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. Alejandro Crosthwaite, OP
Fr. Alejandro Crosthwaite, O.P. was born in Mexico City February 17, 1968. He was raised in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico, and San Diego, California. He joined the Dominicans in 1990. He was ordained to the ministerial priesthood May 29, 1998.
Fr. Crosthwaite obtained the Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in 1993 as well as a Master of Divinity in 1998. In 1998 the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley conferred upon Fr. Crosthwaite the Master of Arts in theology.
After four years of pastoral and pedagogical ministry at the University of San Diego, California, and Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska, Fr. Crosthwaite completed a doctoral program in Theology and Society at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI in 2006 (Theological Ethics focusing on Political Theology and Mass Communication/Media Studies concentrating on Film). Upon completion of his doctoral program at Marquette, Fr. Crosthwaite assumes a teaching position in the faculty of social sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. Father Crosthwaite is currently a member of the Society of Christian Ethics, The Catholic Theological Society of America, and the American Academy of Religion. [updated: 9-14-06]
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, first teaching assignment, Fall of 2006.
General Chapter of the Friars Preachers 2001, served as a translator. Photo
Ordination, May 1998