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. Christopher Paul Fadok, OP
Fr. Christopher Fadok was born in 1968. Raised in Phoenix, Arizona, he attended Catholic grade school at Most Holy Trinity Parish and high school at Brophy College Preparatory. In 1986 he received an Air Force ROTC scholarship and studied engineering in Chicago. His thoughts at that time turned to God and philosophy and in 1987 he began to study philosophy at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Steeped in Anglo-American analytic philosophy, Fr. Christopher questioned his Catholic faith for years. But impressed by the philosophical works of John Paul II and other Catholic thinkers, he began a study of Catholic thought and formally returned to the Church, receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation in 1997. That same year he joined the Dominicans, whose life of prayer and study he greatly admired.
After six months in the Novitiate, he left the Order to discern a vocation to marriage. He returned to Arizona and dated the same wonderful woman for four years while working in the field of computers. But compelled by the power of the Gospel and a sense that God was truly calling him, Fr. Christopher returned to the Dominicans in 2002.
He received the degree Master of Philosophy from the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in 2006 and is currently working toward Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees with the hope of teaching someday. His other interests include playing the drums, listening to jazz, and distance running. He is also exploring his Ukrainian Catholic heritage.
Fr. Christopher points to his mother and father, brothers and sisters, and their spouses--his entire family--as the greatest school of love and self-sacrifice he has known. He therefore credits all of them with building up in him the strength to happily receive the grace of his religious vocation. [updated 7/3/06]
Looking Forward to the Past: A Plea for Thomistic Intervention in the Philosophy of Mind , Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (March 2006) pp. 94, Master of Arts Philosophy Thesis.
