Two men take First Vows to enter the Society of St. Edmund, the founding order of priests of Saint Michael’s College
Brother Lino Oropeza from Caracas, Venezuela, and Brother Joseph Kwiatkowski of Albion, N.Y., will take First Vows on Sunday, Aug, 29, at the 10 a.m. Mass at the Chapel of St. Michael the Archangel at Saint Michael’s College. This celebration of the mass will bring together all members of the Society of St. Edmund, including those in Vermont and those in the Edmundite Southern Missions in Selma, Ala.
First Vows are taken after Postulancy and a year and a day of Novitiate, a spiritual education leading toward becoming a member in the Society of St. Edmund, which is the order of priests and brothers who founded Saint Michael’s College in 1904. Members of the Society of St. Edmund continue to direct the college’s Edmundite Campus Ministry program, teach at the college and serve on the college’s Board of Trustees.
Brother Lino Oropeza, a native of Venezuela, was baptized by Edmundite priests and grew up knowing the Edmundite missionaries in his home region. Brother Joe Kwiatowski, is a 2009 graduate of Saint Michael’s College, earning his degree in Latin and in music.
Both men taking First Vows spent their Novitiate studying and focusing on discernment and spiritual development in the Edmundite Formation House in South Burlington guided by the Rev. Marcel Rainville, SSE, Director of Formation, and the Rev. Stanley Deresienski, SSE, Director of Vocations.
Brothers Oropeza and Kwiatkowski will be officially Edmundites, but they are not yet priests. They will continue to study for three years with the intention of renewing the vows they will take August 29th, perpetually, at the end of the three years. The new Edmundites will continue to carry out their training at the Society’s Formation House in South Burlington and at St. Michael’s College before going to Major Seminary.
Brother Lino is the first Edmundite priesthood candidate to come from the SSE mission in Caracas, Venezuela. He had been in a seminary in Venezuela before coming to the U.S., and “would have joined the Edmundites sooner, had the program been set up,” Father Rainville told a reporter for the Saint Michael’s College Magazine. Father Rainville previously served in the Edmundite’s Caracas mission.
Brother Kwiatkowski was active as a Saint Michael’s student with the SMC Liturgical Choir and campus ministry programs.
Learn What Matters at Saint Michael’s College, The Edmundite Catholic liberal arts college, www.smcvt.edu . Saint Michael’s provides education with a social conscience, producing graduates with the intellectual tools to lead successful, purposeful lives that will contribute to peace and justice in our world. Founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, Saint Michael’s College is located three miles from Burlington, Vermont, one of America’s top college towns. It is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nations Best 371 Colleges, and will be included in the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Saint Michael’s is one of only 280 colleges and universities nationwide, one of only 20 Catholic colleges, with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Saint Michael’s has 1,900 undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 100 international students. Saint Michael’s students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Pickering, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and other grants. The college is one of the nation’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges as listed in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
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