Posted on 06/17/2009 9:48:34 AM PDT by NYer
.- He grew up an evangelical Protestant in Oregon, suspicious of Marian theology. Now he’s a Catholic priest and a physicist. Dominican Father Raphael Mary Salzillo was ordained last month in San Francisco and will take up an assignment at the University of Washington Newman Center and Blessed Sacrament Parish in Seattle.
Born Wesley Salzillo in 1976, he grew up in Florence, a small coastal town. The family converted to Catholicism in the early 1990s.
"My family raised me with a strong Christian faith and a very clear sense that Christ should be the most important thing in my life," Father Raphael Mary recalls, explaining that his faith after conversion remained "generic."
"I was not fully open to the truth that the Catholic faith has to offer," he says.
But when he was 16, a spiritual experience at Mass gave him the strong feeling he was being called to priesthood or religious life. He was not open to it at the time, so tried to convince himself it was just his imagination.
A top graduate from Siuslaw High, he went on to Caltech, earning a bachelor’s degree in applied physics. He attended graduate school and there he felt his vocation being clarified. At the same time, this scientist wrestled with turning over his will so completely.
"I wanted to choose my own religion rather than accepting the Catholic one as a coherent whole," he says, aware that many people today pick and choose within a body of faith. "In a way, choice had become a God for me, as it has to so many in our society."
Through study of church history and theology and deepening prayer life, he discerned that his own intellect and judgment alone could not fulfill his deepest yearnings. He decided to trust Jesus and the Church fully.
"It was through submission of my power of choice in matters of faith, that I came to know Jesus Christ in a much deeper way," he says.
The last part of his faith to fall into place was an acceptance of Mary. That spiritual movement allowed him to love Jesus more, he explains.
"It was Mary who brought me to finally accept my vocation, and it has been her who has sustained me in this life," he says.
He chose the Dominicans for their emphasis on doctrinal preaching and study, as well as their strong community life with "a streak of monasticism."
He studied philosophy and theology in Berkeley, Calif. and also served at the University of Arizona Newman Center.
Catholics don't do that.
You don't object to Catholicism, you object to a grotesque distortion of Catholicism.
If that keeps you at peace at night, by all means, keep believing it.
Depends...is it the book of John from the Textus Receptus, published by Scripture Press?
Heh heh heh...
Ed
Pray means ask. You've never asked anyone to pray for you?
Too late, I already did.
I’m keeping my swing shift job, though...thanks for the advice.
Ed
Yet they knew they were praying to God Himself.
Imagine that: your perception of what is "obvious" has no bearing whatsoever on what they are doing.
Nope.
Once again you conflate foreknowledge with fore-ordination. They are NOT the same.
But it does not. Your statement is simply false.
[rimshot]
Heh heh heh!
Petronski, I’ve always enjoyed your posts, as I have many other Catholic activists here...I don’t want to be contentious with you.
Take care,
Ed
I doff my chapeau to you sir. “Catholic activist” is the very best thing I have ever been called by a critic of the Catholic Church.
Once again you inflate your viewpoint. Of course foreknowledge is not foreordination. But, you will never be accused of reading these posts.
Foreordination precedes foreknowledge. God determines He will do something after the counsel of His will. He then knows what it is He will do. But, foreknowledge implies an absolute control over the outcome is in the background.
Start your spurious arguments somewhere else.
It does not. You are conflating foreknowledge and fore-ordination. Deny it again, I don't care. That is what you are doing.
You're a sola Scriptura type, right? Where did you get this bit?
Deflate your balloon, conflate your ego, do anything you want. If this is the logic dictated by Rome, it is no wonder the believing world laughs at them.
What a wonderful story. Thanks for posting it!
Called on your confusion twice, you resort to mockery.
T’was ever thus.
The capital city of Italy dictates nothing to me, and as a member of the believing world, I can assure you, I do not laugh at them.
I regard all of you as keepers of the faith, with some disagreements on my part, but I look forward to reading you and other committed Catholic’s posts here all the time.
See ya’,
Ed
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.