Newly ordained priests join Bishop Mulvey in front of Corpus Christi Cathedral after their ordination. They are from left, Father Alfredo Villarreal, Father David Bayardo, Father Michael Slovak, SOLT, and Father Tristan Abbott, SOLT. Mary Cottingham, South Texas Catholic