“MAURO!” could be heard shouted in frustration, echoing across the grounds of a seminary in southern Italy from the rector who was picking up the pieces of another shattered window.
Fr Mauro Conte said he was famous at the seminary for breaking windows with his wild soccer shots.
It was automatic – when a window broke, he would be the first in trouble, he said with a laugh.
But it was worth it, because kicking the ball around with his friends at the seminary had been a lot of fun and he cherished that time of his life.
While he has not laced up his soccer boots for a few years, he still manages to fit cycling and swimming into his busy parish life.
Parish life, he said, meant the world to him.
He became the inaugural parish priest for Springfield parish when the late Archbishop John Bathersby founded it in 2011.
Since then, Fr Conte has had the chance to grow the parish alongside men discerning the priesthood, including most recently, Fr El Louie Jimenez – ordained to the priesthood in June.
Fr Jimenez was placed at Springfield parish for his transitional diaconate.
Fr Conte cherished any chance to journey with young men in discernment, and to show them the fruits of priestly life.
When Vocations Brisbane asked him to become a mentor priest in their revamped Canali Program, he jumped at the opportunity.
The new program puts young men discerning priesthood under the mentorship of a Brisbane priest.
Fr Conte said it was a great idea.
Growing up, he had lots of mentors in faith.
The first were his parents.
“I have memories of my father, before he passed, every day sitting down at five o’clock to recite the Rosary – no matter what – with Mum, together,” he said.
“Sometimes even as a priest I’m not able to do that, and there is my mum and dad somehow challenging me and reminding me of the gifts I received from them, and them being faithful, sometimes more than I am, to prayer time.
“The family plays a big role.”
During his school years, he started going to daily Mass.
He went for a year and a half before entering the seminary at the age of 14.
He said while he did not think it was the right age to enter, it was the normal system at the time and he went through the system.
Thinking back, he said two priests stood out to him as role models – his parish priest and a religious priest.
They showed him how normal priests could be, he said.
“They were very caring priests, they really genuinely loved me and I was thinking, ‘I want to be like them’,” Fr Conte said.
The two priests had spent time with him, got to know him and mentored him.
He said he took his discernment seriously because of them and developed a deep desire to “follow Jesus”.
“They were really meaningful, those priests, in my life,” Fr Conte said.
He wanted to bring that to the new Canali program.
Young people today had so many role models in their life which made it even more difficult to discern their vocation, he said.
On top of that, Fr Conte said he often found young people today always wanted to keep their options open, and rarely committed, in case things turned out badly for them.
“I would encourage young people not to be scared or afraid; sometimes I’ve seen young people with fears or doubts say, ‘It’s not the right time for me to discern’,” he said.
He said in his own life, he could not remember doing that much.
Instead, he just took the next step and whatever happened, happened.
Fr Conte said there were so many parables in the Gospel where a young person told Jesus that they needed to do something else before following him, “in other words, ‘Let me put everything in order and then I will follow you’”.
“If you want everything to be in order, that time will never come,” Fr Conte said.
The new Canali program has a philosophy that the men discerning priesthood should be an active lay person in the Catholic community first.
Vocations Brisbane team leader Cosme Cham said that contribution could be through things like music ministry, helping with RCIA/Alpha programs, youth ministry and children’s liturgy.
The key elements to the new program were:
- Being an active lay minister in a parish setting
- Regular mentoring and accompaniment by a priest from Brisbane archdiocese
- Formation in Christian discipleship
- Developing a prayer life and receiving spiritual direction.
The other priest mentors alongside Fr Conte included, Indooroopilly parish priest Fr Michael Grace; Hendra, Hamilton, Northgate and Clayfield parish priest Fr Neville Yun; Caloundra priest Fr Joshua Whitehead; and Maroochydore priest Fr William Aupito-Iuliano.
For Fr Conte, he wanted to show how rewarding the pastoral side of priesthood could be.
He said his most cherished time as a priest was hearing confessions.
“Sometimes people say, ‘I won’t go to Fr Mauro because he knows me and after confession I wonder what he will think of me’,” he said.
“I will say, ‘I will actually care for you even more and love you more and get closer to you’.”
Listening to people and helping them through life’s struggles was a privilege, he said.
“It gives me joy when people come to me and say, ‘Father, can I have a chat with you and share something I’m going through’,” Fr Conte said.
He said sometimes people wanted a solution and sometimes people just wanted to vent.
People skills were essential to his work and something he only picked up with experience.
He said he was not an extrovert by nature, but was deeply committed to his parish community, and that drove him to reach out and say hello to people.
For more information on the Canali Program, contact vocation@bne.catholic.net.au
