College Celebrates Ordination of Alumni Priest
(from the Fall 2000 Newsletter)
Fr. Robert Novokowsky
“I’ve come to see that not all truth can be taught
through explicit formulae. The majesty of God, His awesome
majesty, is best revealed to us in the beautiful, such as
in a sunset. But, perhaps, the best teacher is the beauty
of the Sacred Liturgy, because it is ordained by God, about
God, and is ordered to God. I have experienced this beauty
in the Holy Mass, which, because it is beautiful, is also
evangelical – it teaches truth.”
Last spring, Fr. Robert Novokowsky was ordained a priest
in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a religious society
called into existence by Pope John Paul II, with the permission
to use the Liturgical Books of 1962, (the Typical Edition
current before Vatican II) including the old Latin Mass Missal
known as the “Tridentine Mass.” Fr. Novokowsky was
not raised in the milieu of the old Latin Mass; its taste
was something he began to acquire at Thomas Aquinas College.
He was raised in Kitchener, Ontario, the youngest of four
children, in a good Catholic family. After high school, he
thought he might have a vocation to the priest-hood, but saw
the importance of going to college first. He discovered Thomas
Aquinas College when his sister handed him a bulletin she
had come across and said, “Hey, you might be interested
in this.” He had just spent a semester at the University
of Guelph in Kitchener and was frustrated by his inability
to study math and science along with his liberal arts program.
Reading about the College’s curriculum was, to him, like
reading his desires on paper. He applied at once and enrolled
in the fall.
The College lived up to his every expectation. What is more,
it fostered his religious vocation. “The sacramental
life, the devotional life, and my spiritual director [then
chaplain, Fr. Vincent Young] all had a powerful effect on
me. I’m not sure I would have pursued my vocation if
I had gone anywhere else.” While the College has since
its inception offered the Novus Ordo Latin Mass – that
is, the rite of Mass approved after Vatican II – since
1969, the College has, at the request of the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles, offered the Tridentine Mass monthly.
“I found the Latin Novus Ordo to be a wonderful thing.
It seemed to correspond with the latent desires in my heart
about what the liturgy should be. The reverence and direction
was different from what I had experienced in the typical English
Mass and became a stepping stone for me to see the beauty
of the Tridentine Mass. It was at the College that I discovered
this for the first time. It wasn’t love at first sight,
but a love that grew on me.”
While some devotees of the Tridentine Mass have been tempted
to break with Rome over liturgical issues, Fr. Novokowsky
was never so tempted. “I hadn’t been raised in a
Traditionalist environment. For me, my devotion came simply
from the beauty of the liturgy itself.”
He entered the Priestly Fraternity in 1994 after teaching
at a minor seminary of the Legionaries of Christ. He spent
most of his time in formation at the Fraternity’s American
Seminary in Scranton, Pennsylvania (which recently moved to
Lincoln, Nebraska). He spent one year studying at the international
motherhouse in Germany and another year in Colorado.
He is currently serving as Associate Pastor at St. Anthony’s
Church in Calgary, Alberta, a parish of about 500 families,
where he has a specific pastoral duty to offer the sacraments
in the traditional rite for the portion of the parish attached
to them. In addition, he serves as chaplain for nearby Rockyview
Hospital.
“When people come to know the Latin Mass they become
attracted to it, one family by one family, one person by one
person, at a time.” He enjoys the challenge of his vocation.
“Since ordination, no two days have been alike. Sometimes
I wish they were!”
-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 2000
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