An overwhelming sense of excitement and joy filled the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland June 20. Between the sniffles, baby cries, occasional cough and heels clicking on the floor, five men – Robert J. “Tre” Bart III, Stephen Kirby, Alexander Kulik, John Russell Sullivan and Connor Schmidt – were ordained to the priesthood to the cheers of the 1,439 people gathered to celebrate with them.
“I hope you know how happy I am to ordain you as priests of Jesus Christ,” Archbishop William E. Lori said at the start of his homily. “I have seen the Lord at work in your lives, fashioning and molding you after the designs of his heart. And you have opened your hearts to the Lord.”
At the start of the more than two-hour Mass, each man answered “present” when they were called by name to go before Archbishop Lori as a “worthy” candidate for the Order of Priesthood.
“When your name was called moments ago, you heard both the voice of the Lord and the voice of the Church, his bride. It was not the first time you heard their voice,” the archbishop said in his homily. “The call to priesthood has long echoed in your hearts, and you have devoted years of your life preparing to answer it. And today you did so with one simple word, ‘present.’”
Prior to the Mass, Father Kulik said he prayed with the words ‘Follow me’ which Jesus said to Matthew and also to Peter.
“Even as a priest, it’s not done,” he said. “In a way, it’s a beginning. Follow me today and then tomorrow and the next day. So today is an end, but also a beginning.”
To be able to “finally start to live out his life” as who Christ “created him to be,” Father Bart said afterward, was “probably one of the most gratifying experiences.”
“That whole journey for seven years, really the 43 years in total, my entire life, has really allowed me to figure out those areas that I obviously needed to grow in holiness and learn how to be a faithful servant of Christ,” Father Bart said. “And then eventually learn how to model Christ’s servant … to be part of this holy priesthood.”
During the ordination, the men promised to respect and obey the archbishop and his successors. Together, they prostrated themselves in front of the altar during the Litany of the Saints, and each received blessings from the hands of the archbishop as well as from 97 priests across the archdiocese, Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, and Auxiliary Bishops Adam J. Parker and Denis J. Madden.
“Just as the Lord looked with love upon his first disciples, so now, dear brothers, he looks upon you with love,” the archbishop said. “In that love, he consecrates you in truth. He envelopes you in his love and forever sets you apart for his service.”
Father Steven Roth, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, welcomed everyone in the congregation to the ordination.
“What a great journey and blessing this day is,” Father Roth said. “I’m happy to report that we are beginning to see the fruit of your prayers and so many others. Look at the five men God is ordaining. They are truly an answer to parishes’ prayers.”
He noted that one would be assigned to a parish that waited 14 years for an associate pastor, another to a larger parish that has waited 12 years to get a second associate. In the last few years, new priests have also been sent to local high schools and colleges, Father Roth said, inspiring more than 60 students to join the church.
“Please know that this is not the completion of our work,” Father Roth said, urging everyone to continue to pray for vocations so that “many more men will say ‘yes’ to the Lord’s call.”
The audience of deacons, Knights of Columbus, religious orders, seminarians and family members was also speckled with many first responders and a fire truck was parked proudly outside in support of Father Sullivan, a fire chaplain.
“We go through a lot of stuff ourselves and he’s always there for us,” Baltimore City Firefighter Tony Brocato, said. “Why wouldn’t we be here to see this special occasion, to see his vocation be lived out?”
Brocato noted with pride that his house was the first house blessing that Father Sullivan, then a deacon, ever did.
“He spends countless hours talking on the phone whenever I have any spiritual guidance I need,” Brocato said. “It’s important, I think, with him being our chaplain that we’re here to support him.”
While he believed the “cat was already out the bag,” Archbishop Lori announced where each priest was to begin their careers: Father Bart at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Father Kulik at Catholic Community of South Baltimore, Father Sullivan at St. John the Evangelist in Frederick and St. Joseph-on-Carrollton Manor in Buckeystown, Father Schmidt at Church of the Resurrection and St. Paul in Ellicott City, and Father Kirby at St. Joseph in Cockeysville.
After the ordination, the priests were sent to different parts of the cathedral to offer their first blessings to their families and friends.
“He has been surrounded by an incredible parish, his family, his siblings are very supportive,” said Kathryn Kirby, Father Kirby’s mother. “Nine years is a long journey. We give thanks to God.”
“It’s very interesting. Something that we never expected,” Stephen Kulik, Father Kulik’s dad, said, afterward, explaining that his son had been accepted into medical school only to turn it down after participating in Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) – a Catholic college faith program.
“He wanted to be a priest. He wanted to do spiritual healing,” Stephen Kulik said. “I’m very proud of him. He’s put a lot of time into it and he’s very dedicated and I think he’ll be a great priest.”
Kay Karwacki, of New Jersey, was excited and proud of her grandson, Father Schmidt.
“We knew it was his calling. We knew when he was 14 that was what he wanted to do,” she said, adding with a chuckle that when he was younger, however, Father Schmidt would look everywhere but the missal when she sat next to him.
“My husband gets so emotional, he can’t even talk when he tries to tell people,” Karwacki said. “My father always wanted a priest and he finally got one, his great-grandchild.”
Email Katie V. Jones at kjones@CatholicReview.org
For full profiles of each of the new priests, click here.
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