Voices April 25, 2024
Giving up coffee almost killed me: Father Salvino in the hot seat
By Colleen Roy – Home Front
Father Raffaele Salvino’s is the first ordination Mass I remember attending.
I first saw Father Salvino from afar maybe 10 years ago. My husband Scott was working for Catholic Christian Outreach, and I was at the monthly Summit, a night of Eucharistic adoration and fellowship. Father was there, but still as just “Raf.” We never spoke, but I remember him laughing with friends, and thought to myself how many handsome families could be made from this collection of young men and women. I wasn’t wrong, but God had a special mission for Raf.
Leading up to his ordination, Father Salvino had posted a video sharing his preparations and excitement. He seemed full of joy. His smile was amazing and it made me want to be there. Now he is an assistant vocations director and, as such, the second victim of my “interview the vocation directors” series. We spent the evening laughing, debating movies and books, and comparing him to Robert Downey Jr.
Poor Father Salvino has probably never been interrupted and questioned as much as he was at the Roy household. I thank him for his beautiful joy, his yes to God, and his patience with us. Madalen had the privilege of asking the first question:
How long did it take you to come to a decision on your vocation? Were you ever in a position where you thought you would choose marriage?
I felt a general attraction to both the priesthood and to marriage. I grew up always thinking I would be married. I had a happy childhood with my family, so I assumed, ok, I want to be a dad too, and have a wife and kids. But when I was a teenager we got a new pastor in my parish, full of joy, and I thought, maybe I could be… He was a real father to our family, Father Richard Zanotti. Something in me recognized his fatherhood as a priest.
So, I was curious enough to go to seminary, but I made the mistake of thinking of marriage and the priesthood as being on this scale. Depending on how the day went, that was how I would discern. So, we have a beautiful liturgy, and I think, “I want to be a priest.” And then the next day, we go to an event and I see some old friends (girls) and I think… and the scale goes the other way. For six years it was the scales going up and down, and it was a lot of emotional turmoil.
Finally, thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit spoke through a friend, who said to me, “Marriage is a natural vocation, and there are natural indications for it. But priesthood is a supernatural vocation. Don’t look for natural indications for a supernatural vocation.” It helped me see it wasn’t in my discerning. The question was just, “might there be a supernatural call to the priesthood?” The desire for marriage is the natural foundation for the desire to discern priesthood.
This was in my last year in the seminary. You remember COVID and the lockdowns. And we were sent home when everything shut down. My family lived relatively close to the cathedral, so I was serving all of the cathedral liturgies during Holy Week. On Good Friday, it was the eeriest Good Friday because there was no one there. It’s all over, we’re cleaning the church up, and I was now there alone, slowly putting everything away. And there in the middle of the church, all alone, is the crucifix, set up for veneration, and I’m about to pick it up, and I look up, and it hit me. I look at Christ and I go, “He went on the cross without any conditions. He didn’t say, “I’m only going to go on the cross if…” He just said, “I’m going on the cross.” And then I thought about my own vocation, and I thought, I can’t put conditions on it. Either I’m all in, or I’m not. So, what’s it going to be? Where do I want to be all-in?
That was it. Truly, I received a real peace. That day I wrote the letter to the Archbishop requesting my diaconate. So, you could say I received my vocation on Good Friday.
(Father was ordained July 3, 2021)
When he was asked about his commitment to practising the faith as a teenager, Father remembered the nuns at his parish directing him and his three brothers.
The nuns were like, you’re going to lector, you’re going to altar serve, you’re going to help at prep. It meant that now we had something to do at the parish, a reason to take our faith more seriously. For me I found that I enjoyed being a lector and teaching prep. The thought came one day, “what if this could be what I do for the rest of my life?”
Were your parents surprised by your choice to be a priest?
My mom teared up, “I kind of thought this would happen!” My dad thought maybe I was just having one of my “CCO excitements” and said, “If you’re serious, come back and talk to me in a week.” So, about a week later, I had the seminary form, and I told my dad, “I mean this!”
My parents became tremendous supporters of my discernment. A couple of months into seminary, they visited me, and they saw me playing hockey, laughing and enjoying the life there, and I could see their peace. They could see that I was happy, which I think is the concern of every parent. They were never opposed, just legitimately concerned.
(Father entered seminary at 23, after completing an undergrad in English Literature and working for a year.)
Why did you choose Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas for your ordination card?
The question in the painting is: is Christ leading Thomas’ hand into his side, or is it the hand of one of the apostles pulling his hand into it? That’s the story of my life. Friends brought me to Christ, and then Christ was also bringing me to Him, and you can say it’s also the Church. I’m not ordained in isolation. My discernment comes through the Church, for the Church.
If you had not been a priest, what could you see yourself doing?
Certainly teaching the faith at parish, or just teaching the faith in general. I still love going into the classroom to visit students and answer the sincere theological questions of little children.
If you had not been a diocesan priest, which religious order would you have chosen?
That’s a great…. Well… anything with a solid community life and a beautiful liturgy, I’d be happy. (After us pressing for something more specific he acknowledged that at one point he was intrigued by the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius.)
Favourite spiritual book?
Abandonment to Divine Providence, by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, and I recommend reading the Visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.
Favourite secular book?
(after some debate and bickering, with much too much pressure from my highly invested children, Father Salvino settled on Dante’s Divine Comedy, which received our full approval. He wrote his undergrad thesis on it.)
Favourite movie?
Gladiator (though he worried it might sound cliché. The Roys again assured him of their high approval on the choice.)
Confirmation saint, or another favourite?
St. Christopher is my confirmation saint. The seminary gave me a deep abiding love for St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Joseph, patron saint of “I want to be a man of virtue.” I can’t think of anyone I look up to more. Venerable Jerome LeJeune, the French scientist who discovered trisomy 21, and out of love for his patients, who were often rejected children with Down’s Syndrome, developed a way for neo-natal testing so that parents could be prepared to give their child everything they need. And then his work gets twisted against him, using his work to diagnose children in the womb so that they can be killed instead, he went down like a champ. He received all of these awards, and he spoke, gently, but everything he said was this “mic-drop” moment against the culture of death. They pulled back his Nobel Peace Prize and then when he died, his only friend was Pope John Paul II. The Ugandan Martyrs played a big role in my vocation. (Father Salvino went to Uganda with CCO and had a powerful moment, being prayed over, and feeling the first true indication of having a vocation.)
Most notable Lenten penance?
Being Italian, one year I gave up coffee and it was borderline suicidal. But, I’ll say this, I asked the Lord, “What is the thing that I can’t go without everyday?” As superficial as it sounds, it was coffee. I just love a nice espresso, I had a machine tucked away in my room, and I loved it. But I had massive headaches for the first few days. The greatest grace, though, was, on Easter Sunday. I went early to the JJ Bean café, and thought, I’m going to have the best cappuccino of my life. It’s going to be so good. And I had the cappuccino, and it was like… whatever. It didn’t mean anything. The grace of detachment, of recognizing that my true joy is in heaven and in the love of the Lord, it sounds cliché, but no amount of nice coffee can replace that.
Favourite scripture verse?
“Psalm 62: O God, you are my God, for you I long; for you my soul is thirsting like a dry weary land without water.”
Favourite meal when visiting families?
Whatever the family enjoys making, a family favourite.
Words to any young man in a position to discern?
I would just say, you can’t lose. What do you lose by exploring at the seminary?! That’s my unabashed pitch. Just go. What do you lose by seriously considering going to seminary? If the door is closed early on, praised be God, and now you know. And it’s still growth and formation, and fraternity. What do you lose?
If you are interested in “just going” and discussing a vocation to the priesthood, call (604) 443-3254 ext. 429 or email [email protected]. What do you have to lose?
This is the second article in a series of interviews with vocations directors. Read part one here.