Dioceses ordaining in numbers

Elia Powers

Stephen Doktorczyk was moving up in the ranks at Vons Supermarket.

He started as a bagger, became a produce clerk, was a cashier and

then a manager.

The career advancement was gratifying, he said. Still, something

was missing in his life.

“I grew up Catholic and thought I knew a lot about the faith,”

said Doktorczyk, a Huntington Beach resident. “In social circles I

was getting people asking me about my religion and I felt there were

misconceptions. As I began looking deeper, I developed a love for the

teachings.”

That’s when Doktorczyk got involved at St. Bonaventure Church.

Once there, he said people encouraged him to become a priest.

On June 11, he joined six other men, all of whom were sponsored by

the Diocese of Orange, at a priest ordainment ceremony held at St.

Columban Church in Garden Grove.

Ordination ceremonies are held every year, but this one was

unique, said Father Joe Fenton, a spokesperson for the Diocese of

Orange.

“We’ve never, in recent memory, had a class this large,” Fenton

said. “Sometimes we hold ceremonies for individuals. Next year, we

have three people. I’m pretty sure we won’t see a number this large

for some time.”

Added Doktorczyk, who becomes a parochial vicar at Holy Family

Cathedral in Orange on July 1: “If you look around, lots of dioceses

are ordaining in large numbers.”

Classmate Edward Becker was still early in his six-year seminary

residency when the Catholic priest sex-abuse scandal became an

international news story.

A former attorney, Becker said he had looked forward to escaping a

career where controversy was a way of life.

“When the scandal broke, I thought to myself, ‘Man, I just can’t

win,’” said Becker, a Costa Mesa resident and a St. Joachim Roman

Catholic Church member.

Becker said that during his years of studying for the priesthood,

the priest scandal was front and center, affecting how he and many of

his peers viewed the church.

But as far as he knows, the controversy didn’t lead to any

defections in his seminary. In fact, he said, it had a unifying

effect.

Fenton said the number of participants in the ceremony is a sign

that the church is continuing to heal from the wounds brought out by

the sex-abuse scandal.

“These seven men on stage, they are enthused about their role in

the diocese,” Fenton said.

Becker found out last month that he was assigned to become a

parochial vicar at St. Pius V Church, a 5,000-family congregation in

Buena Park. Like Doktorczyk, his duties begin July 1.