MULTIMEDIA: ‘The eve has passed and the day has dawned’

Diocese gains two new priests

Father Thomas Lafreniere and Father Brian Campbell look forward to growing in their ministry.

LINDA REEVES | FLORIDA CATHOLIC PALM BEACH BUREAU EDITOR

Posted: 05.07.09

LINDA REEVES | FC
One–by–one, priests lay hands on Deacons Brian Campbell and Thomas Lafrieniere during their ordination to the priesthood May 2.

PALM BEACH GARDENS | Since he was a boy, Thomas Lafreniere felt the call to the priesthood and was drawn to the Eucharist.

“I remember pretending,” he reminisced about his childhood pastime. “We would gather around a table – myself and my brothers. We would pretend to have Communion. It was kind of neat. It is a strong memory for me.”

Father Lafreniere now is able to truly celebrate the Mass with brother priests, following his ordination to the priesthood May 2 during ceremonies and traditional rituals at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola with Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito presiding. Father Brian Campbell was ordained at the same ceremony.

“Luckily God is very patient and waited around for me for 20 years,” said Father Lafreniere, 42, a Connecticut native. His family came from Connecticut for the ordination.

Grandmother Pearl Ferguson was all smiles.

“I have waited a long time for this day,” she said. “We are very proud of him.”

Father Lafreniere finishes studies at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach this month and his work at St. Joseph in Stuart, where he served for a year as part of training, comes to an end.

His first assignment will be serving St. Luke Parish in Palm Springs. His home parish is St. Joan of Arc in Boca Raton and he served a year at St. Ann in West Palm Beach.

“In my first year, I would like to come to the understanding of how I can be a better priest,” he said. “I think that will be a lifelong goal. As much training as I have had and as much education and experience as I have had over the last six years, there is still so much more to learn.”

Father Campbell is a native of Illinois. His family moved to Naples when he was 7 years old, and it was in Naples that he started thinking about the priesthood after witnessing the work of a pastor, Father Robert Tabbert of St. Anne.

“The young priest was a great role model,” said Father Campbell, 27. “His ability to communicate the love of Christ was incredible, and I am thankful to this day for that. It touched me in a very deep way, and I remember sharing that with my parents.”

Father Campbell’s mom, Virginia McCamish, stood at her son’s side during ordination ceremonies.

“Brian just absolutely loved him,” she said about Father Tabbert. “I remember my son looking up at me and saying, ‘I want to be a priest, Mommy.’ I am very excited today. I am happy because he has wanted this a long time. I am very, very, very happy.”

After high school in 1998, the teenager enrolled in Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. At the time, he was discerning priestly vocation and was motivated by then-Bishop Sean O’Malley, now Cardinal O’Malley, who at the time was bishop of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass. Bishop O’Malley was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach in 2002, serving nine months before his appointment as archbishop of Boston in July 2003.

The college student e-mailed Bishop O’Malley at the Diocese of Palm Beach and shared thoughts of the priesthood, not expecting the immediate reply he received.

“He was very responsive, incredibly responsive,” Father Campbell told the Florida Catholic.

Bishop O’Malley invited him to join the Diocese of Palm Beach as a seminarian in 2003.

“He was very instrumental in my vocation,” said Father Campbell.

Father Campbell entered St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary for his first year of studies. Then, he went to St. John Vianney in Miami for a year, and is now finishing at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, where he arrived two weeks before Hurricane Katrina that destroyed many parts of the region, killing area residents and leaving many homeless. The seminary was spared.

For his first assignment, he will serve St. Patrick Parish in Palm Beach Gardens. Training also included service at St. Paul of the Cross in North Palm Beach and Sacred Heart in Lake Worth.

“When I see young men of such good character and credentials like him being ordained I feel good for the future of our whole Church,” said Margaret Owers of Sacred Heart, who worked with then-Deacon Campbell there and who heard him preach and interact well with all age groups. “He was intelligent, articulate, spiritual and a joy to be around,” she said.

Father Campbell said he continues to develop.

“I am still young and have had the opportunity to have a lot of education and formation,” he told the Florida Catholic. “The learning process continues for me.”

Hundreds of religious sisters, clergy, parishioners, seminarians, and friends and family were on hand for ordination ceremonies.

Barbara Pinx of St. Peter in Naples, a family friend of Father Campbell, drove across the state.

“It is an honor to witness Brian’s faith journey from childhood to ordination,” she said.

Father Campbell said he looks forward to bringing the word of God to worshippers. “I hope to help people know their faith and to know he loves them and calls them by name,” he said.

Father Lafreniere is aiming at two achievements as he journeys through life as a priest.

“Those two things are to love the people with the heart of Jesus and to bring them closer to him. If I can do those two things, I will be happy, very happy,” he said.

One of the happiest priests at the ordination was diocesan vocations director Father Yves François.

“There are two happy days in my line of work,” he explained. “The day someone is accepted and the day that someone is ordained,” he said with a smile. “It is like the meeting of heaven and earth for me. So I am happy,” he said with a laugh.

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