Parishioners at Columbus St. Patrick Church might slip up in the next month or so and refer to Father Paul Marich, OP, as Brother Paul.
That would be understandable. He spent the past year at St. Patrick as a transitional deacon serving as the director of liturgy and liturgical ministries, and Dominicans refer to men in formation who have yet to be ordained to the priesthood as brother.
On Saturday, May 21, Brother Paul became Father Paul Marich after he was ordained to the priesthood along with nine other Dominican friars at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. The massive basilica is across the street from the Dominican House of Studies, where the student brothers (the diocesan equivalent of seminarians) in the order’s St. Joseph Province receive their spiritual and academic formation.
The newly ordained friar was informed this month that he would stay on at St. Patrick Church for his first priestly assignment as a parochial vicar, which is akin to an assistant pastor. Father Marich and the priests who serve at St. Patrick Church are part of St. Patrick Priory, a community of eight friars who reside and serve the Dominican order in various ministries that include mission preaching.
Father Marich, 36, will replace Father Charles Shonk, OP, a Lancaster native and Columbus St. Charles Preparatory School graduate who has been assigned to St. Patrick since 2016. Father Shonk is to begin doctoral studies in theology in the fall in Rome.
A Youngstown native, Father Marich is no stranger to Ohio and the Dominicans. He graduated in 2004 from Ursuline High School and first came in contact with the order at St. Dominic Church, which is staffed in the Diocese of Youngstown by the Dominicans.
“My dad’s not Catholic. My mom is Catholic. In my childhood I was going between churches (evangelical and Catholic),” he explained. “And it was really in my freshman year of high school that I had a big conversion experience and came to embrace my Catholic faith. I think it was the graces from receiving the sacrament of confirmation. Soon after that, I started thinking about a vocation to the priesthood.”
He was not sure what form that call would take. He ended up at the Pontifical College Josephinum after high school with the thought of studying for the diocesan priesthood. After his first year of formation at the Josephinum, he transferred to the Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he studied political science and philosophy, completing his undergraduate studies in 2008.
“It was really during that time I started to think more and more about the friars and looking at a Dominican vocation,” he said. “A question I get is, ‘You became a Dominican and didn’t look at the Franciscans,’ but I had already met the Dominicans.
“And we have a number of friars from our province who came out of Franciscan. Father (Stephen) Alcott (St. Patrick’s pastor) was a student there, and Father (Thomas) Blau (a mission preacher living at St. Patrick Priory) did his master’s there.
“There’s just an overall sense of support for vocations there. It’s not like high school, where you might be the only person thinking about a vocation to the priesthood.”
Though it was 14 years after he graduated from Franciscan, one of the first congratulatory cards he received after announcing his ordination was from Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, the current university president. “He said he wasn’t able to come to the ordination, but to have one of the first messages come from him means a lot,” Father Marich said.
Father Marich’s Dominican journey started as a novice at St. Gertrude Church in Cincinnati on Aug. 8, 2008, the feast of its patron, St. Dominic, three months after his college graduation.
After his novitiate year in Cincinnati, he spent the next 2 ½ years at the House of Studies in Washington preparing for the priesthood. During that period, he came to St. Patrick parish for the first time during his summer assignment in 2011.
At that point, he experienced uncertainty about a priestly vocation. He decided he wasn’t ready to take the order’s final vows or continue his studies, and so he went off to teach high school theology, social studies and bioethics in south Texas for one year and northern Virginia for five.
While in Virginia, he encountered the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (known as the Nashville Dominicans), who were teaching at the same high school, and it was there that he decided to return to his studies for ordained ministry in 2017.
“I love teaching, and it was a really good experience, both professionally and just helping me mature and finding something that I love,” he recalled. “But God kept nudging my heart with a vocation, and having the sisters nearby still kept me close to the Dominicans.
“When I told some co-workers that I had been accepted back into the order and was going to be leaving the school to pursue a vocation, I remember one dear friend was like, ‘Oh, thank God, we’ve been waiting.’ Because, she said, ‘We see you up there serving (at daily Mass) all the time.’”
Over the next four years, he completed his studies for the priesthood. He made the solemn vows that Dominicans take in August 2021 and was ordained as a transitional deacon in September before coming to St. Patrick Church.
Great preaching and respectful liturgy, both hallmarks of the St. Joseph Province, were among the aspects of Dominican life that attracted Father Marich to the order. Also, the brotherhood and camaraderie of the community made an impact on him.
“There’s a commitment to solid Catholic teaching and to study the Catholic faith, especially from a Thomistic perspective, and the common prayer and the liturgy in the formation houses is very beautiful,” he said. “Having that time for praying the church’s liturgy, whether it’s the Divine Office or the Mass, is a big draw.”
During Father Marich’s year at St. Patrick, he has experienced firsthand that the church’s reverent liturgies bring family from across central Ohio to the parish.
“As director of liturgy, I inherited a gold mine,” he said. “What a great program we have here.”
In that role, he is in charge of training and scheduling 70 altar boys. Altar serving has proved to be a seedbed for vocations at St. Patrick, with four of the Diocese of Columbus’ 18 seminarians currently studying for the diocesan priesthood from the parish.
“They get to know the liturgy,” he said. “Some that come to daily Mass with their families will jump in to serve.
“That was the same for me when I was in high school. After my conversion, I started going to daily Mass. Soon after, I would serve daily Mass, and so I think that was a very important part in my vocational discernment because it was giving me that exposure on the altar. Even when I was later teaching in high schools, I would jump in to serve when there wasn’t a kid there.”
Getting young men to consider a vocation to the priesthood has proved difficult in today’s culture because of a multitude of career options available, Father Marich said, and often the first challenge is “making sure they’re coming to church and they’re willing to be open to the Lord’s call, maybe for something more, for a vocation and a personal call of the Lord that’s not just a job.
“Working with the altar boys here, I’ve just been so impressed with a number of them – just their holiness of life, that they love serving, but there’s a holiness and a virtue to them. I try to encourage that so that whether they become a priest or not, it’s a time to form them as good, holy men. Just knowing some of the servers we have now, I do think there are a few vocations in there.”
Life as a Dominican includes two aspects. There are the priestly duties as a pastor who administers the sacraments, but there’s also the common life that the friars share when they come together, particularly in the morning and evening for community prayer as part of the Divine Office.
“There’s that call to common life that definitely structures the day,” he said. “The demands of the parish are many, but your common prayer life is always there.
“I’m definitely drawn to parish life and parochial ministry.”
Father Marich’s parents and an older sister attended the ordination in Washington. He is scheduled to return to Youngstown for Masses of thanksgiving at 5 p.m. Saturday, May 28 at St. Dominic Church and at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 29 at St. Brendan Church, his home parish.
On Tuesday, May 31, he’s planning to concelebrate at the installation and ordination Mass for Bishop-elect Earl Fernandes at Westerville St. Paul Church. Father Marich’s Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Patrick is set for noon on Pentecost Sunday, June 5.
