As the world reacted to the election of Pope Leo XIV, Fr Matthew Timonera OFM Cap was quietly preparing for a momentous milestone of his own – ordination to the priesthood.
Fr Timonera was ordained on 10 May at St Fiacre’s Church in Leichhardt, becoming one of the first men to be consecrated to minister under the new pontificate.
Bishop Donald Lippert OFM Cap, made a special trip from Mendi in Papua New Guinea to ordain him in the presence of his family, religious confreres and friends of the Capuchins.
“There’s a great responsibility being placed upon me, but I think that’s not something to be afraid of – it’s something to step up to,” he told The Catholic Weekly.
The ordination came at a time of spiritual renewal for the church, a topic Bishop Lippert touched upon in his homily.
“Everything that the bishop said in the homily…I think it’s something we need in the church today,” Fr Timonera reflected.
He acknowledged that the priesthood is not about status or power, but about “exercising a powerful responsibility.”
Borrowing from pop culture, he added, “As Spiderman says, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ To consecrate, to baptise, to bless. To use that responsibly and to use it well.”
He used a chalice given to him by fellow friar and mentor, the late Fr Julian Messina OFM Cap, a significance which was “quite heavy and emotional,” he said.
“But I think through passing something on to me, he showed me an example of fatherhood, which I can also then show to others by using that chalice for the sacraments.
“What I receive from the Lord will be handed over to those who are also seeking something from the Lord.”
Fr Timonera went on retreat prior to his ordination with at the Schoenstatt Sisters’ priory in Mulgoa, where he spent time in silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
During that retreat, he drew inspiration from three figures: Archbishop Fulton Sheen, whose book The Priest is Not His Own presents the priest as a self-offering and caused him to think about how he now has to offer up his own body; Fr Messina, whose missionary zeal shaped his formation; and Dr Takashi Nagai, a Catholic Nagasaki survivor whose life was a testament to redemptive suffering.
“Each one taught me something about what it means to offer not just Christ’s body, but my own life,” he said.
As the church enters a time of change under a new successor of St Peter, Fr Timonera remains hopeful: “Hopefully it’s a change for the better – and one that inspires people to step up to their vocation and do more with what God’s calling them to do.”