Pictured is Rev. Charles F. McCoy, C.S.C. (left), vesting Rev. Tyler C. Kreipke, C.S.C. (right) at the 2024 Ordination.
A person’s faith journey is accompanied by family, friends, and religious, each person making a unique impact on the spiritual life of an individual. In the sacrament of Confirmation, a special sponsor is chosen to provide spiritual guidance to the candidate. Godparents play a vital role in leading and supporting a child’s faith journey. A man entering the priesthood chooses a mentor, friend, and spiritual guide to perform the vesting ritual.
“In the Ordination, there are several parts that affect the Ordination and help to unpack what is happening. This investiture in both the ordination of a deacon and a priest comes directly after the Prayer of Consecration, which is one of the key points in the Ordination. The investiture recognizes what has and is happening – that the person is entering into a new reality,” shared Superior and Rector of Moreau Seminary Rev. James T. Gallagher, C.S.C. He noted, in the Rite of Ordination, that the ceremony is called the Investiture with Stole and Chasuble, and that during the Ordination of a Deacon, it is the Investiture with Stole and Dalmatic.
“We are a physical and spiritual people for whom physical things help to reveal deeper realities. The stole and dalmatic for deacons and the stole and chasuble for priests are the vestments that are proper to their role in the celebration of the Eucharist. They are also aspects of the vestments worn by the bishop and thus reveal that their ministry as deacons and priests are a participation in the ministry of the bishop,” continued Fr. Gallagher. “Having someone else vest them at this time is both a symbolic witness to the fact that they do not come to this ministry alone. It is also a practical reflection of this being the first time someone is putting these items on, and they are doing so in the midst of a longer liturgy with lots of people looking on. It is handy to have someone there who knows what they are doing, helping you to get put together.”
Personal Experience
“I was vested as a deacon by Rev. Joe Corpora, C.S.C., and as a priest by Rev. Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C. My deacon year was spent at the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon,” recalled Fr. Gallagher. “Fr. Joe was the pastor of a local parish and a good mentor for me at the time. It was helpful to get off campus and have someone further down the road to talk with. Fr. Beauchamp was the president of the University of Portland at the time, and I wanted his participation in my vesting to be a recognition of the ways that he was watching out for all of us on campus.”
Newly Ordained priest Rev. Tyler C. Kreipke, C.S.C., chose Rev. Charles F. McCoy, C.S.C., to vest him in his stole and chasuble (liturgical vestment worn by the priest during Mass).
“Fr. Charlie has served as a role model, mentor, and friend throughout much of my time in formation. As a professor in mathematics, I asked Fr. Charlie to serve as my ministry supervisor during my postulant year at Moreau Seminary when my ministry placement was serving as a teaching assistant in an engineering course at the University of Notre Dame (I had received my Ph.D. in engineering from Notre Dame before entering the seminary). During that year, Fr. Charlie and I had a number of discussions about what it meant to be an educator in the faith. Our conversations ranged from the more practical, in terms of navigating complex student interactions and exploring good teaching strategies, to the more theoretical, like understanding the relationship of faith and reason, and how STEM education can help our students come to a better understanding of that. Fr. Charlie played a helpful role in that early formation of my vocation as a teacher in Holy Cross,” said Fr. Kreipke.
At the end of seminary studies, Fr. Kreipke was assigned full-time ministry work at the University of Portland (UP), the same location as Fr. Charlie McCoy, reconnecting the duo and resulting in continued mentorship.
“He helped to process a lot of the early steps in transitioning away from the seminary and continued to serve as a good role model, mentor, and brother in Holy Cross as I was getting my ministerial feet under me. Because Fr. Charlie had played these significant roles in helping to shape me ministerially and vocationally, Fr. Charlie again seemed the natural fit to serve as the one who vested me, and I appreciated the symbolism that as Fr. Charlie had helped me take on this new role in the Church through our many formative conversations, so too he helped me take on my new role as a priest as I was first vested in the official garb of the priesthood.”
The vesting ceremony was a moving part of the Ordination liturgy for Fr. Kreipke, having a significant impact on how he viewed his life as a priest in Holy Cross. It was a visible, physical symbol of his new role in the Church; instead of wearing regular clothing as a lay member of the congregation, he now wore an alb, stole, and chasuble to Mass, initiating a new way of relating to God in the Mass.
“But beyond this, receiving the vestments from Fr. Charlie, and being helped into them by him gave a further sensible reminder that the priesthood was a gift to be received. It was not something that I had earned or could earn on my own merits; it was not something to be seized at but was instead a graced gift from God that called me to serve His people in such a way and was to be received in gratitude and humility,” noted Fr. Kreipke.
The vesting ceremony and assistance from Fr. Charlie McCoy in dressing in the garments of the priesthood was also a tangible reminder of the communal aspect of Holy Cross and the priesthood.
“By receiving the symbols of the priesthood from one of my brothers in community, I was reminded very clearly that I was joining a community larger than myself, and taking on a mission that was not solely my own. I was joining that ‘great band of men’ of which our Constitutions speak. I had been called to serve as one of them, and it would be they who would help me in continuing to serve my ministry. It reinforced the role that the men of the Congregation had had in helping form me into a priest, and of the role that they would play in helping to sustain me as a priest. It was a reminder that my priesthood was not to be exercised in isolation, but as a member of a religious community, with whom I could share my joys and struggles, successes and doubts, and everything in between, as I looked to serve God and His people in the coming years of my work as a priest in the Lord’s vineyard,” said Fr. Kreipke.
Being A Vestor
“I have had the experience of vesting two people. The first was my father, who was ordained as a permanent deacon (a deacon who is not moving toward ordination to the priesthood, as compared to a transitional deacon who intends to continue toward priesthood after about 6-8 months as a deacon). It was a powerful thing to be a part of welcoming my father into ordained ministry (I had been ordained a priest about 4 years earlier), he who had helped to guide and welcome me into so many other parts of life. It was a privilege to be right there with him in that moment,” shared Fr. Gallagher.
“The other person who I helped to vest was Fr. Tim Weed, C.S.C. He served as a deacon at the University of Portland, where I was serving as the Director of Campus Ministry. There, it was an honor to accompany him through his entrance into full-time ministry and so much of his final preparation for ordination. And then to accompany him right there in the midst of his ordination. Just before the Prayer of Consecration, the bishop lays his hands on the head of the man being ordained. Then, all of the priests present come around while the fellow is kneeling and lay their hands on his head as well. With often around 100 priests present for ordination, that can take a while. So Tim was in a bit of a daze when I got to him to help him vest. It was nice to share that moment of helping him collect himself, put on his priestly vestments for the first time, and get ready to join us around the altar for the celebration of the Eucharist – now as a priest. There is a lovely intimacy between brothers in that moment, even in the midst of a large congregation and an elaborate liturgy.”
Posted April 2025
