Chris Canlas, S.J. Jesuit Scholastic

He gave up six-figure income to follow a richer calling
Friday, July 13, 2007
Last updated 12:29 a.m. PT

By CHRISTINE FREY
P-I REPORTER

Just a few years out of college, Chris Canlas was helping run a Seattle investment firm that managed $100 million in assets.

He had a car, house and six-figure salary.

Life was good. He was happy. But not complete.

Canlas quit his job, sold or gave away virtually all his possessions and moved to Portland last fall to study to become a priest. The 28-year-old leaves for a seminary later this year, and he plans to return in four years to become a priest with the Archdiocese of Seattle.

"I always knew I had a call to priesthood," he said. "I just didn't know how to answer it."

The Roman Catholic Church had seen a decline in the past few decades in the number of men entering the priesthood. But in recent years, more have sought out the ministry, church officials said.

Like Canlas, they're often older and better educated than their predecessors, said Greg Magnoni, spokesman for the archdiocese. And some have work experience.

Raised a Catholic in Idaho, Canlas moved to Washington a decade ago to attend Seattle University. There he studied economics and contemplated the draw he felt toward religious life, meeting with a campus priest monthly to discuss his life.

After graduation in 2001, he became a partner in Owen Canlas Investment Group with Piper Jaffray. He helped people plan for their future -- saving money for their children's college education or retirement. But he still thought about entering the priesthood, sometimes daily.

"There was this pull to do something else," he said.

When he told his business partner, Kurt Owen, that he would be leaving the business, Owen thought he was joking. Owen tried to talk him out of it, but in the end, he knew it was fitting for Canlas, whom Owen described as having more integrity than anyone else he knew.

"I was shocked. You just don't see something like that coming. But then when he said it, it made tons of sense," Owen said. "He's the kind of guy that should be a priest."

Canlas spent several months at a Jesuit novitiate in Portland and returned to Seattle in June, deciding that he wanted to be a parish priest instead of entering the Jesuit order, which is known for running schools and universities. He will move to Chicago this fall to study theology at the Mundelein Seminary.

The people who need and want priests are suffering because of the lack of ordained men, Canlas said. When Canlas' grandfather died on the East Coast, the local priest told Canlas' family that he wouldn't be able to perform the funeral for another week because he had so many other demands from his parish.

The sex abuse scandal has "scarred the face of priesthood," Canlas said, and he hopes to show that there are good men in the church.

"Most of us are good men who just want to help others," he said.

There were 454 priestly ordinations nationwide in 2005, down from around 994 in 1965, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The number of graduate-level seminarians has also fallen significantly, from 8,325 to 3,308, over the past four decades.

Meanwhile, the number of Catholics in the United States has grown by nearly 20 million in that time.

There are 119 priests in the Seattle Archdiocese, which covers all of Western Washington. Last year, it ordained seven priests -- the archdiocese's largest class in three decades, Magnoni said. There are about 30 men in training to become priests.

Some young men today are seeking a deeper connection to religion, said the Rev. Patrick Howell, vice president for mission and ministry at Seattle University, where 21 Jesuits work.

"What I find with some of these younger students, though, it's their parents who have left the church, and this is a generation that's looking for something that gives mooring to the spirituality and their values," he said.

Canlas intends to study church law in school. After becoming a priest, he also hopes to work as a lawyer for the church someday.

He admits missing aspects of his previous life, dinners at nice Seattle restaurants, for instance. Instead of living in his own home, he's crashing with a friend and working in a coffeehouse for the summer.

He is quick to point out, though, that his way of serving is not better than anyone else's. It's just different.

"Everyone has their own way to serve."


Links
Original article (here)
Mundelein Seminary (here)