Two months after his ordination to the priesthood, a son of the Arlington diocese and alumnus of Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria is living the Catholic “seminarian’s dream” — ministering spiritually to people in desperate need of hope at one of America’s leading oncology hospitals.
Dominican Father Louis Bethea says his summer working in hospital ministry in New York City, principally at Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a cancer hospital, and the Hospital for Special Surgery, has been “nothing short of amazing.”
“To share the love and grace of Christ with so many people, in such vulnerable positions in life through the sacraments and through our witness — this is what a seminarian dreams of, and it is my privilege to do it every day,” Father Louis said.
Soon, Father Louis will return to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, where last year he obtained a bachelor’s in sacred theology, for one additional year to complete a licentiate in sacred theology.
Born Robert Anthony Bethea in Arlington in 1986, his earliest years were spent in Woodbridge, where he and his family attended Our Lady of Angels Church and attended St. Thomas Aquinas Regional School for five years, where he was first exposed to the Dominican charism through the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia congregation.
After a three-year stint living in the Netherlands, he moved back to Springfield in 1999 where he attended St. Michael Church in Annandale and Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, becoming heavily involved in band.
While pursuing his undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, graduating in 2008, he first discerned that he might be called to the priesthood.
“I didn’t pursue it because I was fond of the idea of marriage, having a family, and developing my engineering and leadership skills,” he said. “I had everything I wanted, or so I thought.”
It probably didn’t hurt that there was a priest in the family. Namely, his uncle, Father Michael D. Weston, director of the diocesan Office of Divine Worship.
Before the calling to the priesthood came to fruition, he went to work in the automotive industry, living in Ohio for seven years, during which he completed graduate studies at the University of Akron in polymer engineering. His career continued to progress and next came a three-year assignment in the small country of Luxembourg. While there, he spent much time praying on his vocation, entrusting it to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Numerous pilgrimages, including to the Holy Land, left him certain that God was indeed calling him to the priesthood, and more specifically, to the religious life of the Order of Preachers and their two-pronged dedication to prayer and study as well as to the fraternal life.
After moving back to the United States, he entered the Dominican novitiate, the first year of formation, July 25, 2018. Years of prayer, study and preparation culminated in Father Louis’ ordination to the presbyterate June 5, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The ordaining prelate was Dominican Archbishop of Sydney Anthony C. Fisher. Father Weston vested him in the stole and chasuble, as friends and family watched.
“Brother Louis,” Archbishop Fisher told him during the ordination Mass, “worldly success in the tire industry in Luxembourg left you empty, until you experienced a flood of God’s mercy, calling you to a Dominican life of contemplation and sharing its fruits with others for the salvation of their souls.”
