"It's that very annoying nagging that's kind of like when your parents are telling you to do the dishes, " he told Stuff.co.nz

Castello, who describes himself as "a born and bred Cantabrian", completed his secondary school studies at St Bede's College in 2008.

In 2009, while studying part-time for a Bachelor of Music at the University of Canterbury, he worked for the Catholic Youth Team for a short time.

No matter how often he dismissed it, he said the thought kept creeping back into his mind throughout that year.

"I thought no-one in their right mind would want to be a Catholic priest in this day and age."

"At the end of that year . . . filling out the paper work for the next year's courses didn't feel right. It was a very uneasy feeling.

"That's when I thought to myself 'let's go do something about this thought of priesthood'."

Castello was ordained last month in Christchurch, along with Graeme Blackburn, 33, and Huynh Tran, 31.

A recent report in Stuff described the path to the priesthood each of these men followed.

Blackburn said priesthood was "quite a foreign concept" to friends when he told them about his decision about seven years ago.

"The people who you get on with really well, they might struggle to see why you've picked this lifestyle because it is quite a lifestyle," he said.

But all were supportive of his choice and he had become closer to many of them, he said.

While numbers were declining in New Zealand, in Vietnam seminaries are having to turn people away.

That was how his confrere Tran found his way into the priesthood in Christchurch.

Bishop Barry Jones invited Tran to come to New Zealand about nine years ago to learn English before going to the seminary.

Source

• Stuff
• Holy Cross College
• Image: Mairehau Parish

The deacons come from six different Pacific Island nations.

Three were ordained for the Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia.

Two are members of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) from the Solomon Islands.

Three are Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, (MSC) two from Kiribati and one from Fiji.

Two are Marists (Society of Mary), one from Vanuatu and one from Tonga

See list of Deacons and Photographs

Cardinal Soane Patita Mafi is the first former student of the Pacific Regional Seminary to be named a Cardinal.

Since 1972 Pacific Regional Seminary offers training for the Roman Catholic priesthood for candidates from the various dioceses of Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) and for religious congregations with houses affiliated to the Seminary.

The Seminary offers a Diploma in Theology and a Bachelor of Divinity which are accredited by the South Pacific Association of Theological Schools (SPATS).

In addition, since it is affiliated to the Urbaniana University in Rome, the students of PRS who complete the requirements can also obtain a Bachelor of Theology degree.

The Archbishops and Bishops of CEPAC constitute the Seminary's Board of Trustees which sets policies and sees to the supervision of priestly formation at the Seminary.

A Senate composed of four bishops is elected by the Board of Trustees for a term of three years.

The Senate looks after the general administration and supervision of the seminary.

The Rector and the members of Staff take care of the details of the day to day administration.

Two representatives of the affiliated colleges, elected from among the congregations who have affiliated colleges, also participate in the deliberations of the Senate.

These are the first of our Vietnamese men to be ordained to priesthood, after arriving over seven years ago to learn English before entering Holy Cross Seminary.

The church was full of family who had travelled from Vietnam as well as many others who have travelled from Australia and from across New Zealand. Read more

Last Saturday, Deacon Luis Venancio Benavente Camacho became the first Chamorro from the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam to be ordained priest.

Deacon Michael Vincent Jucutan, of Hawaii was ordained at the same time.

Fr Luis is the second Chamorro to be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Guam this year.

The first, Fr. Richard Meno Kidd, from Malesso, was ordained in July. He studied for the priesthood at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California.

Eleven other priests who received their formation at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, which was erected in 1999, are presently working in the Archdiocese of Agana

Among these ordained priests,

• five now serve as pastors in local parishes in Guam
• one serves as an administrator of a chapel
• one serves as a parochial vicar in a local parish
• one has just completed his studies at the Lateran University in Rome and now teaches at the seminary
• one is continuing to pursue his studies at the Lateran University in Rome
• one is the Vice Rector of the Seminary who is completing his studies in Lugano, Switzerland
• one is currently is serving at the seminary

Presently, 42 seminarians from 20 nations are being formed at the seminary in Yona.

As well as the Redemptoris Mater seminary in Guam, in the United States there are Redemptoris Mater Seminaries in Boston, Dallas, Denver, Newark, Washington D.C.

Source

• U Matuna Si Yu'os
• Saipan Tribune
• BostonCatholic
• Image: U Matuna Si Yu'os

The rise in men and women entering religious orders is across a wide variety of different orders, some of which have not had novices for many years.

Last year also saw the highest number of ordinations to the diocesan priesthood in nearly 10 years, with 31 priests ordained for the dioceses of England and Wales.

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