good morning , and on behalf of the archdiocese of san francisco, welcome to was a . the archdiocese has a weekly newsletter that goes out to the parishes and schools and other institutions and we recently posed this question to readers. if you had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with the

priest, what questions might you have for him? what would you want to know about this man, these men and their unique location, their way of life? do you have questions about life, about faith, about his vocation and your own spiritual condition? you may wonder such things as attaway overcome my fear of going to confession, how can i learn to pray or how can he understand the real presence of jesus in the eucharist? or why do we see so many people leaving the church or dissatisfied with faith? we asked questions to be submitted and we have two priests from the archdiocese sit with us and answers -- share some answers. after this brief break please join me and my guests for ask a priest.

hello, and welcome to mosaic. my guests today are two priests from the archdiocese of san francisco and we will talk about questions being submitted to the priests. on the left is father kevin kennedy and on his left is father cameron. you can see that we have a young priest and a slightly older priest, so let's find out about their

lives. >> i've been a priest for four years and i have been assigned the vocation director of san francisco and the priest secretary of the archbishop corning only. i went to st. patrick's for my theology studies. i grew up in marin county. >> father kevin, you i know and i think you are from -- >> born in san mateo, so i am a local product. and been a priest for over two decades. i am the pastor of our lady of fatima which is a byzantine church and also help at st. monica and st. thomas as well. >> we had a set of questions coming in for people and one of the major ones was the recent

pew study, a reputable survey and organization that says the real center of christ and the eucharist and the center of what the priests life is, 70% of catholics say they don't believe in the real presence or they are not sure about that. that is something i would like you to respond to as the priest residing at the eucharist? >> i would say those studies don't surprise me. it will look out to the pews at the masses that we celebrate, it is something that we see in terms of their belief or lack of belief. and then the question becomes, what do we need to do to address this. catechesis is one thing and i always felt that action speaks out of the words. when you begin to act like you believe, so you begin to

actually believe more. so as a church if we did a better job at acting from the way we talk about it, the way we act in front of it and we priests celebrate mass, i think that would all generate a deeper faith in our people. when i deal with younger kids, second graders in school, they have a deep and mysterious belief in the eucharist. they don't always see that lived out in the masses that they go to the parishes and then that belief begins to diminish as they get older. acting like we believe could be a start of addressing the >> a priests way of performing the liturgy? >> that is crucial. he is not an actor in the sense that he is performing something he doesn't believe, because you can't fool people. you have to be a priest that believes that he is acting in the person of christ and that christ is central of the

priesthood. his mission is not to draw people so much to himself but threw himself to christ that encounter with the lord. so if he believes what the church believes and teaches, the offering of the eucharist, he believes this is truly the mystery of christ, present and renewed, offered to the father, then he will naturally express that through reverence, through love. you cannot fake that. unfortunately when a priest doesn't celebrate with reverence, people pick up on that. so priests are crucial in terms of their focus and dedication to the central mystery and the reference in the celebration of the mass. >> i guess the priest, we think of priests doing various tasks and jobs, they can be teachers, but is that central test the

same as the liturgy and the mass? >> the very nature of priesthood is offering sacrifice. that is the crucial defining role. others can do academic work, social work, community organizing and administration. all of those things can be a part of and are to some degree part of the priesthood, but the central role is to offer the sacrifice of the cross. the sacrificial love of the lord offered, re-actualized and renewed in the presence of the community and done with great reverence and care and love so that the community sees christ renewing his offering of himself on behalf to the father. >> i understand that. i can't imagine what the real presence is but i understand the teaching and you are putting me in a special relationship with god himself in that moment. that's what i call the big sacrament.

there is the slightly smaller sacrament of confession but also just as important, which you the priest put me in touch with god and for giving me things. we had a question bearing on that about a fear of going to confession. how do i overcome my fear of going to confession? >> what is the fear, so one of the fears is that the priest will judge me. especially if i know that priest where they see my face or hear my voice, they will judge me differently. one of the things that helps limit that, as priests, we know the sins of our past and the things we struggle within our own life and that gives us a certain level of compassion and empathy for the person coming to the confessional. we are not there to judge, we are there to stand in place of christ, the physician, and that is who people are seeking to encounter.

our job is in a sense to get out of the way so christ can speak through us. so that is a helpful piece of advice, that we are not there to judge, we know the sins of our own souls and the sins of many people that come to us. >> on a practical level i might say that it can sometimes be easier for people, if they are planning on going to confession, maybe find a priest they don't know and go anonymously behind the screen so that they don't feel on a human level that sense of trepidation. but in whatever circumstances, the goal is that they leave with joy. what the lord forgives, he forgets and takes away i could never happened and brings us back to the moment of our baptism. >> amen to that. we will take another brief break and come back and we will talk more and have more questions for the priests.

>> welcome back. we are talking with father kevin kennedy and father cameron faller. we had an omnibus question come in and i think it is a pretty good one. what is success for a priest? i think we know what success for a baseball player is, but what is success for a priest? and by the same token, what is failure, how may a priest fail? can you address those things? >> we were talking this morning about one of my favorite films and one of my mother's favorite films, the keys of the kingdom with gregory peck. he plays a priest who is presumably a failure in his first two assignments and he is sent to be

a missionary in china. yet he ends up touching the hearts of many people, the lives of many people through his gentleness, humility and authenticity. he embodies the best of the priesthood. even though it was a fictional character, he is the best of vincent de paul and so many others that embodied the best of what it is to pattern their lives after the heart of the lord. for me, for i am gentle and humble of heart. if a person with that kind of heart touches the soul of another human being, he is a success as a priest and what matters to god. >> recently i've been thinking about the idea of success and what it means in my priesthood. on one hand i'd say every single day is successful in that the job of the priest is to offer the sacrifice of the mass and every single day i offer the sacrifice of the mass for the

glorification of god the father and salvation of souls. so in a sense i could say every single day for up priest is successful. on another level, what does it mean away from that reality? it is bringing people closer to christ and having people come to realize that christ is the way, the truth and the life and being able to surrender themselves to that life. that would be success to a priest. >> it does seem the case that jesus founded this priesthood and named his apostles to be his followers and preachers and to bring people to him. i am the way, the truth and the life. it is an ancient tradition you are carrying out. speaking of success and failure, the person to whom you are bringing people looks a lot like a massive failure went up on the crucifix, doesn't he? but we have the

crucifix in the church to remind us of what? >> to remind us that failure and success is not exactly what we think it might be. from a christian perspective, failure in a sense leads to success. that god will allow us to fail. through our sufferings is actually where our successes and triumphs come. so it is kind of a reverse of what we would normally think of things in society. >> also about your life as a priest, there must be joys and there must be sorrows or difficulties. when we talked about confession, if i had to hear people sins day after day and year after year, i would get a little depressed. what is your reaction to that? >> that is what many people think. when a person has a humble and contrite heart, there is nothing more beautiful than that confession. it does not matter the sins they are confessing, but you are able to reconcile them to god the

father, that is one of the greatest joys of a priest, i would say. >> joys, difficulties, what stands out for you? >> i think the greatest joy for me would be to see the young people who are coming to the church is where father cameron celebrates and i celebrate, many of whom were converts so they've had to struggle to find their faith in a very secular culture. they've had to, sometimes evangelize and catechized themselves to some extent. read the fathers of the church and participate in the liturgies. that courage in finding and persevering in their faith. the hope against difficult odds and that belief and trust that make

real love possible in their hearts. love for god and love for one another, they are my greatest joy because they are the future of the church and they are a real future. >> you mentioned young people converting or coming to the church. one of the questions is a concern that many people have, so many young people seem to be leaving the catholic church. can you address that? is it a problem? >> we see it when we look out in the pews and don't see many young people, college age and high school age. many people ask, what are we supposed to do? a lot of times if we think we make things more entertaining and more engaging that the young people come back. but i deeply believe that young people are searching for god. the more that we can be a place where they can find the transcendence of god and experience the mystery of god and be touched by the love of god, the more young people will come back. they are searching for it and i believe we can offer it. it may not be

exactly in the way we think by engaging and entertaining things. >> the archdiocese is trying to promote the sense of truth, beauty and goodness. when you begin with the liturgy itself, the truth is being proclaimed in the goodness of the community formed by faith, hope and love. but for the beauty of sacred worship. the beauty of images, music and the reverence of the liturgical itself. engaging in homilies. that this is centurylink most important in the catholic communities. they are being drawn to love this. their lives are really empty despite technology that is meant

to facilitate communication. it often leads to a sense of isolation. so they will only find the healing of their loneliness and inner emptiness by believing and i worship with community. >> already. we will take a brief break and be back for one more segment discussion with our priests today.

hello and welcome back for our final segment. you are both local fellows, i haven't asked you how you discerned individually your vocation as a priest. can i get that from you? >> i was in second grade the year i made my first holy communion. my uncle was ordained a priest for another diocese. he lived elsewhere. but i was present and in october of 1961, i was at his ordination. it was a magnificent event and his first solemn high mass was later and i remember being present. it was a beautiful choir and the family was all present and i was thinking, you know what, i think i'd like to do that when i grow up. i had thought of a lot of other things but when i saw him

at the altar i thought, this is a beautiful event. it was so not centered on the priest but on christ. bringing christ to people and people to christ. truth, beauty and goodness. as a second grader i wasn't being compelled by theological polls, but it was something i felt as a child to read >> that seed can be planted. what about you? >> i grew up never wanting to be a priest. if you asked me 10 things i wanted to be, priesthood would be at the bottom. it all changed when i went on this religious pilgrimage after my freshman year of college. in a moment of prayer i just had the realization that i never ask god what he wanted me to do with my life and i ask that dangerous question and all of a sudden i felt this deep inspiration and joy to be a priest. definitely a lot of fear but also inspiration and joy that this is how the

lord is asking me to give my life to him and i follow that path until priesthood. >> how old are you now? >> 31. >> a good decade or more of training. that is wonderful. let me ask this question, this program we are doing now i think will be broadcast on november 3rd on vocation awareness sunday. you are the director of office of locations of the archdiocese in addition to everything else. let's talk about, are we finding locations in the priesthood for young men, and how does a young man begin to think about such a vocation? >> it is a great struggle. as everyone knows, the numbers are not great. we don't have a lot of inquiries and there are not a lot of men in the seminary. other places are doing better than the west coast but the fundamental crisis is a basic vocational crisis. there is a lack of people getting married

anymore in the church. it is a realization that our life is a gift, god gave us our life is a gift and the ultimate question is how am i being able to take this life of mine and offer it back. how is god calling me to offer my life as a gift? the more we can help and people realize that is the purpose of life, the more we open to a vocation of marriage and priesthood and the religious life. but they have to start asking the question first before we can get them on the path of potential priesthood. >> it is interesting that you mentioned the marriage rate. i can attest, i am married and there are times that if it weren't my vocation and my calling, it would be difficult to fulfill. but it continues because it is sort of a secret application and a regifting of myself to someone else. >> i think the key element is

prayer. we pray for vocations because the lord himself asked us to do that. the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few. so pray to the lord of the harvest. this will be aired later but we are taping today, which happens to be october 15th, the feast of st. teresa of jesus. and she once said, prayer is simply heart-to-heart conversation with god, who we know loves us. heart to heart conversation to pray for your priests for their sanctification, to pray for future priests and to pray for those who are searching for meaning, truth, value and love within their lives. that's through that prayer the grace of god may be communicated to them in a way that really touches them and changes them so that they can become a priest, like,

even though he is a fictional character, the wonderful priest portrayed in the keys of the kingdom. patterning his life after the lord, gentle and humble and with a love for service. >> are their hero or model or mentor priests you can recall in your life? >> one priest recently that has been a great model for me, he is a saint, st. isaac, he grew up in france and came to the new world and brought the faith to the people in this land. the amount he sacrificed out of love for the gospel and the amount that he loved his people is deeply inspiring. i hope one day to visit his grave site in northern new york. he is an inspiration for me recently. >> i think we only have 20 or 30 seconds. thank you very much father faller for coming and

father kevin, same thing. it is great to talk with you and we learned a lot about the vocation of the priest. can we say in closing that it is not the most difficult life of all? we don't want to scare people off. it is difficult but doable. >> it is joyful. >> it should be joyful, yes. >> thank you for being here. and thank you for watching mosaic.

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