Growing up in a devout Filipino American Catholic family formed the foundation for Father Stefan Yap’s eventual ordination to the priesthood.
This year marks not only his first anniversary as a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, but also the 500th anniversary of the introduction of Christianity to the Philippines, which the archdiocese will celebrate with a special rosary and Mass on Sept. 18 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
“It’s amazing to think it’s been 500 years, knowing how much Catholicism means to the Filipino community,” he said. “When you think of Filipinos, you think of Catholicism. It really is part of our culture, part of the people.”
That faith was demonstrated in a dramatic way when millions attended then-Pope John Paul II’s World Youth Day in Manila in 1995, and when Pope Francis’s pastoral visit to the Philippines in 2015 also drew massive crowds.
For Father Yap, that bedrock of faith was experienced through things like his family always faithfully attending Sunday Mass.
He drew on that faith following his ordination to the priesthood in June 2020, when the world and this community were in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. By that time, public Masses had resumed again with safety precautions, and the newly ordained priest was able to celebrate Mass at his home parish, Holy Redeemer in College Park.
After his ordination, he was assigned to serve as a parochial vicar at St. John Neumann Parish in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where he had been assigned in his first summer as a seminarian in 2017.
“I knew the parish and rectory, which made the whole transition easier,” he said.
In his first year, Father Yap said he learned something “every priest knows, but it’s been emphasized during the pandemic. It’s the importance of bringing God to the people, bringing Him in any way that’s accessible to them.”
At St. John Neumann, the young priest joined Msgr. Robert Panke, the pastor who had been his seminary rector and who this year is celebrating his 25th anniversary; and Father Peter Sweeney, a retired priest in residence there who is marking his 60th anniversary.
“Providing the sacraments. That’s a priest’s duty, and we did that,” Father Yap said, noting how since he joined the parish during the pandemic, he and his fellow priests there celebrated Masses and funerals, and presided at weddings and baptisms and First Communions and Confirmations, with safety precautions. “It was amazing, it was busy,” he said of his first year.
His greatest blessing as a priest, he said, has been “celebrating Mass with everyone in the parish…” And he said whether his congregation was there in person or watching the Masses via livestream, “during the pandemic, there was a very palpable and tangible feeling of everyone’s prayers over this past year.”
For the three priests, evening prayer, dinner and conversation together became a daily routine during the pandemic, he said, adding, “Now its expected and part of the spirit of the house.”
Father Yap noted how Msgr. Panke emphasized how Jesus wanted people to be fed, first spiritually through the Eucharist and the sacraments, and then by reaching out to people in need, and doing all that safely during the pandemic. In the early days of the crisis when the lockdown caused churches to be closed, the parish immediately began livestreaming Masses and continuing its Eucharistic Adoration through the front doors of the church, with people kneeling on the sidewalk outside or praying from their cars. St. John Neumann also started a food pantry, with parish volunteers packing the food on Friday evenings and distributing it there on Saturdays.
“Our parish is so charitable, and it comes from their devotion to the Holy Eucharist,” said Father Yap. “They are fed through the Eucharist, and that leads them desiring to feed others,” to answer Jesus’s call to love and serve their neighbors.
As a seminarian, he had witnessed how parishioners there liked to stay around after daily or Sunday Mass and visit with each other. “Now that we’re opening up more, that’s happening. It’s so beautiful to see again,” he said, adding, “People are coming back. Our parish is an example of that.”
