God Needs Men
Vocation Story of John Roderick
June, 2016
“Do not be afraid! Christ needs you to carry out his plan of salvation!” These words of Saint John Paul II, spoken during World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002, marked the beginning of my vocation. When I heard them, it felt as though the great Pope was speaking directly to my heart. I felt my heart opening for the first time to the possibility that God might be inviting me to consider a vocation to the priesthood. As a freshman in college, I was captivated by John Paul II’s witness and his love for Jesus and the Church that he communicated during his visit to Canada. I had encountered a father in the faith, and I longed to live with the same intensity and depth that he did.
After this encounter, I began devoting all my free time at the university to following more deeply the life of the Church and discovering the Pope’s writings. My rugby teammates looked at me a bit strangely when I read his writings during travels to away games or rushed to Mass after practice. I started attending a Catholic student group on campus and singing in the university chapel choir. I discovered Christian friendship for the first time through these experiences —a friendship more authentic than the one I shared with my rugby teammates.
During my senior year, my roommate discovered Fr. Giussani’s book, The Risk of Education. He was deeply struck by it and decided to invite John Zucchi, the leader of the CL movement in Canada, to the campus. During his visit, I was greatly impressed by the way he recounted his own encounter with the movement and the sense of familiarity he shared with us. At the time, however, I was more involved in a charismatic student group and did not pursue a deeper connection with the CL movement. However, the seed was already planted in the soil; it needed a little more time to bloom.
After graduating with a degree in chemistry, I decided to delve deeper into the Pope’s thought on the human person and the family at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, DC. The Institute specialized in bioethics and marriage and family studies, and I thought I could combine my passion for science with my faith. My older sister had spent two years there, and whenever we spoke on the phone, my desire to immerse myself in those studies grew. She even suggested I look up the CL University group once I arrived in DC, as she had discovered the CLU and felt it complemented the Institute’s vision perfectly.
Encountering the CL movement during my studies at the Institute was a revelation—like discovering something essential that had been right in front of me all along. After just a few months of friendship with the people in the “School of Community” group, it felt as though God had always been calling me to live the experience of the movement. My time with the CLU allowed me to understand and experience firsthand the beauty of Christianity as a friendship. I realized that God had chosen friendship as the primary way for me to experience His closeness and love.
I also met some priests from the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo who were on mission in Washington, DC. I saw something special in them—something beyond what I had previously experienced—and at a certain point, I recognized a desire to live as they did was taking root in me. At first, I resisted this intuition, yet I sensed that if this was what God wanted, it was for my own good and fulfillment. Seeing how my life had unfolded since my encounter with the Pope in Canada, I became certain that my life was being guided by a good and loving Father and that I had no need to be afraid.
After months of wrestling with this intuition, I decided to speak to one of the priests of the Fraternity of St. Charles. We agreed to take the possibility of a priestly vocation seriously and to fully discern whether God was inviting me to follow Him in this way. During this time, I deepened my friendship with the St. Charles Borromeo community. After two years of discernment, I finally decided to yield to the call and embark on the adventure of seminary life in Rome.
