The first triple ordination in 50 years took place in St Carthage's Cathedral in Lismore this week, not in the small County Waterford town and its historic cathedral, but in Lismore at the edge of the rainforest in New South Wales (NSW), Australia.
On Thursday (December 8) Roland Agrisola, 27, Shelwin Fernandez, 25, and James Foster, 29, were ordained priests, the first time since 1967 that three men have been ordained on the same day in the Australian diocese.
Fr Foster said he had a calling to become a priest when he was seven years old.
"I said to the teacher and the students, when I grow up I want to be a priest," he said. "So I don't feel nervous. I just feel a sense of deep joy and deep peace because this is the moment we have been preparing for many years."
Fr Foster completed his pastoral placing as a deacon in the parishes of Iluka, Yamba and Maclean, while Fr Fernandez served in Kempsey and Fr Agrisola was placed in Casino.
Roland Agrisola and Shelwin Fernandez were considering the priesthood in their native Philippines when the Bishop of Lismore visited their country and told them about the shortage of priests in his diocese in Australia. Both men applied separately and eventually found themselves at a seminary in the NSW city of Wagga Wagga.
Roland Agrisola knew he wanted to become a priest at a young age, but had to wait “for a miracle” because to go to a seminary was expensive and he was one of five children on the family farm with just enough to survive.
Fr Agrisola said his deaconship gave him the opportunity to visit the sick and learn how to conduct funerals, baptisms and marriages. He also enjoys playing soccer and said it is important for priests to take an active role in the community and to be approachable to parishioners.
"It's not about giving up everything, because as spiritual leaders we have to go to where people are and lead them to God from there," he said.
Lismore in NSW is a sister city of Lismore in County Waterford. William and Jane Wilson were among some of the first European settlers in the NSW area and one story is they named the location for Lismore, Scotland, where they had honeymooned.
Another theory is that it was named after Lismore, Ireland because of the similarity in scenery.
The town is home to 105,000 Catholics in twenty-eight parishes living along the picturesque coastline of New South Wales that extends from the Tweed River in the North to Camden Haven in the South.