Orientation Held for Newly-Ordained Clergy

Recognizing unique challenges awaiting newly ordained priests as well as clergy members moving into their first assignment as a pastor, Father Trey Nelson and Father Jamin David recently rolled out a new orientation program to ease those transitions.

The two-day conference at the Bishop Robert E. Tracy Center in Baton Rouge was borne out of the 2017 Task Force Report, which Father Nelson, pastor at St. Jude the Apostle Church in Baton Rouge, chaired. 

“It’s all based on the recommendation of Bishop (Robert W.) Muench,” Father Nelson said, adding that included in the conference were pastors who were being assigned a church parish with a school for the first time.

He said the conference was basically an orientation program designed to familiarize priests with procedural issues and also introduce them to the departments and personnel of the Catholic Life Center.

“You can’t cover everything in two days but you can do an overview of the basics and meet people,” Father Nelson said. “It was a really a good couple of days.”

Representatives from nine diocesan departments, including human resources, finance, archives, child protection and evangelization and catechesis each gave 45-minute presentations, informing the priests as to the roles of their respective ministries and how they can assist priests at the parish level. The presentations also included the mechanics as to how the church operates and properly preparing documentation.

Tips also included  protecting important documents in an approaching storm.

“My purpose was to assure them that the Catholic Life Center personnel are not adversarial but they want to help them and that as an institution they are there for them,” Father Nelson said.

“The best part was the introduction of the people of the chancery and how they can help you,” said Father Brad Doyle, who began his role as pastor at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in St. Francisville on July 1. “They are the people that make up the chancery that help you.”

The conference also touched on the importance of being well kept, well groomed, being a team player with the bishop and other priests and being transparent to the ministry, which Father Nelson said “means it can never be about you.”

Incoming pastors were exposed to the minute details of managing a parish, including what does it mean to be compassionate in all areas but also not letting parishioners walk all over them.

“The one area they all said they learned in regard to having a school and some of the things that presented in regard to canon law and doing the ministry of the priesthood,” Father Nelson said. ‘They were surprised about the detail involved.”

He discussed the 10 most important qualities of being a priest, tips he learned from his mentors early in his ministry, and said the most important is being a person of prayer. 

“It sounds kind of basic but I’ve learned you will be surprised how easily your prayer time can be stripped away if you let it,” he said.

Father Nelson emphasized being healthy in mind, body and spirit.

“I talked a lot about that,” he said. “Having good healthy relationships with lay people is one of the things that’s crucial. And the bottom line is the healthier you are, the happier you will be. I don’t get an A-plus on this but I do believe it.”

He also stressed having a day off each week, using that time to pursue one’s favorite recreational activity or perhaps just a leisurely walk around a shopping mall.

“You are a priest 24/7 but you don’t have to be in priestly ministry 24/7,” he said.

Father Ryan Hallford, pastor at Holy Family Church in Port Allen since July 1, said he enjoyed being around his brother priests, being able to pray together and reminded that they are not alone in their ministries.

“One of the things that was stressed a lot is we must be balanced, intellectually and pastorally,” he said. “A part of that is not only our friendship and community and being connected personally but also having hobbies, healthy reactions, getting healthy amounts of rest and sleep.”

Father Hallford said without assuring the proper human formation, the intellectual, pastoral and spiritual formation will also suffer. 

Leading up to the conference, Father Nelson and Father David, episcopal vicar for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, spent hours compiling a 230-page “textbook” distributed to the priests. The book is a comprehensive guide for newly ordained priests and first-time pastors and offers specific expectations to priests assuming a new pastoral assignment.

The expectations address personal objectives, ministry experiences and skills to be developed and hope for outcomes regarding parish ministry and parish structures.

Father Nelson said the book can be put in the hands of a priest even five to 10 years in ministry or longer and the basics will still be relevant.

“I’m proud of it,” Father Nelson said. “I picked up on a lot of things I had forgotten about.”

“I wish I would have had something like this (as a young priest),” he added. “I wish I would have learned early on the need to be healthier, to have more prayer time daily and consistently. A lot you can’t learn until you do it.”