2009 Ordinations
The Indiana Province of the Congregation of Holy Cross ordained three priests, Rev. Vincent A. Kuna, C.S.C., Rev. Charles F. McCoy, C.S.C., and Rev. Aaron J. Michka, C.S.C., on April 18, 2009 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, located at the University of Notre Dame.
All Things New:
Discernment Makes a Difference for Kuna
Rev. Vincent A. Kuna, C.S.C.
There’s no cookie-cutter approach to the Holy Cross priesthood, says Rev. Vincent A. Kuna, C.S.C., who came from Naperville, Ill., in 1995 to study business at Notre Dame. Following his undergraduate years, during his time at Moreau Seminary that began in 2002, he came to see the flexible focus on each individual’s gifts as a strength of the formation process in the Congregation of Holy Cross.
The process focuses on “how seminarians can best serve Mother Church according to their own personality and talents,” says this Colorado Springs-based deacon and youth minister. As if offering his own testimony, Kuna notes that his distinctive resume includes lettering in varsity swimming during all four years as an undergraduate at Notre Dame; teaching in Jinja, Uganda; studying film in the hope of integrating that medium into his priestly ministry; and scheduling events like movies and tailgate parties as part of his service as “dean of the seminarians.”
The title of dean goes annually to the senior seminarian at Moreau Seminary. “I was happy to serve as eldest brother and provided many moments for community building,” recalls Kuna, adding that the sense of shared identity amid diversity has been important to him all along. “The Holy Cross community blesses me with quality conversation, friendship, and a spiritual brotherhood.”
But he adds that the most important times for discerning one’s personal call are during ministry assignments, like those one takes on during the M.Div. program and throughout the formation process. “Enjoy the journey wherever the final destination leads,” says Kuna, “and know that Jesus Christ is with you every step of the way.” His own assignments have included counseling at a shelter for the homeless and assisting in a parish marriage preparation class at a local parish.
One must be open to being surprised by new sides of oneself, Kuna adds. He was humbled and inspired when, one Sunday after he preached at Mass, he was praised by a parishioner who said his style was reminiscent of Archbishop Oscar Romero, widely considered a martyr among the disenfranchised poor of El Salvador. “Romero spoke eloquently on social justice, and I had begun the formation process with an undergraduate degree in business—trained as a hardened capitalist.”
The vow of poverty holds an important lesson of conversion for anyone immersed in a materialistic culture, he says. “Personally, I’ve acquired a decent amount of ‘things’ over the years—books, DVDs, i-Tunes, etc. I know, however, that these ‘things’ of the world do not possess my soul. Only God does.”
Now, Kuna hopes that one of his ministry opportunities down the road might incorporate film and the arts. His former novice master, Rev. David Guffey, C.S.C., produces films at Family Theater, a Holy Cross media ministry in Los Angeles. He was also inspired by a Catholicism and Literature course taught by Rev. Charlie Gordon, C.S.C., at the University of Portland.
But Kuna’s number-one aspiration as a priest is “administering the sacraments.” He echoes the hopefulness of Pope Benedict XVI, who says that, despite inevitable dry-spells, “The Church is alive!” Christ assures the Church that it will always be around and he will always be at its head.
In the weeks prior to ordination, Kuna says he is pleased with how the long formation process has produced results that are distinctive, dynamic, and yet deeply rooted in faith and hope. “I can only describe a calm sense of being settled,” he comments. “That is, I am fulfilled in my ministry and feel equipped, and I even welcome whatever challenges the Lord throws my way.”
Go Figure:
McCoy’s Formation Is a Calculus of Trust
Rev. Charles F. McCoy, C.S.C.
A doctoral degree in mathematics is not the usual first step toward discerning a religious vocation, but Rev. Charles F. McCoy, C.S.C., emerged from that education ready to solve the complex equation of his own future plans—and increasingly able to leave the variables and calculations up to God.
“I worked as a professor before I joined Holy Cross, and the opportunity to do that as a Holy Cross priest excites me a great deal,” says McCoy. As a newly minted Ph.D. from Notre Dame in 2000, he taught at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, for two years before deciding to enter Moreau Seminary. That started the 28-year-old Chicago native on the path to ordination, a process of formation that was “mysterious and a bit rocky at times.”
It was precisely that complexity, handled with the help of a seminary rector who proved to be “a solid guide,” which helped McCoy grow in his “trust in Divine Providence.” He is now exercising that ability to surrender to God’s will and embracing not only the validation of his call to priesthood but also the priestly vow of obedience. “The fact that ultimately I don’t have to make the final decision for myself frees me,” he says.
That could mean that he may not wind up teaching math at a Congregation of Holy Cross school. But the Lord has had so much in store during formation, including the novitiate year in Cascade, Col., and ministry to hospital patients and unwed mothers, among others. McCoy has valued the mind-broadening experiences of obtaining an M.Div. degree, and he has been inspired by the “great faith and love” at Christ the King Parish in South Bend, Ind., where he has served as deacon this past year.
He’d like to be a teacher—and indeed his formation years have included opportunities for that, as well—because he wants to be a part of the Holy Cross ministry in education: “I think our academic institutions provide us with with the light of our Catholic faith and the light of human reason.”
But the road ahead follows no set formula, and McCoy acknowledges already being surprised by one aspect of life in Holy Cross. Individual priests generally do their work without their confreres, finding themselves instead in collaborative activities with laypeople in all fields of endeavor. Yet, these priests come home at night to live a life of real community, modeled after the Holy Family by Holy Cross founder Blessed Basil Moreau, C.S.C. Enduring hallmarks of solidarity are eating together and praying together, says McCoy, recalling the axiom of Servant of God Rev. Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., who preached, “The family that prays together stays together.”
The element of family support in a priest’s life is important to McCoy. Even though priests are hardly able to see their own natural families any¬time they want, “Holy Cross, thank God, does do a wonderful job of integrating our families into one enormous extended family,” he says.
The joy of priestly ministry comes about, too, in the family atmosphere of a parish. One weekend of his recent service at Christ the King helped crystallize the meaning of ministry for McCoy. “I presided at a wedding, witnessed the baptism of a child whose parents I had prepared, served as a deacon at the Sunday Masses, and planned a funeral liturgy with a family who had lost their mom to cancer.” He says he has seen God enter his and others’ lives sacramentally through the “everyday experience of Mass” and “once-in-a-lifetime experiences” of birth, marriage, and death.
“We as ministers get to be instruments and witnesses of these graces,” he says. “How beautiful that is!”
Step by Step:
Michka is Sharing Rhythms of Life
Rev. Aaron J. Michka, C.S.C.
Serving as a deacon in a Holy Cross parish in Guadalupe, Mexico, Rev.Aaron J. Michka, C.S.C., finds himself passing by salsa dance clubs that, prior to his vowed life, might have appealed strongly to his love for dancing. He remembers an earlier time—“the rush I felt at parties from being around others caught up in the same flowing rhythms.”
The pace may have changed a bit since those days, but Michka says he is still privileged to share in the rhythms of other people’s lives, and it’s a great preparation for the Congregation of Holy Cross. He recalls his novitiate year, when he engaged in long conversations during the chemotherapy sessions of a single mother who was dying of breast cancer. “What I gained from that experience was a shift in understanding,” Michka recalls. “I stopped seeing ministry as simply giving something—a sacrament, or words of encouragement—and began to view it as a willingness to walk with someone who needs companionship amidst suffering.”
That transition from immersion in the dancing crowds to a sharing in the life-walks of individuals represents a new experience of rhythm drawn from his formation among Holy Cross priests and brothers. “I’ve learned to take other people seriously through the example of these men,” Michka says. “By that, I mean to listen closely when others tell me something, to always try to enjoy and appreciate their presence, to pay attention to their needs, both spoken and unspoken—in a word, to love.” He notes that “regular contact with the life of Christ through Scripture is essential” to his connections with the lives of people around him.
This Houston native, who lived at the Old College undergraduate seminary at Notre Dame before graduating in 2004, has been on a personal journey that allowed him to participate in the journeys of many others. While earning his M.Div. degree, his ministries included tutoring at the South Bend Center for the Homeless, teaching marriage prep and adult education, and volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center. In Mexico more recently, the Lord placed him in a range of transformative circumstances.
In December, Michka traveled to Guadalajara to baptize the grandson of a family that had hosted him while he studied Spanish last year. One of the family’s daughters suddenly was rushed to the emergency room. “I stayed up late with the family, leading prayers,” and he moved between standing by the daughter’s hospital bedside and baptizing the infant in a joy-filled church. Being in the mix between “great currents of suffering and new life” is part of a priest’s life, he learned. The experience taught him to be a stabilizing presence “that can be a sign of God’s care and concern among us.”
In the context of being that sign, maintaining one’s peaceful focus on prayer, hard work, and openness to others, the vow of chastity “is profoundly life-giving,” says Michka. He has found the mutual support and easy conversations of Holy Cross priests and brothers to be valuable settings for vocational discernment. Even as he was entering worlds of ministry different from his youth (and expressed in a relatively unfamiliar language), he comfortably settled into communities where there was a shared rhythm—“a set of priorities, a way of conversing at table, of preaching, of celebrating holidays.”
Teaching, parish work, or service in campus ministry are among the destinations Michka says he would welcome, and he would bring to apostolates in the United States the sensibilities he has derived from his work in Mexico—embracing the international nature of the Church.
The challenge of ministering to God’s family in Mexico has left a deep impact that one might say has slowed and simplified the journey. He has had to find the words to talk about God and His presence “in a way that is clear and simple,” says Michka. “Without a ready supply of abstract vocabulary, speaking in Spanish has brought me down to earth in a very healthy way.”