WCR This Week

Friar Pierre Ducharme

VANCOUVER — After six years of formation, Franciscan Friar Pierre Ducharme will emerge from Christ’s kiln a fully-formed priest after his ordination at Holy Rosary Cathedral.

“It gives me more of an opportunity to be with people and journey with them through baptism and marriages,” the Vancouver native said. “I am looking forward to all the ministry that the priesthood has to offer.”

Ducharme, the vocations director for the Franciscans of Western Canada in Cochrane, Alta., hopes to see his order grow as his ministry expands.

Ducharme began to think he was called to a religious life while attending Corpus Christi College, but then gave up on the idea while at University of British Columbia.

However, after graduating with a degree in history and classics in 2003, he wanted to continue his education and explore his faith on an academic level.

He chose Edmonton’s Newman Theological College, and planned to eventually go into ministry as a lay person. A number of his classmates and professors who were Franciscans helped him discover his vocation.

WHOLE NEW LIGHT

“I just saw the religious life in a whole new light and I saw myself there in it,” Ducharme said. “It attracted me in the purest sense of the word.” He entered formation in 2005 and graduated from Newman with a master of divinity degree in 2009. He said being ordained is one of many gifts he’s been given in his life. “I feel a very strong sense of being a friar and being a Franciscan,” he said. “It’s all about being with people. Getting ordained so I can minister to people as an ordained priest is part of my longing to be with people and journey with them.” Archbishop Michael Miller will ordain Ducharme May 14.