FORMING FUTURE PRIESTS TO BRING CHRIST TO THE SICK
By BlackFriars staff
Through the Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York , friars and lay collaborators bring the healing presence of Christ to sick men and women over 60,000 times a year at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center , New York-Presbyterian Hospital , Weill Cornell Medical Center , and the Hospital for Special Surgery .
According to Fr . Jonah Pollock , O . P ., Director of the Health Care Ministry , “ St . Dominic founded the Order of Preachers for the mission of preaching the gospel for the salvation of souls . For me , proclaiming the saving truth and love of Jesus Christ has never borne such immediately evident fruit for salvation of another person than in this ministry .”
Recently , five of the ten men who will be ordained to the priesthood this year at St . Patrick ’ s Cathedral in New York – including three Franciscan Friars of the Renewal - have completed a Health Care Ministry Internship Program with the Dominican Friars , forming them for what will be an integral part of their service to the Catholic Church as priests . The internship program includes an academic component and supervised experience with patients in the Hospital for Special Surgery .
“ Something the Dominicans pointed out — which I saw was true in the hospital — is that , when suffering from a physical malady , a person ’ s other needs rise to the surface . Oftentimes it ’ s not their body , it ’ s their spiritual life and their relationships that they are most concerned about and ask us to pray for ,” says Br . John Mary Johannssen , C . F . R ., a graduate of the internship program who will be ordained a priest in the Archdiocese of New York in May .
Three of the seven Dominican student brothers who will be ordained priests in May are also graduates of the program . “ It will be profoundly gratifying for me to impose hands on these eight men during the rites of their ordinations to the priesthood , knowing that , with my brothers at Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York and our outstanding collaborators , I have played a part in preparing them for a ministry that has been so gratifying to me ,” says Fr . Pollock .
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From left : Br . John Mary Johannssen , C . F . R ., Fr . Jonah Pollock , O . P ., Br . Giles Maria Barrie , C . F . R . Photo by Gabriella Cerqueira
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