FOLLOW ME
2002 FOLLOW ME
September
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Contents © 2001
by Jim Holman.
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LOOKS FORWARD TO CLEANING UP THE MESS
By Robert Kumpel
Fadi Auro has known that he wanted to be a priest since he was a small boy. "My mother still has videotape of me saying Mass when I was a kid!"
Born in the United Arab Emirates to Iraqi parents in 1981, Auro grew up against the grain as a Catholic in a Muslim nation. "In the UAE, it's not as bad as it is in Saudi Arabia, because the majority of the people are non-natives working there as we were. There's a fairly sizable Catholic cathedral in my home town of Abu Dhabi, serving three different communities. There were Capuchins serving the Indians and Pakistanis; there were the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who served the Americans and English communities; and a Jordanian Latin Rite priest chaplained the entire Arab community, including Egyptians, Iraqis, Syrians -- you name it. There was the occasional curse from a Muslim passing by, but there wasn't an actual persecution."
Auro's parents and three sisters ended up in America a bit sooner than planned. "We came to San Diego in the summer of 1990 on vacation. Two weeks later, the Persian Gulf War started; and we were carrying Iraqi passports. My father had already planned a residency here, and we had green cards already, so he decided we would stay. We spent the first year in Stockton, then moved back here."
Auro's family was originally Chaldean-rite Catholics but switched to the Latin Rite when they left Iraq. When they settled in El Cajon, Auro attended Santa Sophia parochial school and St. Augustine High School. "I became very good friends with Father Neely."
Auro describes his high school years as his "hedonist period": "Catholicism became less of a priority. I had friends and girlfriends in high school, but I've lost touch with them. My relationships there were not Christ-centered. There was all kinds of sentimentality and emotion on graduation day, with people saying, 'We'll never forget each other' and so on, but a few months later, I never heard from any of them again. But at the end of my high school years I came back to my faith, stronger than ever."
His re-awakening came in a strange manner. "There was a woman who saw me at one point, and she had an intuition in prayer that I was to be a priest. She told two Legionnaires of Christ, and they rang my doorbell. I thought they were crazy! I didn't know whether to turn them away or laugh at them, but they were persistent. They were both young and knew how to deal with youth. One was a brother and the other a priest. At first, I liked the characters, the people themselves, far more than what they had to tell me. It was liking them as persons that really brought me back to the faith. I went to a retreat a couple of weeks later."
Auro's college experience has led him to what many consider America's top three Catholic colleges. "I went to Thomas Aquinas College for one year, to Steubenville for another semester, and I've spent a year and a half at Christendom. I had a spiritual director at TAC who thought I ought to enter the seminary sooner than later, but he wanted me to have a year of growth away from everything I was familiar with. At Steubenville I found out very quickly that it just wasn't exactly for me. It's a wonderful place, very orthodox and very devout, but it wasn't my spirituality. Christendom ended up being the perfect balance. It has the strong spirituality like Steubenville does, but it emphasizes the intellectual life as TAC does. It's worked out very well for me, and I'm very happy there. My friendships now are a lot more substantial, because they're grounded on a real foundation."
Fadi Auro doesn't think he could become a diocesan priest. "I considered it, but I just don't think it's my calling. Diocesan priests have to be very, very strong spiritually to survive. I know my weaknesses, and I think I need the community life."
The recent priesthood scandals have only emboldened Auro toward his goal. "I look forward to helping clean the mess up. It's a huge mess. Unfortunately, we've lost the faith of the people and rightfully so. Priests don't seem to really want to be priests nowadays. With this last generation, the last 30 years, I've found a real lack of holiness among priests. Some of the priests that entered, but certainly not the vast majority, entered not because they wanted to become an alter Christus, but, in many cases, because they had something to hide. A priest who enters has to have sanctity as a priority. If he does not have that desire to be a saint, he should not enter the seminary. If God gives me the grace to go on to ordination, I hope that it will be a way toward my sanctification and God will make me a saint. If the people of God are going to be led back to Him, it's going to have to be through holy priests."
Auro hopes to enter the Norbertine seminary in Orange County after graduation next June.