Solemn professions mark new phase in Archdiocese’s historic new religious order

By Christina Gray

The pews of Mater Dolorosa Church in South San Francisco overflowed with witnesses to a significant historic event on Sept. 21:  A Mass marking the Solemn  professions and promises of the first religious order founded within the boundaries of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in more than a century.

Three priest-monks of the Contemplatives of St. Joseph’s First Order made their Solemn Vows, and 10 lay members of its Third Order made their Solemn Promises at a sung Mass celebrated by San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone.

“After being ordained to the priesthood, it feels like probably the greatest day of my life,” said Father Vito Joseph Mary Perrone of the Holy Face and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The pastor of Mater Dolorosa since 2022, he founded the order with the encouragement and support of Archbishop Cordileone in 2012.

“All of my life I have felt called also to the monastic tradition,” said Father Perrone. “So, to now be officially a priest-monk is really the fulfillment of everything I’ve ever felt called to and longed for.”

The Contemplatives of St. Joseph Order is based out of the former convent at Mater Dolorosa parish. Father Perrone said the order brings to the Archdiocese and the parish itself monastic spiritual traditions with an emphasis on “the call to holiness and liturgy.”

“We look at our vocation as forming people in the contemplative tradition,” he said. “And that primarily takes place through silence in front of the Eucharist in adoration.”

Recognizing that adoration, contemplative spirituality, and liturgical diversity are new to many lay Catholics, Father Perrone plans to hold workshops on these and other topics.

Brother Mikhael Josip Maria Mihic of the Holy Cross and the Holy Name of Jesus, a seminarian with the Archdiocese of San Francisco and Contemplatives of St. Joseph, was dressed in the Order’s monastic robe and sandals when he also took his Solemn Vows at the Mass. Brother Mihic will be ordained into the transitional diaconate on Sept. 27 at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University.  Father Joseph Homick of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Precious Blood of Jesus formally transferred his vows to the Contemplatives of St. Joseph at the Mass after having previously taken Solemn Vows with another religious community.

“It is a very important step for a beginning religious order like the COSJ to have three people reach the stage of Solemn Vows,” said Father Perrone. That’s what made the day so special, he said. “This was the culmination of a lot of years marking the end of our first era and the beginning of our second.”

In 2013, Archbishop Cordileone made the Contemplatives of St. Joseph a public clerical association of the Christian faithful, a formal step toward the formation of a religious order. The Third Order for laypeople was launched a few years later, and since 2018, the Contemplatives of St. Joseph has also welcomed female religious vocations.

“I am so grateful to Archbishop Cordileone for his support, for his care, for his understanding that this vision, given time, it will really bear fruit within the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Saturday was like the seed was put into the ground. The seedlings will come forth since the roots are in there now. Now it can start to come forth and blossom.”

Ten men and women of the Third Order made their Solemn Promises at the Mass as well after a seven-year formation program.

“As big as the Solemn Vows are, the Solemn Promises are also very important to the life of the local Church,” said Father Perrone. While they don’t wear religious robes, they do wear a Contemplatives of St. Joseph medallion as a visible sign of their vocation.

Both First and Third Orders serve in active apostolates including at St. Patrick’s Seminary & University and with the Missionaries of Charity. The Order also has a monthly healing Mass, and offers the parish the unique distinction of celebrating the Byzantine Divine Liturgy as well as the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Mass.

In his homily, Archbishop Cordileone spoke of both “red” martyrs — those that literally “lose their life to preserve life in the next life” — and “white” martyrs — those Christians who follow the example of the Desert Fathers, withdrawing from society to pursue a life of strict asceticism and “perfect union with Christ.” Their example inspires others to walk the path of faith, he said.

“This is what we are about here today,” said the Archbishop. “God in our very midst is working something new, something great beyond our own vision. The first solemn vows of the COSJ provide our Archdiocese with this witness that is the seed for the growth and the vibrancy of the Church here.”

“What a blessing God lavishes on us today,” he said.

Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco magazine.

Photos: Mary Powers and Colleen Hera