Father Dave Answers Questions on Priesthood from Maternity Leave Matt

Published: June 18, 2024, 2:49 a.m.

While Busted Halo Show producer Krista LePard is out on maternity leave, our temporary producer, \u201cMaternity Leave Matt\u201d has some questions of faith for Father Dave:

Matt asks, \u201cWhen you became a priest, did you stop being Dave Dwyer and become [solely] Father Dave? Do your friends or family call you Father Dave or are you still Dave to some people?\u201d

Father Dave first answers this question from a broader theological perspective. \u201cThe Sacrament of Holy Orders is for a deacon, a priest and a bishop; you'd have Holy Orders for all those three. We believe that, like the Sacrament of Baptism, it does make an indelible change.\xa0 So we would call it an ontological, meaning at the very essence of a human person, an ontological change, which cannot be undone or reversed.\u201d

WATCH: Holy Orders in 2 Minutes

In other words, even if someone leaves the priesthood or if a layperson decides to leave the Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Holy Orders and the Sacrament of Baptism cannot be undone.\xa0 Father Dave adds, \u201cThe sacraments leave an indelible mark on the souls when we talk about Baptism and when we talk about Holy Orders; it\u2019s an ontological change. So in some ways, yes, I ceased being the prior version of me and I'm now a different me.\u201d

Father Dave is still, however, Dave to good friends and family members.\xa0 \u201cIn fact, my sister and my mother were really the only people in my adult life who called me David, because that's leftover from back when we were all much younger.\u201d

Matt\u2019s second question is, \u201cWhat brought you to be a Paulist \u2013 and what\u2019s the difference between Paulists, Jesuits, etc.?\u201d

Father Dave responds, \u201cThe jargony word we would use in the Catholic Church is called \u201ccharism:\u201d Each of the different orders have a slightly different way, mission, approach, origin story, and all that kind of stuff. In the same way that you might say, \u2018What's the difference between all the superheroes?\u2019 They all like fight crime and save the world, but they each get a little different origin story and a different uniform, and, you know, that kind of thing.\u201d

RELATED: What Is a Charism? Understanding Our Holy Traditions

Father Dave gives a few examples of some of the different orders but reminds us that these are broad brush strokes.\xa0 Franciscans are living out the vow of poverty, Dominicans are the Order of Preachers and tend to be fairly academic and intellectual, and Jesuits usually work in universities and tend to also hold other roles, like professors, physicists, or astronomers, in addition to priesthood.\xa0\xa0\xa0

The Paulist Fathers are missionaries who take a vow of stability, meaning they're going to stay in one place and stay connected and rooted there. Father Dave was drawn to the Paulists because of their reputation of working in media.\xa0 He\u2019d been working in television and radio and wanted to continue doing that when he became a priest.\xa0

Father Dave reiterates, \u201cThe charisms are really different ways in which people can serve the Church; different ways in which people can live out their Catholic faith. In the same way that Catholics who have not joined a religious community might prefer parish A over parish B, because parish A has a lot going on with social justice and serving the poor and parish B has a great music ministry and a Latin Mass \u2013 there are always going to be different things that are under the big tent of Catholicism that will connect or be more attractive to someone, whether you're talking about just a Catholic in the pews, or someone that's living out there life.\u201d