How does a calling become a vocation?
As he changes out of his vestments after saying Mass at Catholic High School, Father Michael Labadie talks with former classmate Mary Starr, the development director for the Montgomery Catholic Preparatory Schools.
He went out on dates, played soccer, basketball, and football, his mother said. At Huntingdon College, Labadie was very active in his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, where he was honored as Brother of the Year, she said.
"But ever since the children were little, I kind of told them what they would be -- one a vet, one a doctor, and Michael would be a lawyer," she said. "Even at Huntingdon, he entered pre-law. I thought he would make a good lawyer."
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Back then, Labadie assumed that at some time, he would marry and have children.Then, during his freshman year of college, a good friend's death caused him to question his faith.
"I wondered, 'Is there a God? How could he let this happen?'" he said.After being re-exposed to theology between his junior and senior years at Huntingdon, he got back into church. And by February 1994, he felt God was calling him to priesthood.His mother noticed a change in Labadie before he made his announcement.
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I said, 'If I believe God is a loving God calling all of us to serve him, He will show me,'" Labadie said. "But I kind of knew if I went to seminary, I would never want to leave."In fact, from that point, Labadie faced about seven years of training. After graduating from St. Joseph Seminary College in Lousiana, he studied theology at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.
"This is not a job," the young priest said. "It's my life."
