‘Call of the Gospel’ shapes Father Asare’s priesthood

Father John Asare

Jubilarian’s focus, joy is ‘service to God’s people’

 

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son” (Jn 3:16).

“I always say that is the call of the Gospel. That is the love of God. That is why God sent his son, to save us,” said Father John Asare of his favorite Scripture passage. “Because of the love of God, I am being called to become a priest, and as a priest, it is my duty to help people to attain salvation.”

In the 25 years since he was ordained a priest, Father Asare has served the people of God on three continents as a pastor, formator, teacher and student. Each place had a “unique culture” that has helped shape the priest he is today.

He first felt the call to priesthood at age 10 or 11.

“I was attracted to the vocation because I was serving on the altar,” he recalled of his childhood in the Archdiocese of Kumasi, Ghana. “I had the opportunity also to visit the mission churches with the pastors there, and all these things kept my interest in becoming a priest.”

After middle school, Father Asare attended a minor seminary in Kumasi for seven years. He was then called for what the priest termed “the national service” in Ghana. After this service, he got permission to study philosophy at St. Paul’s Catholic Seminary and then continued his education at St. Peter’s Regional Seminary, where he studied theology until 1997.

Following his ordination on July 19 of that year, Father Asare was appointed to be a teacher at a high school seminary for five years. For the first two years of that assignment, he also served as a parochial vicar; for the final three years, he was a parish pastor.

In Ghana, Father Asare said, “when it comes to celebrating the Mass, it takes time – sometimes two to three hours to finish Sunday Mass.”

After Mass, “everybody can come to you at any time without making appointments,” he added. “So, the life there in Ghana is like we were more involved with the people in the sense that you can go at any time, to visit with anybody at any time.”

From 2002-2004, Father Asare earned his master’s degree in philosophy at the Pontifical University Urbaniana in Rome. He was given just three months to learn Italian, the language in which all of his classes would be given.

“It taught me to be hardworking in order to pass,” he said with a laugh.

As a student in Rome, the priest said he met “many priests, many religious” seeking a vocation in service to the Church. “And all these things also have shaped my desire to hang on no matter what,” he said.

The priest then returned to Ghana and was appointed a formator and philosophy teacher at St. Paul’s Catholic Seminary in Accra, where he served “for 11 good years.”

In 2015, Father Asare received his first assignment in the Diocese of Richmond as parochial vicar at St. Bede, Williamsburg.

He commented on the large parish, where “you meet many people at any weekend.” He said he found that when he shared his life and told the people about Ghana, they would become more interested and ask questions to learn more about him and his country.

The priest experienced a difference in culture between the U.S. and Ghana, which was in the way that “before people can come to you (here), they need to make an appointment or whatever; they can’t just come, or I can’t just go and visit with and formate people.”

So, he changed his style of working.

“I needed to know the culture of people and see what I can do to help the people,” he said.

While serving in the Diocese of Richmond, Father Asare has found joy in visiting the sick, which “apart from the celebration of the Mass,” he deemed his favorite part of being a priest.

“Before I was ordained, I was afraid of going to the hospital to visit the sick… but when I became a priest, and especially here, like since St. Bede, anytime you have a call to visit the sick, I developed an interest. So now I have that desire and the joy of visiting the sick. I overcame the fear when I was growing up of visiting the sick in the hospital,” he said.

The years Father Asare spent as a formator at St. Paul’s Seminary was a very special part of his vocation; he called it “a big opportunity” that shaped his “understanding and the desire of the priesthood.”

“There’s always joy in helping people to become priests. In Ghana, when I see seminarians whom I’ve taught… I always have the joy of helping them to answer the call to the priesthood,” he said.

At his current assignment at St. Mary, Blacksburg, where he has served as pastor since 2016, Father Asare is again able to interact with young people. This time, they are students who come to his parish from local universities.

“The joy that I had in Ghana is like meeting the students, especially when I meet them at the confessional,“ he said. He added that the students attend confession often, and he has increased his availability for the sacrament since arriving at the parish.

Father Asare expressed gratefulness for the “effective and efficient” staff and good council members and volunteers of St. Mary for the “enormous help” they provide.

“When I came, I talked to them about the need for them to help me. So as St. Paul said, we have various gifts, so each member should bring his or her gift to the table,” said Father Asare. “So I used the term at my first pastoral council meeting, ‘all hands on deck,’ and indeed, they have helped me.”

Reflecting on reaching this milestone, Father Asare said that the years passed quickly, “but the desire, the attraction, is still there. We are ordained for the service of God’s people, and that desire to serve God’s people is still there.”

“It’s all about thanking God for who we are… and we continue to ask him to help us do that work,” he added. “I chose as my anniversary motto, if you can put it that way, ‘(God is) our help in ages past and our hope for years to come.’ So I know he has helped me in the last 25 years, and then for the years ahead of me, I believe he is going to help me.”

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