New Priest Profile
June 22nd, 2006 by Father Bill Garrott, OP
Fr. Francis Belanger,O.P. is one of the newly ordained priests of the Province of St. Joseph. He is pictured here immediately after his Ordination, in June of 2005, imparting a first blessing to Br. Jamess Cuddy, O.P. Fr. Francis is currently assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish in Charlottesvile, VA — located on the campus of the University of Virginia. What has his ministry there been like? He has this to say: “My first year of priestly ministry here has been a tremendous blessing. It has been a real joy to celebrate at the altar, to be a minister of Reconciliation, and, of course, to preach the Word… ”
I have been humbled and edified to witness the power of the priesthood–acting in persona Christi capitis–to bring Christ’s grace and truth into people’s lives. Besides the “ordinary” duties of parochial ministry we have the exciting opportunity here of doing campus ministry with the several thousand Catholic students at the University of Virginia. Fr. Luke Clark is the main Campus Minister but we all take part. Besides that, I have concentrated on adult faith education and Young Adult Ministry. We have a series that meets on Sunday mornings during the school year called “Theology and Donuts” in which parents of kids who are in Religious Education classes come to hear talks on various Catholic topics. We have had presentations on, among many other subjects, heresy, Christian feminism, the life and legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas, and a profile of the Catholic authors Evelyn Waugh and Walker Percy. We have also restarted a Theology on Tap series in which we give talks at a local bar(!) and have covered such topics as a brief history of Vatican II and Pope Benedict’s first Encyclical. It is a tremendous blessing to be involved in so many lives and I have already known something of the “hundredfold” that Christ promised to those who follow him. Here at St. Thomas we have a wonderful community of young well-educated people thirsting for truth and it is a privilege to serve them as a Dominican Preacher.
