New Vocation a Tribute to the Work of Msgr Bandas of St. Agnes

It's a great time of celebration for the Parish of St. Agnes whose Slovene, Austrian and Hungarian descendants have held out in a time of religious rebellion and urban decline. It's not popular in certain circles to point out the sorry state of things as they were in the late 60s when Msgr Bandas, a Peritus at the Second Vatican Council, who predicted all the bad things that happened, and yet, had the foresight to put something in place that would survive him and yield fruit in the coming years. The few post-conciliar years left to him were bitter and hard; a desert for a man who was reviled in his own land by his brother priests and superiors.

It's a tribute to the man that he built a bulwark against the Liberalism that surrounded him on all sides and made it so that new flowers could grow and flourish in time. St. Agnes Parish has produced many vocations over the years and accounts for about 10% of the Archdiocese's seminarians at any time.

It shouldn't surprise any one that there are no altar girls at this historic edifice.

Raised Lutheran, Deacon Doug Pierce considered careers in chemistry, classics, math and music. He thought about getting married and having a big family.

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Deacon Doug Pierce

Age: 26

Hometown: Princeton

Home parish: St. Agnes, St. Paul

Parents: Todd and Patricia

Education: Two years at St. Olaf College in Northfield, bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of St. Thomas, 2006

Former job: I worked as an organist at my Lutheran churches for a number of years before college

Teaching parish: St. Bernard in St. Paul

Pastoral internship experiences: Clinical pastoral experience at Minneapolis VA Medical Center, summer diaconate placement at Divine Mercy, Faribault

Hobbies: Playing organ and piano, listening to music, drawing and painting, running, swimming, weightlifting, reading, camping, horseback riding

Favorite seminary class: “Eucharist” with Father Andrew Cozzens

Favorite book: Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities.”

Favorite movie: Alfred Hitchcock’s “I Confess.”

Volunteer work: Little Sisters of the Poor and St. Mary’s Home, St. Pau

Thanksgiving Masses:

» 10 a.m. Sunday, May 30 at St. Agnes, St. Paul

» 10 a.m. and noon (Spanish), Sunday, June 6 at Divine Mercy, Faribault

» 10:30 a.m., Sunday, June 13, St. Bernard, St. Paul

But after he became Catholic in 2002, Deacon Pierce felt called to priesthood.

“I decided that I wanted to be able to live a celibate life,” he said, “because in that way, I’d be able to serve God in a unique way that I wouldn’t be able to if I had a family.”

Deacon Pierce was an undergraduate student at St. Olaf College in Northfield when he decided to convert. Amid the college life, he went to daily Mass and adoration, and discerned his vocation.

“As I was beginning to think about it, people would mention that, ‘Maybe that’s what God is calling you to,’” he said, “even without me asking about it.”

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Photos from Orbis Catholicus.