HOMILY FOR THE MASS OF ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD OF BRS LOUIS MARY BETHEA, GREGORY MARIE SANTY, BERTRAND MARIE HERBERT, BASIL MARY BURROUGHS, TITUS MARY SANCHEZ, NICODEMUS MARIA THOMAS AND LINUS MARY MARTZOF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS
THE BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, WASHINGTON D.C. FEAST OF ST BONIFACE, JUNE 5, 2025
Unparalleled in wisdom about our origins, lives and destinies, about the perennial battle between good and evil, and about the possibility of redemption… I am speaking, of course, not of the Bible or the Summa but the Marvel comics and films.
Connecting those stories is the theme of transformation, as ordinary human beings become extraordinary superheroes—or villains. Consider Tony Stark’s metamorphosis, from self-centered weapons manufacturer to Iron Man protector of the weak; or the physically weak and socially withdrawn physicist Robert Banner made Incredible Hulk by gamma radiation; or mild-mannered teenager Peter Parker turned crime-fighting Spider-Man after a radioactive spider bite; or the frail Steve Rogers become Captain America due to “Super-Soldier Serum”…
Yet these examples of profound transformations from the Marvel Universe pale when compared to what is about to take place in the very being of our seven ordinands. It is our Catholic faith—taught by the magisterium and St Thomas Aquinas—that this sacrament leaves an indelible seal or character upon the souls of the ordained, one that cannot be erased.[1] It’s a change so profound it’s been tagged ‘ontological’, more complete than any dreamt up at Marvel.
Some balk at such metaphysical talk because they distrust philosophical categories, especially from the same stable as Transubstantiation. Some fear it encourages an unhealthy clericalism that lords it over others and allows clergy to exempt them from ongoing formation, co-responsibility, accountability, even ordinary morality and courtesy. Some even attribute the clergy sexual abuse crisis to Catholic mythologising about ontology and sacred power.[2]
Others accept Church teaching that the Sacrament of Orders effects a permanent character in the recipient but minimise its implications to unrepeatability: you can’t be re-ordained a priest, just as you cannot be re-baptised a Christian; otherwise, you are the same thing after ordination as you were before.
Yet from today things will change for these seven men. People much older than them will treat them with unaccustomed reverence, calling them “Father” even though they are younger and celibate. Though they already boast the Church’s coolest habit, they will vest anew for Mass. They will sit in a special place, celebrate the rites, and serve themselves Communion. There will be new pulpits, new sacraments, new charges. When gravely sick, they will be anointed on the back of their hands, not the front. And when dead—hopefully, many decades from now—they will be placed with head rather than feet towards the altar…
Is all this just spiritual elitism and pious myth? Or is there a richer reality to this talk of ontological change and indelible character? Let me suggest seven respects in which these men, our sons and brothers, will be different from today, so different that we will call them Father…
Today’s will not be the first ontological change effected sacramentally in these men: it will in fact be their fourth. Baptism, Confirmation and Diaconate already made them Children of God, Temples of the Holy Spirit, Servants of the Altar, Word, and Charity. Today’s change builds on those three transformations by God’s grace.
Secondly, our epistle speaks of priests as “selected from among the people,” set apart from their fellows. As baptism calls the faithful out of the rest of humanity to be “reborn” as “a new creation,” so this sacrament calls some of them to further renewal. The recent popes have warned against secularising priests and clericalising the laity: they have different parts to play. “Behold, I am doing a new thing” with you, God says to these seven today.[3]
Thirdly, as our readings make clear, these men are set apart from their fellows for the sake of their fellows, shepherds for the sheep, mediators representing them before God. So, it is a change of relationship, told in the new title of ‘father’. It is about service, not status. As Our Lord repeatedly taught, we come to serve, not to be served.[4]
What is the particular service of their fellows for which the character conferred at Ordination will fit or ‘order’ our new priests? The Church draws upon the biblical imagery of priest, head, shepherd, and bridegroom to elaborate on this service.[5] Today’s readings tell our priestlings to “deal gently with the ignorant and stray”, to offer prayers, sacrifices and tears for their redemption, and to guide and guard them from the ‘savage wolves’ that would disturb their faith and communion. They will share in a particular way in Christ’s munera of teaching, sanctifying and governing. In an age of unremitting secularisation, moral relativism, cultural polarisation, and more, the world needs your dual vocation of preaching friar and sanctifying priest more than ever—and the Thomist ontology you bring to this task.
Fifthly, the character conferred at ordination conforms the ordained to Christ in a new way, so he might act in persona Christi capitis, in the person of Christ the head: effecting the Eucharistic consecration, absolving sins, and anointing the sick. St Thomas characterises this as becoming instruments, mediators, or conduits of Christ’s graces, deputed to act in His place and according to His will, not our own. Ordinary instruments are themselves unchanged over time, except that they gradually wear out; but the more these men fulfill their calling, the more they will become like their Manufacturer and inextricably bound to Him.
Again, unlike a job or title, priesthood is 24/7 and for life, even into eternity. A priest never stops being a priest. I’ve heard a few priests say they can’t wait to escape their priesthood and get on with their ‘real life’. That strikes me as confused, even tragic. Priesthood is the priest’s life, his God-given way of being human and Christian. Retired, holidaying, or sleeping priests are still priests; even so-called ‘laicized’ priests can still give sacraments in emergencies.
Seventh and finally, as the sacraments of initiation incorporate a person into the Christ’s body the Church, so ordination incorporates them into the body of priests, the Presbyterate.[6] Now seven of Dominic’s sons will become the Fantastic Seven, each with new superpowers but all part of a team of the 400,000 priest-presbyters sanctifying our world.
Well, that’s seven dimensions of the ontological change about to take place: these bright young theologians could probably list some more! Yet strangely, like the bread and wine after the consecration at Mass, they will look much the same as they did before. Perhaps that’s a mercy: we’d rather they didn’t go big and green like the Hulk. And their metamorphosis will be just as mysterious. Many times in the years ahead, they and their people will experience things that can only be explained by the grace of today’s sacrament working itself out through them.[7]
Dear brothers, just as no two Marvel superheroes have the same origin story and experiences, so each of you comes with a particular geography, education and religious background. Each of you found your calling to Dominican priesthood in your own way.
Brother Louis, worldly success in the tyre industry in Luxembourg left you empty, until you experienced a flood of God’s mercy, calling you to a Dominican life of contemplation and sharing its fruits with others for the salvation of their souls.
Brother Gregory, from that first stirring as a fourth-grade server, through to physics, philosophy and discerning in various places, you found your vocational home in the joyful common life of the friars, spring-board for your priestly service.
Louisianan Bertrand, your Catholic upbringing, transformative retreats and philosophical education led you to a diocesan seminary, where you discerned a call to the evangelical counsels and religious consecration alongside the call to priesthood.
While some lose their faith at college, our Canadian Brother Basil discovered it there! You found the intellectual depth and heroic charity of the Catholic Church far more compelling than the relativism and hedonism of the culture. Now you will help convert that culture to Christ.
Texan Titus, by God’s strange providence you met the Dominicans in Alaska! Word and sacrament whispered conversion and vocation in your ear and soon you embraced the mission of a son of Dominic to preach and be close to Mother Mary.
The rosary, altar service, and apologetics, prepared you, Brother Nicodemus, to encounter the brethren in prayer and study at Providence College, and to join the Order’s heroes, including our soon-to-be-sainted Pier Giorgio.
And finally, Brother Linus, you and a friend decided almost on impulse to check out the Dominicans! You stayed because of the sense of fraternity and the preaching of grace and hope that you will now embody as a living homily yourself.
Building upon your diverse gifts and backgrounds, the Holy Spirit will today pour out upon the seven of you graces for spiritual superheroes. He will change you ontologically into priests of Jesus Christ forever. Embrace this mysterious transformation with humility and gratitude, allowing Christ so profoundly to reshape your being that those you serve will encounter Him in you. May Paul’s constant refrain be yours also: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
Word of Thanks after the Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood
A word of thanks to those who influenced and supported our seven new priests on their vocational journeys, those who helped them in discernment and formation, and those who contributed to today’s very special celebration. My congratulations to your families and the Dominican Friars.
In chapter 6 of the Acts of the Apostles it is recorded that the newborn Church grew so rapidly that the apostles struggled to keep up the ministries of worship, preaching and care of the widows and poor. So, they chose “seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” to share their load, ordaining them by “praying over them and laying hands on them”. Seven is a very Catholic number, not just for clergy but for sacraments, virtues, hills of Rome—and deadly sins! You can work out which of our new priests is best identified as Father Baptism or Father Confession and the rest, who is Father Prudence, Father Temperance or Father Hope, which is more Aventine or Esquiline—though none, I’m sure, would be characterized as Father Gluttony or Father Sloth!
The Dominican Province of St Joseph and the Church universal rings out with joy today that the Church has seven new priests. Yet the flock of Jesus Christ needs many shepherds if we are to fulfil Christ’s injunction to lead the sheep and nurture the lambs. So, I ask you all to pray for more like these. And to the young men of America I say: people are crying out for words of life and sacraments of grace to transfigure their hearts and lives; you might be the very one, by God’s grace, to offer them this as a Dominican priest. Come discern with them, be immersed in their charism and life, and be assured of a first-rate formation. May our new priests inspire you to give yourself over to God’s plan for you.
And to these seven I say: Congratulations fathers! God bless you as you bless others. Thanks be to God!
[1] Magisterial sources for this doctrine include:
- Council of Florence, Bull of Union with the Armenians (1439) [DS 1313]: “Three of the sacraments, namely baptism, confirmation and orders, imprint indelibly on the soul a character, that is a kind of stamp which distinguishes it from the rest. Hence they are not repeated in the same person.”
- Council of Trent, Decree on the True and Catholic Doctrine concerning the Sacrament of Order (1563) [DS 1609, 1763-1778], Ch. IV “Forasmuch as in the sacrament of Order, as also in Baptism and Confirmation, a character is imprinted, which can neither be effaced nor taken away, the holy Synod with reason condemns the opinion of those, who assert that the priests of the New Testament have only a temporary power; and that those who have once been rightly ordained, can again become laymen.” Canon IV: “If anyone says that, by sacred ordination… a character is not imprinted… or that he who has once been a priest can again become a layman, let him be anathema.”
- Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964) (‘LG’) 10: “Though they differ from one another in essence and not only in degree, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are nonetheless interrelated… The ministerial priest, by the sacred power he enjoys, teaches and rules the priestly people; acting in the person of Christ, he makes present the Eucharistic sacrifice…”; cf. 21, 28 & 29.
- Vatican Council II, Presbyterorum Ordinis: Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests (1965) (‘PO’) 2: “The priesthood… is conferred by that special sacrament [of Orders]; through it priests, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are signed with a special character and are conformed to Christ the Priest in such a way that they can act in the person of Christ the Head.”
- Code of Canon Law (1983) (‘CIC’) can. 290: “Once validly received, sacred ordination never becomes invalid.”
- Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) (‘CCC’)1582: “On the Effects of the Sacrament of Holy Orders: The indelible character. As in the case of Baptism and Confirmation this share in Christ’s office is granted once for all. The sacrament of Holy Orders, like the other two, confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily.” CCC 1583: “It is true that someone validly ordained can, for grave reasons, be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict sense, because the character imprinted by ordination is forever. The vocation and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him permanently.”
- Congregation for the Clergy, Directory on the Ministry and Life of Priests (1994) 5: “The grace and the indelible character conferred with the sacramental unction of the Holy Spirit, place the priest in personal relation with the Trinity”. DMLP 6: “The faithful who, maintaining their common priesthood, are chosen and become part of the ministerial priesthood are granted an indelible participation in the one and only priesthood of Christ. This is a participation in the public dimension of mediation and authority regarding the sanctification, teaching and guidance of all the People of God. On the one hand, the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial or hierarchical priesthood are necessarily ordered one for the other because each in its own way participates in the only priesthood of Christ and, on the other hand, they are essentially different.”
- St John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis: Apostolic Exhortation on the Formation of Priests Today (1992) 11-18.
- Benedict XVI, Omnium in Mentem: Motu Proprio Amending the Canon Law on Holy Orders, October 26, 2009.
Aquinas on the character conferred:
- at Baptism: Summa Theologiae (‘STh’) IIIa q. 63, a. 1, ad 1 & 2; a. 2, co.; a. 3, co; a. 5, co.
- at Ordination: STh IIIa q. 63, a. 1, co.; a. 6, co.; q. 65, a. 3; Supp q. 34, a. 2, co.
[2] E.g. in various submissions to and statements by Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Final Report, 2017); Douglas McManaman, ‘The myth of the ontological superiority of the priest,’ Where Peter Is February 29, 2024 https://wherepeteris.com/the-myth-of-the-ontological-superiority-of-the-priest/; Connor Gwin, ‘Never stop improving and the myth of ontological change,’ Mockingbird August 6, 2018; Gabrielle Hunt et al., ‘The prevalence of child sexual abuse perpetrated by leaders or other adults in religious organizations in Australia,’ Child Abuse & Neglect 155 (2024) and sources therein.
[3] Priests as ‘selected out’ or ‘set apart’: Heb 5:1-10. Christians being ‘reborn,’ ‘a new creation,’ ‘a new man’: Jn 1:13; 3:3; 2Cor 3:18; 5:17-21; Rom 6:1-23; Gal 2:20; 6:15; Col 2:2:12; 3:9-10; Eph 4:22-24; Tit 3:5; 1Pet 1:3; 3:18-22; 1Jn 3:9; 5:18; cf. CCC 537; 628; 1214; 1265; 1999; 2852. “Behold, I am doing a new thing”: Isa 43:18-19; 65:17-25; Ezek 11:19; 36:25-27; Rev 21:5. On not secularizing the priesthood or clericalizing the laity: Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium 10; Presbyterorum Ordinis 2; St John Paul II, General Audience, March 31, 1993; St John Paul II, Address to the Bishops of Antilles, May 19, 2002; Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Brazilian Bishops, September 17, 2009; John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis 3, 11-18; Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation on the Proclamation of the Gospel Today (2013) 102; Address to Plenary of Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, November 16, 2019; Address to Conference ‘Pastors and Lay Faithful Called to Go Forward Together’, February 16, 2023.
[4] Shepherds for the sake of the sheep, mediators to represent them before God: Jn 21:15-17; Acts 20:17-36; Heb 5:1-10. We must come to serve, not to be served: Mt 20:25-28; 23:11; Mk 10:45; Lk 9:48; Jn 13:1-7 etc.
[5] Cf. Romanus Cessario OP, ‘Aquinas on the priest: Sacramental realism and the indispensable and irreplaceable vocation of the priest,’ Nova et vetera 8(1) (2010): 1-15; Stephen McCormack, ‘The configuration of the sacramental character,” The Thomist 7(4) (Oct 1944): 458-91.
[6] PO 3; John Paul II, Christifideles Laici: Apostolic Exhortation on the Vocation of the Lay Faithful (1988) 51; Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium 104; P.J. Cullinane, ‘Character and ontological change in relation to ordination,’ Catholic Diocese of Palmerston North July 15, 2020 https://pndiocese.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020-07-15-REGARDING-THE-TERM-ONTOLOGICAL.pdf.
[7] See John Miller, ‘On the meaning of an ontological change,’ https://www.catholicdoors.com/faq/1000/qu1329.htm.
INTRODUCTION TO THE MASS OF ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD OF BRS LOUIS MARY BETHEA, GREGORY MARIE SANTY, BERTRAND MARIE HERBERT, BASIL MARY BURROUGHS, TITUS MARY SANCHEZ, NICODEMUS MARIA THOMAS AND LINUS MARY MARTZ OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS
THE BASILICA OF THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, WASHINGTON D.C. FEAST OF ST BONIFACE, JUNE 5, 2025
Welcome to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the priestly ordination of Brothers Louis Bethea OP, Gregory Santy OP, Bertrand Herbert OP, Basil Burroughs OP, Titus Sanchez OP, Nicodemus Thomas OP and Linus Martz OP, friars of the Order of Preachers.
Today is the feast of the Anglo-Saxon monk, missionary priest, bishop and martyr Wynfreth, known as “St Boniface the apostle to Germany”, whose life of evangelization inspires us all. Speaking of bishops, I salute concelebrating with me their excellencies: Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparch; Archbishop James Green, emeritus Apostolic Nuncio; and Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala, Auxiliary Bishop of Washington. I also acknowledge the many priests present, who delight in welcoming these seven men into the presbyterate.
We say a ‘flock’ of sheep, ‘gaggle’ of geese, and ‘murder’ of crows; but what is the most appropriate collective noun for a group of Dominican animals? One suggestion has been a fester of friars. Well, today this basilica is wonderfully infested! I am particularly honored to be joined by the 87th Successor of St Dominic, His Paternity Very Rev. Master Gerard Timoner III OP; and his socii, Fathers Pablo, Florentino, Jordan and Jamshed. I acknowledge Fr Allen Moran OP, Prior Provincial of the Province of St Joseph, with his Council, and thank him for the invitation to come ‘Up Over’ for this celebration today and the Provincial Assembly of recent days. I also recognise Priors James Sullivan OP and Gregory Schnakenberg OP, with their communities; Fr Thomas Petri OP, President of the Pontifical Faculty and his faculty; Frs Andrew Hofer OP and Sebastian White OP, Masters of Students, with the student brothers who today see the light at the end of their formation tunnels; and other members of the Order, friars, sisters and laity.
I also welcome parishioners from the parishes in which our ordinands have served. An especially warm welcome to the parents of our ordinands, along with their immediate and extended families and friends—too many to name—as well as all those gathered here today for our joyous celebration. We are grateful to you for the gift of your sons and brothers for the service of Christ and His Church. Above all, I salute these seven men who are committing their lives as priests of Jesus Christ.
