It was at Rio de Janeiro's World Youth Day (WYD) that nine-year old Nathan de Brito came to fame. He's the boy who ran to hug the pope and said he wanted to be a priest.

"At that moment of meeting the pope, I could feel God's enormous affection for me, saying ‘My son, I love you,' in the arms of the one who welcomes us like a father.

"I had this very great experience of being welcomed by the pope and that he received what I told him. He simply told me: ‘Pray for me and I will pray for you.'

"Of course, we have the obligation to care for our vocation. But knowing that a person so special prays for us is something very special.

"Remembering that encounter is to always rekindle the flame of vocation," he says.

Developing the priestly vocation

Ten years after meeting Francis, de Brito is a seminarian in a Brazilian preparatory seminary.

"Of course it was not the awakening of my vocation, because I had wanted to be a priest for a long time. But it was, without a doubt, one more motivation within my vocation," de Brito says.

"I liked to play at celebrating Mass, going to Mass.

"I was an altar boy for many years from the age of five and really enjoyed serving. I also really liked catechism and was in a hurry for the sacraments. I remember my first Eucharist a lot, which was the happiest day of my life."

De Brito says he was seven when he first said he wanted to be a priest. Until then he'd always said he wanted to be a teacher and a priest, a doctor and a priest, always something and a priest.

"I always emphasise that my call is to holiness. We are all called to holiness and each one has a call, a specific vocation. And I understand that my vocation is to the priesthood, so I said ‘yes' to this vocation."

Benedict XVI - the pope of de Brito's childhood - was important to him. Benedict's "attraction to the vocation was precisely in him, because he saw in him an imposing figure who spoke timidly, but who spoke very well, he was the man of the liturgy.

"I used to watch the Masses at the Vatican, my eyes wide open."

Later, when he saw Francis in 2013, he said he saw a pontiff "very close to us."

"When he was elected pope, my love for the Church and for my vocation grew, because he was someone close to us...

"It's my duty as a person called to the priesthood to keep that flame burning, if that is God's will. But those sparks that help us maintain our vocation, like the meeting with Pope Francis, are always very pleasant, very happy to remember."

Source

• CNA

Brian Bergkamp, a seminarian from the diocese of Wichita, went to the aid of a woman who fell into the Arkansas River on July 9.

Mr Bergkamp, 24, was among five people travelling in separate kayaks on the river.

They were caught in turbulent waters.

The seminarian jumped from his kayak to save the woman, before getting pulled under himself.

He was not wearing a life jacket. The other kayakers made it to shore.

By midday on July 12, he remained missing. Friends and family members remember were holding vigils to pray for the recovery of his body.

Wichita Bishop Carl Kemme said he knew ""Brian to be an exceptional seminarian, well on his way to demonstrating so many of the qualities needed to be a good and faithful priest".

Bishop Kemme said the seminarian was quiet, dedicated, diligent in his work and studies, and presented himself always with a sense of decorum and maturity, well beyond his years.

"I was looking forward to how God would use him as a priest in the diocese of Wichita.

"Now, we must all mourn his much anticipated ministry and the many fruits we all knew would be abundant by his priestly life and ministry."

Mr Bergkamp had just finished his second year at Mount St Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is in the archdiocese of Baltimore.

"Brian's death is a great tragedy and a great loss, not only for his family and friends," said Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, "but to all who knew him and to the Church he was so generously seeking to serve."

Mr Bergkamp's brother Andy was ordained to the transitional diaconate in May.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Image: JCEworld

Former Northern Ireland international Phil Mulryne, 34, has enrolled at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome.

During his time as a footballer Mulryne dated a model, Nicola Chapman.

He was once sent home from the Northern Ireland squad in 2005 after breaking a curfew to go drinking.

His career was cut short in 2008 by injury.

But after football he became involved in charity work in Ireland and turned his life around.

He was invited to study for the priesthood by Bishop Noel Treanor of Down and Connor.

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He revealed the experience last year in a book-length dialogue with a rabbi, which will be published in English in May.

"I was surprised by her beauty, her intellectual brilliance...and, well, I was bowled over for quite a while. I kept thinking and thinking about her," he said.

"When I returned to the seminary after the wedding, I could not pray for over a week because when I tried to do so, the girl appeared in my head. I had to rethink what I was doing.

"I was still free because I was a seminarian, so I could have gone back home and that was it. I had to think about my choice again. I chose again — or let myself be chosen by — the religious path.

"It would be abnormal for this kind of thing not to happen," he added in the conversation with Rabbi Abraham Skorka, rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary.

The future pope said that if a priest got a woman pregnant, he tried to help him realise that the natural law takes priority over his priesthood.

"So, he has to leave the ministry and should take care of that child, even if he chooses not to marry that woman. For just as that child has the right to have a mother, he has a right to the face of a father."

If it was a one-time affair with no children, then he tried to help the priest do penance and "get on track again".

"For the moment," he said, "I am in favour of maintaining celibacy, with all its pros and cons, because we have ten centuries of good experiences rather than failures. What happens is that the scandals have an immediate impact. Tradition has weight and validity."

He added: "It is a matter of discipline, not of faith. It can change."

The conversation between Archbishop Bergoglio and Rabbi Skorka will be published by Image Books and will be titled On Heaven and Earth.

Sources:

Religion News Service

Aleteia

Image: Aleteia

The four, from the cardinal's archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh, complained to apostolic nuncio Archbishop Antonio Mennini days before Pope Benedict's unexpected resignation.

The allegations were then publicised in The Observer newspaper, apparently because the complainants did not want Cardinal O'Brien to attend the conclave to elect the new pope.

While he contests the accusations, Cardinal O'Brien said he apologised to anyone he had let down and said he did not want the controversy to overshadow the election of the new pope.

Cardinal O'Brien had been due to retire on March 17, when he turns 75. His immediate resignation means the cardinal will not now take part in the election of a successor to Pope Benedict.

One complainant said he was a seminarian when the cardinal, then his spiritual director, made an inappropriate approach after night prayers.

He later resigned from the priesthood when the cardinal became a bishop. "I knew then he would always have power over me. It was assumed I left the priesthood to get married. I did not. I left to preserve my integrity."

The three priests made similar complaints, one saying he found himself dealing with unwanted behaviour after a late-night drinking session.

"You have to understand," explains the ex-priest, "the relationship between a bishop and a priest. At your ordination, you take a vow to be obedient to him.

"He's more than your boss, more than the CEO of your company. He has immense power over you. He can move you, freeze you out, bring you into the fold…he controls every aspect of your life. You can't just kick him in the balls."

Only a few days before the allegations were published, Cardinal O'Brien said the church's requirement for priests to be celibate was not of "divine origin" and should be reconsidered.

"Many priests have found it very difficult to cope with celibacy as they lived out their priesthood, and felt the need of a companion, of a woman, to whom they could get married and raise a family of their own," he told the BBC.

Sources:

The Observer

The Observer

Associated Press

BBC

Image: The Independent

Hoover was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a thoroughfare during a violent demonstration in January that resulted in the arrests of more than 300 protesters who attempted to take over the vacant Kaiser Convention Center near Lake Merritt.

Hoover, who is studying to be a priest at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, said he was arrested when he stopped in the street to protect a homeless man from being trampled by a line of police officers who were advancing on a group of protesters.

Hoover testified during his brief jury trial and said after his sentencing Monday that he did nothing wrong and obeyed all police orders but was still arrested.

Evidence in the trial, however, revealed that Hoover was an active participant in the protest and did not attend the Jan. 28 demonstration simply to observe.

While a jury found Hoover guilty of obstructing a thoroughfare it deadlocked on a charge against Hoover of resisting arrest, and the District Attorney's Office decided to drop the charge rather than seek another trial.

Hoover said Monday that he was proud of taking part in an Occupy event and said he has not ruled out doing so again.

"The cop was doing what he felt he had to do and I felt I did what I had to do," Hoover said. "I'm grateful to be part of the Occupy movement."

The stated purpose of Occupy Oakland, San Francisco, is to plan actions, mobilize real resistance, and for people to defend themselves from the economic and physical war that is being waged against our communities.

Sources

• Mercury News
• Occupy Oakland
• Image: CBS

The Auckland Catholic Newspaper, The New Zealand Catholic, reports that although indications for student numbers for 2012 are very good, some prospective seminarians are still working through the admissions process.

Final numbers will be known only when seminarians actually arrive next year.

The Seminary has accommodation for 27 -30 in 10 units each capable of housing three students. One unit is presently being used as guest quarters.

The nearby Ponsonby presbytery, which can house three students or more, is also an option for student accommodation should it be needed.

The Holy Cross Seminary website presently lists 20 seminarians (and a cat).

Source

• New Zealand Catholic
• Image Holy Cross Seminary