By Elisabeth Sherwin
Enterprise staff writer
The new priest at St. James Catholic Church is Father Loreto Rojas Jr., 33, who prefers to go by his nickname, "Bong."
Father Bong or just plain Bong -- either address is OK with him.
Bong is from the Philippines where "Bong" is the nickname for any young man who is a junior in the household. Bong’s father is Loreto Rojas Sr.
"There were 12 Bongs in my high school," said Bong, laughing.
Bong came to St. James on Aug. 14 to replace Father Dan Looney who was routinely re-assigned to a parish in Vacaville. Bong comes from several years as a pastor at St. Isidore’s in Yuba City.
"Father Dan is my mentor," said Bong. "I have him on my speed-dial."
But Bong doesn’t anticipate too many problems in his new parish. After all, it’s not a completely new experience for him.
Bong was the youth minister at St. James in 1997-98. He also helped with the music ministry; he is a tenor and loves to sing.
"This is where I decided to become a priest," he said.
Actually, Bong made a deal with God while he was in Davis. It involved trying out for a role in a Sacramento musical. Bong said that he had decided that if he got the lead role in the musical "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde he would NOT become a priest.
Bong told the casting director about his deal. The director promised him a principal role, but not the lead.
"Get out, you’re making me an instrument of the devil!" the director said.
Bong lived up to his end of the bargain. He became a priest. He celebrated his first mass at St. James in 2000.
"Seriously, it was a painful process making that decision," he said. "I looked at myself, at all the talents that God gave me, and I thought this was the best way I could use them."
Bong is a man of myriad talents. He has more master’s degrees than he can immediately recall ("Four, I think), speaks several languages, loves to teach and is working on the dissertation for his Ph.D.
Bong says his father, a medical doctor, helped him with his decision to enter the priesthood by being a wonderful role model.
"I wanted to be an instrument of healing," said Bong. "My Dad is the best instrument of healing I know and my model for the priesthood."
While Bong studied pre-med, he decided that medicine was not the way to go —he didn’t care for the business aspect.
"The business side of medicine disillusioned me," he said.
Still, Bong takes care of himself by running about four miles a day.
He’s an energetic and engaging priest.
"I love Davis and the community, there’s no doubt," he said.
He hopes that all the academic knowledge he has picked up over the years at school in the Philippines, at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Palo Alto, and at the Gregorian University in Rome, will be put to good use in his work as a pastor.
"You have seven to 12 minutes for a homily, you have to compress substantial information in a digestible way to promote the faith we want to transmit and pass on," he said.
Bong says he wants the St. James community to be united and diverse.
"I am fluent in Spanish and I personify diversity," he said. Bong is Turkish, Chinese, Filipino and Spanish.
"That’s a gift I’m bringing to this community – diversity and unity," he added.
"I know that problems will come up but my attitude is: God will not give them to us unless we are capable of handling them," he said.
"My father used to say: ‘Be thankful for problems because they are the salt and pepper of life.’ "
A bell rang and Bong had to hurry off. He was teaching an Italian lesson to students at St. James School.
-- Reach Elisabeth Sherwin at gizmo@dcn.org
