Vocation journey encompassed dentistry, Vietnam and jogging

"The thing I hung onto was my love relationship with Christ," said Father Benjamin, who was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Santa Rosa, California, earlier this year. "My route was all over the map, but my relationship with Christ wasn't."

He took time out of his busy schedule to speak with The Evangelist about his Albany roots, his return to the Church and his discernment in choosing the life of a priest.

Tooth and truth

"I had a fear that I couldn't be a priest; so when the sisters and priests tried to talk to me about it, I would not have anything to do with it," he said.

After Christian Brothers Academy, the pre-med/pre-dental program at Siena College in Loudonville and graduating from the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, Dr. Benjamin reported to active duty as a dentist in the Navy Dental Corps in 1967. He served in Vietnam and at Camp Pendleton during the next two years.

Faith on route

Those years after the Vietnam War saw Dr. Benjamin away from his Catholic faith, but his daily jogs past a Catholic church and its statue of Christ reminded him of his religion and gradually helped him become active again.

The dentist attended a weekend retreat, and everything about the experience was positive: the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the reading of the Prodigal Son parable and the support of those on retreat.

"That led to more weekend retreats where I went away and more experiences of the spiritual realm," he explained. "I couldn't get enough, and the spiritual reading was the only reading I was doing. I could see there was something going on here; and through the circumstances of my life, I could see that God was calling me to do something in the religious life. That fear from childhood went away in my conversion experience. I felt Christ was drawing me to [the priesthood], fear or no fear."

Different Church

"I came back to a different church with a new vocabulary," he said. "It was post-Vatican II and had a whole different mindset. The focus was Christ's love. It was so welcoming, and I felt so much at home. I started to have a new relationship with Christ that was loving and intimate."

Dr. Benjamin was convinced that he should discern his vocational call, so he sold his practice in 1990 and spent a year visiting monasteries across California.

"I was 49 when this started, and a lot of religious groups don't want someone that old because it's too difficult for them to fit into the life," he said.

Searching

"For four years, every day I woke up thinking I was in the wrong place," he said. "Not that I was wasting my time, because it was a terrific experience of intense learning about the Lord and the Church. But I just felt that wasn't my call."

His mother died during his second year in the seminary, and that seemed to re-open the door to monastic life; but after spending nine months with the Trappists, he knew the life of a monk wasn't for him.

"It was the best thing I ever did because I no longer had that nagging feeling that that's where I belonged," he said. "It freed me up."

Decision

"I have the greatest admiration for this man," Father Benjamin said. "He is, without a doubt, the best example of priesthood I have ever seen in my life."

He also was pleased that the dentist, hygienist and assistant with whom he had worked in Albany during the early 1970s made the trip to California for his ordination. They've been keeping in touch by e-mail, but "I hadn't seen them in 30 years," Father Benjamin said. "It was so very moving to have friends for that long."

Two cousins from the Albany Diocese, Johanna and Paul Pettit, supported his decision from the beginning, and their letters over the years helped remember his home diocese. "It was a real link to know that I had some roots somewhere, because I had no immediate family left," he said.

Long journey

"The more that someone can be true and faithful to Christ, they less they need to worry about what the plan is," he said.

(Editor's note: May 14 is the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.)

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