Mass and Visit with Fr. Bartholomew Calvano, O.P.

We were delighted to have Fr. Bartholomew Calvano, O.P. offer Mass for us recently. As a newly ordained priest, ordained this past May along with Fr. Bernard Knapke who visited in June, he offered us his First Priestly Blessing after the Mass. Afterwards, we enjoyed a visit with him in the parlor, where we asked him about his studies and his hopes for his future priestly ministry. Fr. Bartholomew has a great interest in evangelization and dialogue with Islam, and is doing his S.T.L. thesis on the Trinity, looking at St. Thomas Aquinas’s arguments from natural philosophy for the possibility of imminent processions of the three Persons all within one God, countering the common Muslim objection that Christians must worship three gods. He will be taking classes in Arabic and hopes to go on to Islamic Studies so that he can be well-equipped to preach the gospel in that context - something the province has greatly desired a friar to do.

We asked Fr. Bartholomew what the best part about being a priest is, and unsurprisingly, his answer was: saying Mass!