Page 13 - Unity Edn 43

UNITY

I

'SEMINARIUM' - SEED PLOT - Dean Taberdo

In 2019,
we had 50
seminarians
w h o ,
through a
life of prayer,
l earni ng
and service,
c o n tin u e
to listen to
God’s loving
call to follow
Him into the
di ocesan
priesthood.
I am now
in my sixth
year, and
the past
five years
have been
devoted to
studies and
immersion
L-R: Bishop Emeritus Eugue Hurley, Dean Taberdo and Bishop Charles Gauci in pastoral
work such as
y name is Dean Taberdo. I am 24 years visiting elderly people in age care, teaching at
old and I come from Our Lady Help of primary and secondary schools and helping
MChristians Parish in Palmerston. provide pastoral care in hospitals.

My family moved from the Philippines to
Australia in 2010. When we arrived, I went In 2018 I was blessed to spend time ‘locally’
straight to high school at Palmerston College. during my pastoral year in Alice Springs and
I became active with my local parish by Santa Teresa, an experience I keep very
joining the Sunday evening Mass choir and close to my heart. I also remember with joy
attending the catechesis that Fr Tom and the the opportunity of having stayed with the
Neocatechumenal Way community offered - communities of Wadeye, Wurrumiyanga and
and because my high school was very close more recently - the Cathedral parish.
to the parish, I was able to visit the Blessed
Sacrament daily after school. I joined CFC- I still have a few years of study left and so I
Youth for Christ as well, which very quickly wish to ask for your prayers again. I also take
became my second family. this opportunity to thank you for the welcome
and prayerful support I have received through
Since childhood, I already had the inkling that the years from many people and communities
God was calling me to the priesthood, but in around our diocese.
2014, while volunteering with the Diocesan
Youth Office, I was able to discern more Bishop Charles keeps saying that I’m “lonely”
deeply. After much prayer and reflection, and in the seminary because there’s only one of
with the encouragement of family and friends, me from Darwin - well, it is true! Therefore,
especially Bishop Eugene and Fr Raass SVD, I please join us in praying that many, many
was able to give a wholehearted YES, hence more generous young men from our diocese
commencing my application to enter Corpus will hear and answer God’s call to become
Christi College Seminary (Melbourne) in 2015.
priests for our Darwin diocese.
A seminary, from the Latin “seminarium” God bless you!
meaning “seed plot,” is a place where, by the
grace of God and human co-operation, the
seed of priestly vocation in each student or
“seminarian” is cared for and directed towards Andric Dean Tobias Taberdo,
growth and deepening its roots into God. Seminarian for the Darwin Diocese

www.darwin.catholic.org.au 13