Australian Arthur Escamilla was one of 20 men from 11 countries ordained to the priesthood for the Prelature of Opus Dei in a ceremony in Rome on Saturday. Source: The Catholic Weekly.
Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, ordained the 47-year-old, who was born in Mexico and studied commerce at the University of NSW and law at the University of Melbourne.
“As the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, said last Sunday, it is to the Good Shepherd that you give your life, and on him you will depend,” Cardinal Roche said in his homily.
“This is the mission he entrusts to you: to be a good shepherd for others in all that you do and to walk alongside them throughout their lives. Only in this way will others follow you.”
In a serendipitous coincidence for Fr Escamilla, the ceremony at the Basilica of San Eugenio took place on the feast day of Our Lady Help of Christians, the patroness of Australia.
On Sunday, he celebrated his first Mass in the chapel of Domus Australia, a guest house in Rome opened by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011.
Fr Escamilla worked for several years at Blake Dawson (now Ashurst) in both Sydney and Melbourne. For 12 years, he was dean at Warrane College at the University of NSW, a residential college for men.
He is currently working on a doctorate in canon law on the relationship between the Church and the state.
Will law be helpful in his work as a priest? “Well,” Fr Escamilla says, “the actual legal background might not help too much, but I acquired skills that will help – to listen attentively, give people time and try to get to understand the bottom of what the people are saying. In giving spiritual direction, that will definitely be a useful skill.”
The two things he is looking forward to most are “spending time in the confessional, giving spiritual direction and confession, and celebrating Mass.”
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Australian lawyer ordained in Rome for Opus Dei prelature (by Michael Cook, The Catholic Weekly)
