DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Paul Zwolak entered the Cathedral Basilica of St. James on June 6 behind a massive procession of 30 seminarians, 60 diocesan priests, and the six auxiliary bishops of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
But following a Mass with the rite of ordination, the former transitional deacon emerged as Father Paul Zolak.
Bishop Robert Brennan, who administered the rite, noted to the congregation that Father Zwolak is now the youngest priest in the diocese.
At age 27, he is also the newest member of the pastoral staff at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in the Flatlands.
“It’s just a really great time, because I’ll be able to serve God’s people through my priesthood, and to bring them to salvation and to God,” Father Zwolak said before the Mass. “I’m just trusting in God. I’m just going to work through his grace so that I can obey his word, and to do what he tells me.”
Father Zwolak is the only priest to be ordained this year, so Bishop Brennan chose to celebrate the Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James.
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Before the Mass, the bishop described how an ordination is always a special event, marked by the consecratory prayer, the clergy’s laying hands on the head of the new priest, and the bishop’s anointing of his hands with chrism oil.
“It’s a very, very moving experience,” Bishop Brennan said. “You get that sense of the power of the Holy Spirit.”
And such was Father Zwolak’s ordination.
Helping him don his new vestments was Father Peter Purpura, pastor of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Middle Village — Father Zwolak’s home parish, where he attended the Catholic academy and became an altar server.
Father Purpura assisted with the chasuble, while Father Bill Sweeney, pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish, Belle Harbor, helped with the stole. Father Zwolak served an internship with Father Sweeney.
After the Mass, Father Purpura was shown an old photo of himself with a young boy, the future Father Zwolak, who was wearing the attire of an altar server.
“Wow,” Father Purpura said. “I recognize him, but I’m not sure I recognize myself! But it is a joy to think that the young boy that I knew since he was in fifth grade today is now a priest.
“I think it speaks to the beauty of a parish, right? A parish that is always there accompanying people throughout their lives. I think this is very encouraging for the life of the parish and the Church.”
It has been 13 years since the last ordination at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James, which was once the exclusive venue for priestly ordination because it is the seat of the Diocese of Brooklyn. Larger groups of new priests and their families necessitated moving the annual rites to the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph, a much bigger space.
The congregation on June 6 filled the historical cathedral basilica, which had recently completed a massive renovation project under the direction of its rector, Father Joseph Gibino.
Also participating in the rite were Bishop Emeritus Nicholas DiMarzio, Auxiliary Bishop James Massa, the rector at St. Joseph Seminary and College at Dunwoodie, and Auxiliary Bishop Witold Mroziewski.
Joining them were Auxiliary Bishops Emeritus Neil Tiedemann, Paul Sanchez, Octavio Cisenaros, and Raymond Chappetto.
Other participants were Msgr. Joseph Grimaldi, vicar general for the diocese, and Father Patrick Keating, moderator of the curia.
During the Mass, Bishop Brennan commented that Father Zwolak has been well formed for the priesthood, having grown up in a vibrant parish and its Catholic academy.
His education continued at Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood and St. John’s University, where he earned his philosophy degree before entering the seminary at Dunwoodie to pursue his master’s degree in theology.
But Bishop Brennan added that the foundation of this formation is his parents, Jacek and Krystyna Zwolak, who immigrated from Gdańsk, Poland, to Middle Village in the 1990s.
The bishop congratulated them for their son’s success and thanked them for participating in his formation.
Krystyna Zwolak said she and her husband were surprised when their son expressed an interest in the priesthood while in middle school. But they had also been praying for more men to become Catholic clergy.
“Why not our son?” she added. “We said, ‘Yes, if this is the choice you’re making, and God is calling you, you cannot say no.’ ”
Jacek Zwolak said the family is not worried about Father Zwolak.
“He’s in good hands in the Church,” he said. “Can it be better than this?”
After Mass, well-wishers formed a long line down the center aisle to receive blessings from the new priest.
Among them was a young man on a similar path — Jon Paolo Marasigan, the youth minister at St. Mary Gate of Heaven in Ozone Park — who had just learned that he had been accepted into the seminary. He said the ordination was “extraordinarily inspiring.”
“Father Paul and I both attended Archbishop Molly High School,” he said. “So now that I got accepted into the seminary, I’m praying that one day I’ll be up there in the exact position that he is now.”