Fathers of fathers: Love and faith

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

As Father’s Day approached, priests and their fathers spoke of their love and respect for each other and ways they live out their faith and vocations.
“God used marriage to help me understand priesthood,” said Father James B. Callahan, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Barre.
“Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves his Church,” he said, quoting Scripture. He said that is how his father, John Callahan, now deceased, loved his bride, Dolores Callahan. (She attends their son’s Masses at St. Thomas-a-Becket Church, which, with St. Joseph Chapel, is part of St. Francis Parish.)
Father Callahan said his father instilled in his six children love and respect for their mother. Through his father’s love for their family he better understood fatherhood, God the Father and “my priestly fatherhood.” This helps him love the Church, Christ’s Bride and Mary, Jesus’ mother.
Father Callahan said his father “would correct you if you needed correction, but he wasn’t afraid to show affection.”
The pastor also expressed admiration for his parish’s maintenance man, Anthony Mobilio, whose son Father Derek A. Mobilio is associate pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Grafton.
“He has a very strong, deep-rooted faith,” Father Callahan said of Mr. Mobilio. “I’m sure Derek was affected by that.”
“My Dad’s example showed me that the Catholic faith is not just something old ladies do, but is something that real, normal men live out every day, in sacrifice and prayer for their families and for God’s glory,” Father Mobilio said. “The priest is he who offers sacrifice, and I learned how to do that in a manly way from my Dad.”
Mr. Mobilio and his wife, Michelle, attend Mass at St. Thomas, Father Callahan said. He is treasurer of the parish’s Knights of Columbus St. Cleophas Council 15756.
“He’s always involved … dinners or fairs or yard sales” that the Knights or women’s guild organize, the pastor said. “They always call upon him to set up.” He said Mr. Mobilio is dependable and has a great personality and sense of humor.
Mr. Mobilio said he has a part-time job at both the Barre church properties, is a town maintenance employee and is on the Barre board of health and planning board.
He said when he started working at St. Joseph Parish, before it merged with St. Thomas, he did not intend to stay. But, he said, “I fell in love with working in front of Jesus all the time.”
Father Michael N. Lavallee asked him to work at St. Ann Parish in Oxford when he moved there from Barre, Mr. Mobilio said. He couldn’t, but he expressed appreciation for Father Lavallee and other priests.
“I love our diocesan priests – all of them,” he said.
What is it like to have a son among them?
Mr. Mobilio said he wouldn’t call his son “Father,” but “he certainly deserves that respect.” Respect for the priesthood was ingrained in him as a Knight, he said.
“All of those wonderful men trying to lead all souls to heaven,” consecrating the bread and wine, making present Christ’s body and blood, he mused. “We have to thank all our priests as spiritual fathers for that.”
“It is different having a son that’s a priest,” commented Daniel Slavinskas, whose son Father Jonathan J. Slavinskas is pastor of Our Lady of Providence Parish at St. Bernard Church in Worcester. “I’m proud of him.” He said his son is doing what God called him to do and is bringing some people back to the faith.
Father Slavinskas recalled going with his father as a youth on jobs at St. John Parish in Worcester. (His father, and his mother, Deborah, are still members there, and Mr. Slavinskas is on the St. John’s parish finance committee.)  “Normal interactions” with priests on those occasions were foundational for his own vocation, Father Slavinskas said.
Since he’s been a priest, his father has helped at his parishes, he said.
“He realizes this makes my pastoral ministry easier,” he said.
He figures his father (a retired electrician), and his father’s friends who do carpentry and plumbing, have saved his present parish nearly $100,000. They volunteer their time and talent and sometimes donate materials for renovation projects.
Sometimes Father Slavinskas has neighborhood youth who don’t have father figures help his father, who taught at Worcester Technical High School.
Father Slavinskas recalled seeing his father in the church one day, “sitting in the front row with his bucket of tools next to him, quietly praying.”
His parents also host at their house a gathering for the bishop, seminarians and priests mentoring them, he said.
Richard Boulette also served seminarians – by helping with repairs at Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies in Worcester where some of them live. Later his son lived there. Father James J. Boulette is now associate pastor of St. Roch and St. Ann parishes in Oxford.
Mr. Boulette said he and his wife, Doris, are no longer eucharistic ministers at their parish, Christ the King in Worcester, because she is sick and he is caring for her.
“We offer it up,” praying for the sick, and pray at least one rosary together daily, he said.
He told of taking up that devotion and other spiritual practices that the Blessed Mother reportedly requested in apparitions at Medjugorje, which he visited. He and his wife also hosted a prayer cenacle in their home. At the time, their son wasn’t pursuing priesthood.
When he told them he could be a permanent deacon, Mr. Boulette suggested being a priest, since “he could consecrate the host.”
“We never nagged any of our kids” to be priests, Mr. Boulette said.
“It was … my parents’ faith that kept me going,” said Father Boulette. When he wandered, they prayed for him.
“They helped me get back into the Church” and always loved him. “I love them with all my heart,” he said.