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. Martin de Porres John Walsh, OP
Fr. Martin Walsh is a friar of the Western Dominican Province and the Director of the Dominican Mission Foundation. All of the financial proceeds of his itinerant preaching and teaching go to support the Dominican Missions in Mexico, Kenya, Guatemala, Lithuania, and the Philippines.
Even before entering the Dominican Order, Fr. Martin was involved in social work in the Third World, as one of the founders of Amigos Anonymous. Since ordination in 1969, he has been assigned to St. Dominic Priory in San Francisco, serving a parochial vicar and later, eight years as pastor during the time of the church restoration project. He enjoyed eight years at the Dominican Mission in Mexicali, Mexico, and served as Novice Master for the Western Province for six years. Coincidental with his ministries, he has worked at Westside Mental Health Center at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, served on the Boards of Directors of the San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society and the Dominican Biblical School of Jerusalem (Ecole Biblique). He consulted for the Mexican Government on the restoration of the Dominican Missions of Baja California and is a contributing editor of the African American Heritage Bible.
Fr. Martin was recently transferred from Mexicali, Mexico to St. Dominic's Priory in San Francisco. In addition to being Director of the Mission Foundation he will also be the Director of the St. Jude Shrine. The St. Jude Shrine is located within St. Dominic Church in San Francisco. Pilgrims come from all parts of Western United States to visit the shrine and invoke the intercession of St. Jude. The purpose of the St. Jude apostolate is to further devotion to St. Jude Thaddeus, "Patron of Difficult Cases" and to foster the education of worthy students for the Dominican priesthood and brotherhood. [updated: 5-25-07]
Dominican Mission Foundation, Director
Photos: One | Two | 2005 | 2008 300dpi (thumbnail)
