Vocation Discernment
Are you being called to become a priest or brother?
Click here, and discover what it means to become a preacher of truth!
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. John Paul Forte, OP
I was born in Hollywood, California on May 15, 1964. My mother tells me that her water broke during a James Bond film -- a Sean Connery Bond film. I have 3 older brothers and a sister who is fourteen months younger than me.
My parents were always into volunteering for something, so I received the "the call" to serve at an early age. As a youngster growing up in Southern California, I was always attracted to opportunities that invited me to grow beyond myself and my local community. It was for this reason that I enrolled in the Queen of Angels High School for boys exploring a vocation to the priesthood and other ways of service in the Church.
This was a life-changing experience for me, mainly because it stirred the flames of "a call of service" that I wanted to discover and express. Following high school, I studied at St. John's College Seminary for two years to continue to explore my journey. I discovered quickly that I was called to explore another path.
The road to this path presented itself in one of the mission statements of the Western Dominican Province: "Seek God and truth, and be of good use to others." Never had I heard so well articulated what I wanted to do with my life. At the time, I had no idea that I would become a priest. All I knew was that I had found a path that I had to explore.
As a Dominican, I had a great experience at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, a unique consortium of Catholic, Protestant, and other religious institutes. After eight years of study, prayer, community, questions, distractions, and discernment, I was ordained a Dominican priest with three others, one being Fr. Dominic DeLay, who served with me for four amazing years at UCSD, and now is serving the Province through a full-time film-making ministry in Hollywood.
After ordination I was assigned to St. Dominic's Church in San Francisco for three years, Stanford University for six years (where my love of university work was born), and to graduate studies in counseling at the University of San Diego. After one year at USD, my studies were interupted when I received "the call" to serve as Director of the Catholic Community at UCSD.
I have been serving this amazing community since the summer of 2003. Although I hope to complete my studies in counseling, I am not sorry for the GIFT of serving the Newman Center at UCSD.
Welcome to our Province web-stie! May you always "seek the truth" and discover how God is calling you "to be of good use to others. [updated 11-13-07]