Vocation Discernment
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Vocation Office
Western Dominican Province
5890 Birch Court
Oakland, CA 94618-1626
(510)-596-1821
Our Vocations require a great deal of support, from the first moment they begin their novitiate until the last moments of their retirement. Please do conside visiting our donation page and helping form and sustain the priests and brothers who will serve you in the future, serve you now and have served you in the past.
Saints and Blesseds
The Order of Friars Preachers,
The Dominican Order,
has a beautiful history of learning, service and holiness manifested in its saints and blesseds of every age since its foundation by St. Dominic de Guzman. Do enjoy the periodic postings of such stories as are available from various sources, especially our own archives.
Religious Retirement
Our elderly and infirm friars receive the best care we have available to us, as in any family. We rely heavily on the donations of others for our own existence and thus when one of our own becomes incapable of further ministry due to age or infirmity, those same donations help us support the sometimes necessary special care required by such members of our communities.
We prefer to care for our elderly and infirm in our own houses so that the life of a religious community can be a part of a friars life as long as possible. This is also the most economical in many ways. We strive to use donations wisely. But sometimes a care facility is essential. As we, as a Province, do not benefit from the national collection for retired religious, we ask that you assist us in caring for these friars who have prayed, taught, served and ministered for so many years amomg the people of the Western United States and beyond.
Please, in your kindness, consider assisting us in this work of brotherly love.
Many thanks in advance.
Catholicism
It's just the right thing
Fr. Robert Vincent Foerstler, OP
Fr. Vincent Foerstler died almost exactly 55 years after receiving the Dominican habit. But of course his vocation started long before that August 14, 1951 date. He recalled that he "always had that desire to serve the Lord." His desire to serve the Lord led him to missionary work as a young priest. In 1963, he accepted a challenging assignment in Mexico. Following the Second Vatican Council, which called for a more active role by the Church in preserving human dignity through social, economic, and political means, our Province established a mission in Ocosingo, Chiapas in southern Mexico. The first team was comprised of Vincent, Fr. Joseph Asturias and Br. Raymond Bertheaux. The mission's territory was a daunting 6,200 square miles in a dangerous region of mountains, jungles and political unrest. They didn't know what they were getting into, but as one of his lifelong friends remarked, "Vincent was a farm boy and tough kid. He worked hard and had a stubborn streak. But he was also a fun guy who we all enjoyed being around."
These characteristics served him in good stead in his 17 years in Chiapas. Life as a missionary was difficult, days were long and disease was always a threat, as were dangers from wild pigs, pumas, jaguars and venomous snakes. Travel, necessary in such a vast territory, was by boat, walking countless miles and by horseback. Vincent recounted, "The first few days learning how to ride were the most painful experience of my life!"
When he returned to the US from Mexico, he maintained his fluency in Spanish ministering to the migrant workers in the Rogue River Valley near Ashland Oregon for a couple years, then it was back to Mexico for five years in our Mexicali mission. After a few other stateside assignments, he got back to his beloved Mexico for one last time from 1996 to 1999.
His last assignment to St. Dominic's in Benicia was something of a homecoming for this Vallejo native son and it was a blessing for Vincent to be close to longtime friends and surrounded by his Dominican community at the time he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It is said that over 200 parishioners volunteered to help him after the diagnosis.
In his own words, Vincent's whole life was a joyful prayer, "a cooperative effort with God; an ongoing dialogue." In this, he inspired admiration, emulation and love but his last challenge was perhaps his greatest and the one that inspires us with his gifts of grit, humor, stubbornness and most of all, trust in "the grace of God within us to stay strong and make the most of the days we have left." This grace-filled embrace of his last difficult years was typical of Vincent's generous heart, deep faith, and his love of God and the people of God.
- Mary Moyce
Make a donation in honor of Fr. Vincent Foerstler, OP
"My Life is My Prayer": A Tribute to Fr. Vincent Foerstler, O.P., by Melissa Copley, November 2006
|
Date of Birth |
Date of Profession |
Date of Ordination |
Date of Death |
|
May 1, 1931 |
August 15, 1952 |
June 15, 1957 |
August 4, 2006 |
Archive Record: _____