New chaplain assigned to Skaggs Catholic Center

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Dominican Fr. Michael Augustine Amabisco

SALT LAKE CITY — The new chaplain for the Skaggs Catholic Center comes with an updated job description: to minister to everyone in the school community – not just Juan Diego Catholic High School students but those at the other two schools on campus, as well as to faculty, staff and parents.

Dominican Fr. Michael Augustine Amabisco, who has been appointed to the position, said he is intrigued by the Skaggs Catholic Center because they are involved in faith formation of children from the ages of daycare and pre-kindergarten through high school, and “not just with the children but with the parents and the community. I think that’s a pretty awesome mission.”

Fr. Michael Augustine was ordained 13 years ago for the Western Dominican Province. He had a late calling to the priesthood. He wasn’t raised with a formal religious tradition, but as a child his best friend was Catholic, and if he were visiting on Sunday, the friend’s mother would invite him to attend Mass with them.

The first time he went to Mass, Fr. Michael Augustine recalled, “I was freaked out because people were all standing together, they were all sitting together, they were kneeling together and they were all saying the same words. And I had a little understanding of Jesus, but there was a guy hanging on a cross and it was absolutely overwhelming, frightening and intriguing.”

Wanting to understand what the people in the congregation were doing and why, Fr. Michael Augustine asked questions of his friend and his mother.

Although those experiences planted the seeds, it wasn’t until he was in his 20s that he “decided at some point that I wanted something solid in life – an anchor,” he said. “And I didn’t want it necessarily to be a place or a job; I wanted it to be something I could take with me if I moved.”

He investigated various Christian dominations as well as Eastern philosophies such as Confucianism and Buddhism to see if anything spoke to him, he said. Then one day, driving around his hometown of Santa Ana, Calif., he saw a Catholic church, and felt a “very weird draw,” he said.

He went into the church, sat down in the front row, looked at the altar and the crucifix, “and the only way I can describe it is there was kind of a voice in me, there was a voice that said, ‘You’re home,’” he said.

He stood up, went to the rectory, knocked on the door, introduced himself and said, “I think I want to be Catholic. Is there somebody I can talk to?” he recalled.

He completed the RCIA program and entered the Church on the Easter vigil; his sponsor was the mother of the friend who had first invited him to Mass those many years ago.

A couple of months later, “I felt the call to the priesthood,” he said, but when he told his priest friend, “He looked at me and went, ‘Nah.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean, ‘nah’? The Church needs priests and I feel this. And he said, ‘I’m not saying it’s out of the question, but you’re new to the Catholic faith.’ He said, ‘Give it two years,’ and I love the image he gave me; he said, ‘Get used to your new Catholic skin, and if you still have this feeling, let’s talk.”

Fr. Michael Augustine gave it more than two years. He completed college, then went to work as an environmental consultant, first in Arizona and then in Texas. It took 13 years before he called the priest back and said he felt drawn to the religious life. His friend recommended the Dominicans, which resonated with Fr. Michael Augustine not only because of the people but because of the call to a life that is both active and contemplative, he said.

After formation, including a pastoral year at St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center in Salt Lake City, he was ordained in 2010. His assignments since then have included campus ministry at the University of California,   Riverside, pastor of a parish with a K-8 school, a three-year term as prior of the Dominican House of Studies, and as the inaugural director of the Dominicans’ Office of Evangelization.

He’s excited about the new position at the Skaggs Center, he said, and came to Utah early to begin building relationships. He already “did recon” at St. John the Baptist Parish – attending Mass incognito (wearing a Hawaiian shirt rather than his Dominican habit), and was impressed by the church and campus, he said.

“I’m excited and happy to be here,” he said. “I love my vocation, I love my life with Christ, and given the opportunity I love to share that with people, but I also want to hear their stories. See, I’m a storyteller, but to be a good storyteller you’ve got to be a good story listener. I love stories. … I want to be able to laugh at some stories, I want to be able to cry at some stories, I want to be able to say, ‘Hmmm. What does that mean?”

In addition to serving as chaplain, he will fill in at local parishes as needed; he already has his weekends booked up to July, he said.