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Meet the new priests for the
Archdiocese of Detroit

This year, three men from markedly different walks of life entered into Christ's holy priesthood to serve the people of the Archdiocese of Detroit. The men – Fr. Andrew Bloomfield, Fr. Joseph Lang and Fr. (Maurice) Henry Sands – were interviewed by Michigan Catholic reporter Joe Kohn. They were ordained priests 10 a.m., May 14 at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament  in Detroit.

Fr. Andrew Bloomfield
Age: 29.
Parents: Deacon Richard and Deborah Bloomfield.
Home parish: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wyandotte.
Education: Sacred Heart Major Seminary; Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio; Wyandotte Roosevelt and Gabriel Richard, Riverview, high schools; Christ the Good Shepherd, Lincoln Park, and Wyandotte Catholic Consolidated elementary schools.
Masses of Thanksgiving: Noon, May 15, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wyandotte; 10 a.m., May 22, St. Martin de Porres Church, Warren.

His parents' love of the Church formed the basin from which Christ's love first flowed into the life of Fr. Andrew Bloomfield.

Now, shortly before his ordination, 29-year-old Fr. Bloomfield envisions Christ's love pouring out from his own priestly ministry.

"I hope to have such a clear love of the Lord in my own life that it manifests itself to people wanting to love Christ as well," says Fr. Bloomfield, adding, "that somehow the love that I have for Christ would overflow into the life of the parish."

Fr. Bloomfield is the oldest of six children born to Deacon Richard and Deborah Bloomfield. Deacon Richard Bloomfield is assigned to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Wyandotte, and Deborah is heavily involved in the parish and community.

"Mom and Dad instilled in our family from a really early age the importance of faith and love for the Lord and the Church," he says. "When you see somebody that you love and trust so much have something that's very important in their life, it just became part of our life."

Even as a child, Fr. Bloomfield remembers a life close to the altar and priesthood.

There were the Masses and funerals he served as an altar boy at St. Patrick Parish in Wyandotte.

There were days when, as a family, the Bloomfields would go to Christ the Good Shepherd in Lincoln Park to receive the sacrament of penance.

There were times in the eighth grade at Christ the Good Shepherd Elementary, when Fr. Joe Gembala, the pastor, would chat with him at recess, play a game of chess or enjoy a band concert with him.

It was during high school at Gabriel Richard, Riverview, that Fr. Bloomfield decided that religion wasn't going to be a part of his life.

It was going to be all of it.

"There came a time where I had to recognize the importance of the faith for myself and find out the authentic teaching of the Church," he says. "Concrete decisions had to be made in my life."

From high school, he started making those decisions that would gradually bring him to the priesthood. They started with a mission trip to Belize with the Missionaries of Christ.

For the first time, he was away from his family. And, for the first time, the reality of a priestly calling dawned on him.

"I was forced to really, really pray," Fr. Bloomfield says, "more than just general, devotional prayers – but really talk to our Lord and wrestle with these needs of the Church. People needed to hear the Gospel.

"People needed the sacraments. And people needed priests…In prayer for the first time I thought really concretely, 'Wow, maybe God's calling me to be a priest.'"

He went on to Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, where he met other men on a life path similar to his. He also met ordained men who would serve as inspirations to him.

He met Jesuit Fr. John Hardon, a renowned catechist and spiritual mentor who died in 2000, who taught him to see the priesthood as a high and wonderful calling.

He was encouraged by Franciscan University instructor Fr. Anthony Mistroni, who encouraged him to study in Rome after earning his philosophy degree.

Though Fr. Bloomfield was part of a religious community in Rome that ultimately didn't survive, he was enriched by the experience. When – still in his early 20s – he returned to Dearborn to teach at Divine Child High School, he remained focused on a life dedicated to the Church.

"I still felt this tug at my heart," he says. "Nothing else was going to satisfy in my life except to be a priest."

His travels weren't over. For two years, he became a member of the Society of St. John in Scranton, Pa.

Then, the tug on his heart pulled him across the ocean again, where he joined the Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault near Poitiers, France. In the monastic community, he prayed seven hours each day with monks.

"That, I think, formed my soul to be able to listen to the voice of Christ," Fr. Bloomfield says. "It was just wonderful... I grew gradually more and more aware of this call in my heart to come back to Detroit and serve the archdiocese here – the Church that gave me my faith, really, and where my family is and where so much need exists."

He came back to a familiar wellspring of love.

His father's diaconal ordination in 2000 served as an inspiration to him.

His siblings continued to influence him, too. For example, his brother Charles is a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army; Fr. Bloomfield received training and became a chaplain candidate in the U.S. Army Reserves.

This summer, he plans to celebrate Mass and hear confessions from troops in reserve training camps.

He received still more encouragement to enter Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit from Fr. John Riccardo, who then was associate pastor at Divine Child Parish in Dearborn. And his friend Fr. Michael Orsi, a chaplain at Ave Maria Law School in Lansing, gave Fr. Bloomfield a chalice, once handed down to him from his former pastor, as a special token of the priestly calling.

Fr. Bloomfield entered the seminary in 2001. Before his ordination he identified his goal not as the priesthood, but as the sainthood.

"Really, I hope to grow in the love of our Lord and to convey that to the Church," he says.

He brings to his ministry a life-long appreciation for music. He has a passion for not just liturgical music – such as the Gregorian chant he learned at the French monastery – but he enjoys playing bluegrass music with his father and brothers.

Fr. Bloomfield also loves to study theology, and looks forward to bringing it to God's people in a practical way. The greatest challenge in the Church, he says, is a matter of holiness.

"To put it in one word, there's really a crisis of sanctity," he says. "The love of Christ can transform lives. It does. If you encounter a soul who's deeply in love with Christ, he serves his fellow men. The soul that loves Christ is going to be not only charitable, but be evangelical, be caring to the poor, be concerned about pro-life, be concerned about all the things that the Church does."

In the end, he says, in order for Christ's love to overflow from him to God's people, he must empty himself out to be a vessel of that love.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but it's really the work of the Holy Spirit," he says. "It's our job to kind of stay out of the way to be a very clear conduit to the grace that the Holy Spirit has to offer."

Fr. Joseph Lang
Age: 69.
Parents: Joseph and Frances Lang (both deceased).
Wife: Mary Elizabeth Lang (Zammitt) (deceased).
Children: Son Joseph and daughter-in-law Jean Lang have three children, Sarah, John and Amy; son Christopher (deceased); daughter Anne and son-in-law Tom Thorne have one child, Ella.
Home parish: St. Michael, Southfield.
Education: Sacred Heart Major Seminary; University of Detroit Mercy; Mount St. Mary Seminary, Norwood, Ohio; St. Mary's Catholic Central (high school), Sandusky, Ohio; Immaculate Conception (elementary), Bellevue, Ohio.
Mass of Thanksgiving: Noon, May 15, St. Michael, Southfield.

A soft smile played on the lips of Fr. Joseph Lang when he was asked about the unique timing of his calling.

He's older than the other two ordinandi – and, as he points out, all but two members of Sacred Heart Major Seminary's faculty.

Having the title "father" is something he's very familiar with, as well.

Fr. Lang was ordained two days before his 70th birthday. Already, he has served the Church in many capacities.

"The Holy Spirit's always been prodding me to be faithful to prayer life and to minister to others," Fr. Lang says, "especially as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a high school teacher and a coach."

Like his classmates, his early influences were his parents, Joseph and Frances Lang, both of whom are now deceased.

"The seeds of my vocation certainly came from my mother and my father," Fr. Lang said. "My mother continually prayed that I would have been a priest."

In his youth, he entered St. Mary Seminary in Norwood, Ohio. But he set aside his priestly discernment upon receiving his bachelor's degree in philosophy at the age of 24.

The Lord, he discovered, was calling him to marriage.

In 1965, he married Mary Zammitt, whom he had known through school and had taught with in the South Redford School District.

"We were both family people," says Fr. Lang of his wife, who was of Maltese descent. "She came from a large family with a lot of family activities – our activities coincided."

The Langs had three children – Joseph, Christopher and Anne. They also became heavily involved in the Catholic Family Movement, a lay ministry that helps foster interpersonal relationships with the Lord within marriages.

"Certainly my wife was the anchor of my life, who influenced my family life, work life and journey of faith," Fr. Lang says.

His life changed drastically, however, when Mary died in 1996. After approaching Christ through marriage for 31 years, he was inspired to serve the Lord in a different capacity. Mary, he recalled, thought he would.

"She even made the comment, 'If anything ever happens to me, I know Joe will be a priest,'" Fr. Lang says, smiling. "And that's the way I think it's going to turn out."

After his wife's death, Fr. Lang – who was still a teacher at St. Michael School and a basketball and baseball coach in Redford Township – pursued the diaconate.

He later learned he would be accepted into Sacred Heart Major Seminary to study for the priesthood.

But his ministry in education would occupy him for three more years.

His pastor and former boss, Franciscan Fr. Larry Zurek – now the pastor of a parish in the Diocese of Peoria, Ill. – let him know that St. Michael School would need a principal. Fr. Lang took the job, and served as principal there for three years.

Then, two years ago, he entered the seminary to complete his priestly training.

In the discernment he's undergone after his wife's death, he says Fr. Zurek has been encouraging.

"He was very influential in my decision to come into the seminary," Fr. Lang says. "His deep love for God and the Church, and the reverence and devotion with which he celebrated liturgies really were excellent inspirations. That certainly kept the fires burning in my own heart."

Another bedrock of support he's had since entering the seminary, Fr. Lang says, has been his children. Although he and Mary lost their son Christopher to death in 1991, his family has grown.

His son and daughter-in-law Joseph and Jean have three children: Sarah, John and Amy. His daughter and son-in-law Anne and Tom Thorne have a daughter named Ella.

"My children stood by me solidly during these two years that I've been in the seminary pursuing my priestly vocation," Fr. Lang said. "I'm really thankful for that."

He still often visits Joseph and his family, who live in Plymouth; and talks with Anne and hers, who live in Grand Rapids.

Examining his life – and the longevity of his father, who led an active life until his death at 88 years of age – Fr. Lang hopes God will allow him to divide it into three fairly even chapters.

"I've always looked at my life in that I've had one third I was single; the second third I was married and raised a family; and if I live to be middle-90s, I'll have another third I'll have been able to serve the Church," he says. "I would be happy with that."

Fr. Lang says his years teaching and coaching have fostered in him a desire to reach out to the young. "I really like to help others. I really enjoy teaching and coaching – particularly youth," he says, "to see them grow and become more aware of the presence of God in their lives."

As a priest, Fr. Lang says he will aspire to holiness, especially as an example of Christ to those close to him.

"They look at a priest as a servant of God, as someone important in their lives and someone who can inspire them in their own journey of faith," he says. "To be a witness to Jesus Christ's priesthood – to bring the divine life and divine holiness to all people, to raise them up to be more like God – is a tremendous challenge for a very humble calling.

"To help people recognize that there is a personal God who cares about each one of us and to help people live in His presence, as His friend and His lover, is a very high calling – especially during the ordinary circumstances of daily living."

Fr. Lang sees a prominent need to administer the sacramental life of the Church and to make people aware of the power of God's presence.

"It's up to us to help them come out of the cocoon and see that they are the salt and the light of the Earth and the world, wherever they live and in their families, and to bring this out in the open," he says. "That's the challenge – to make them excited about their faith. We saw that with Pope John Paul II and now with Pope Benedict."

As a man who has lost a wife and a son, Fr. Lang says his faith in God's providence is strong.

Among the other gifts God has given him to minister with in life are empathy for other's feelings and a strong sense of dedication – or "stick-to-itiveness" – which he can trace to his father.

And as a man who now already sees the fruits of his first calling in the eyes of his children and grandchildren, Fr. Lang expresses gratitude for the next, priestly chapter of his life.

"It was a youthful aspiration of my own to be a priest," he says. "And now I think that God, in His providential wisdom, has afforded me the opportunity to come back and to serve Him as a priest.

"I've had the best of two worlds."

Fr. (Maurice) Henry Sands
Age: 49.
Parents: Maurice Henry Sands Sr. and Priscilla (Willis) Sands (both deceased).
Home parish: St. Catherine of Alexandria, Algonac.
Education: Sacred Heart Major Seminary; University of Toronto; Eastern Michigan University; Wallaceburg District Secondary School, Wallaceburg, Ontario; Bkejwanong First Nation (elementary), Walpole Island.
Masses of Thanksgiving: 1:30 p.m., May 15, St. Catherine of Alexandria, Algonac; 10:45 a.m., May 22, National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak; 4:30 p.m., June 4, Christ the King, Ann Arbor; 9:30 a.m., June 5, St. Mary Parish, Monroe.

In 1996, Fr. Maurice Henry Sands already had his heart in the Church, though his head often was in the business world.

Professionally, he worked in corporate banking after having earned a master's degree in business from the University of Toronto. Outside of work, he involved himself heavily in lay ministry at a couple of parishes in Toronto – filling such roles as sacristan, lector, Eucharistic minister and teacher of the Rite to Christian Initiation for Adults.

That's when he first sensed God inviting him to give his entire life to the Church as a priest.

"It just seemed like there was more that I could do," Fr. Sands says. "There was more that I wanted to do." On May 14, Fr. Sands will become the first full-blooded Native American ordained a priest from Sacred Heart Major Seminary. The calling came to him when he was a 40-year-old banker – but the foundation of his faith has been built steadily through his life.

Fr. Sands calls his life journey a blessed one.

"My parents were my first and most important influence," he says. "I grew up in a loving and faith-filled home."

That home was on the Walpole Island Indian Reservation, near Algonac. Maurice Henry Sands Sr., and Priscilla (Willis) Sands – Fr. Sand's parents – chose to raise their family on the reservation because they wanted their children to grow up knowing their family and culture.

Fr. Sands – a descendant of Ojibway, Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes – calls his Native American heritage one of the unique gifts he brings to the priesthood.

"It is a very important part of my life experience and history," he says. "My heritage is an important part of who I am."

The sense of community among the people on the reservation and among extended family is strong, Fr. Sands says.

"Respect for God, respect for individuals, respect for nature, respect for authority – those are other values that are very prevalent in every part of life on a reservation," he says.

Shortly after he left the reservation to begin studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he joined a charismatic religious community called Word of God.

The experience, he said, was a significant step in his walk of faith and the genesis of his vocation.

"I received sound teaching that provided me with a solid foundation for living my life for the Lord as an adult," he says.

Eventually, he would move on. But at many points in his life, he says, he's been able to discern God's invitations to serve. In addition to the lay ministries Fr. Sands performed in Toronto, where he moved in the early 1990s to pursue his master's degree, he was involved in a lay community there.

When he first sensed the Lord might be calling him to the priesthood, he considered joining a religious order. But in 1998, when Fr. Sands went to Detroit to attend his uncle's funeral, Fr. Russell Kohler, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit, encouraged him to look at the diocesan priesthood.

From there, Fr. Kohler put him in touch with Bishop Allen Vigneron, then-rector of Sacred Heart Major Seminary. Fr. Sands met more men who would influence his ministry, such as Detroit Auxiliary Bishop John Quinn and Fr. Daniel Jones, both of whom had been his spiritual directors at the seminary.

He also has a special influence, he says, in Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM Cap., who is archbishop of Denver. Fr. Sands became friends with Archbishop Chaput – who also is a Native American – through a national Native American Catholic organization.

Fr. Sands hopes to minister as a priest to his Native American community. Already, that ministry has started in the seminary, where the deacon has surveyed the ministerial needs of the community in the archdiocese.

His own minority community isn't the only one Fr. Sands hopes he'll be able to minister to, either.

The Lord, he says, has blessed him with a facility for learning languages.

"That has already enabled me to be involved in Hispanic ministry during the time I've been in the seminary," he says. "I fully expect that I will continue to be involved in Hispanic ministry after I am ordained."

Fr. Sands says he looks forwards to many aspects of the priestly ministry, such as sanctifying, teaching and shepherding.

"I hope that in my priestly ministry that I will always be mindful of the sacred and awesome responsibility that I will have to care of the souls of the people who will be entrusted to me and to helping them achieve eternal salvation."

In an outwardly visible way, Fr. Sands says he hopes through his ministry to share the gifts of generosity, compassion and humility that the Lord has given him.

He also says he'll make it a special priority of his to read and meditate on the sacred Scriptures and spiritual readings.

"I see one of the greatest needs for the Church today as being the need to continue to boldly proclaim the Gospel to our nation and to all of the nations," he says.