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. Garry Cappleman, OP
Fr. Garry Cappleman is a native of Baytown, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. history and social welfare studies in 1975 and a Master's degree in social work in 1977. He worked from 1977 to 1995 as a licensed clinical social worker in hospital, hospice and mental health settings.
He first met the Dominicans in 1969 at the Newman Center in Eugene, Oregon while a student at the University of Oregon, and again later in 1994 as a social work supervisor of Family Preservation programs at the Anchorage Center for Families in Anchorage, Alaska. In 1995, he entered the novitiate and made temporary vows for three years. He completed his philosophical and theological studies at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology located in Berkeley, California. His pastoral year of residency was at the Catholic campus ministry at the University of Arizona in Tuscon. His driving interests include contemplative prayer, community building within a parish setting, healing and reconciliation of families, and outreach to marginalized people. His first assignment is at Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska.
Leaping Through A Horizon Window, December 2003
Presbyterate Ordination, June 7, 2003
Novice Class 1995