Monday, August 31, 1998
Leap of Faith
PROFILE: As alumnus Father
Ted Vierra prepares
to leave UCLA (again), he remains confident that he has seen
part of his dreams come together here.
By Michelle Navarro
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
For the second time in his life, Father Ted Vierra is leaving
UCLA.
Last week after Sunday mass, Vierra was met with a round of
applause and an Irish prayer, given by students assembled on the
patio of the University Catholic Center.
After four years on the campus ministry, Vierra is now leaving
the university for a fall sabbatical in Cambridge, Mass., and then
returning in January to work on a special project for the Paulist
Fathers.
The applause lasted for a few minutes, until Vierra modestly
motioned for it to cease. No doubt it was a somewhat different
good-bye than the one he received 45 years ago at UCLA.
Vierra had transferred from the University of Hawaii to UCLA to
take advantage of the geology program available on the Bruin
campus. Little did he know that the move would alter the course of
his life forever, that instead of becoming Dr. Vierra in the field
of geology, he would become Father Ted.
"It’s a big mystery to me," Vierra said, shaking his head in
reference to his change in career plans. "I never know quite how it
happened."
The Hawaiian-raised Vierra said the desire to enter the
priesthood didn’t actually develop until around 1952, one year
before he would graduate from UCLA.
"I just developed a sense that I wanted to do something aligned
with my deepest beliefs," he said. "It wasn’t an aversion to
geology. I love geology, I love the earth."
Although unsure of what drew him into the priesthood, he
attributes the main drive behind his religious life to his mother,
who passed away when he was only four years old.
"My dad was not a Catholic. I know a lot of people won’t
understand this, but it was my natural mother that guided me," he
said, nodding to himself. "That’s what I believe."
While at home in Hawaii, Vierra said he didn’t get to attend
church as often as he wished. But when he came to UCLA, he was able
to go to mass every morning at 7 a.m. before class.
From there, Vierra was set on his way.
After graduation in 1953, he went for one year to the Oak Ridge,
N.J., Paulist Father’s Novitiate and then received a degree in
philosophy from St. Paul’s major seminary at the Catholic
University of America, Washington D.C. In 1960, he was
ordained.
Before returning to UCLA, Vierra served in many areas, from
Chicago and Toronto to UC Berkeley and Alaska. But of all the
people he has worked with, he said students are still his
favorite.
"Working with students is a lot more exciting, they’re
interested in a lot more things," he said.
"You see more people soul-searching; some are struggling and
some are just figuring out who they want to be. I like being a part
of that process."
In leaving the routine and molded life of home for the
autonomous one in college, many students find themselves
questioning aspects of their lives they had previously taken for
granted – one of which is religion.
In a city where over 600 religions are practiced, many find it
hard not to take a second look at one’s own faith and ask whether
or not it’s right.
"I don’t have an answer for every question," Vierra said. "What
I do have is an overall vision of faith."
The UCLA alumnus said he finds a lot of Catholics tend to
question the system, to which he replies that "a lot of that you
can take it or leave it, it’s the Catholic vision you can’t
escape."
He also explained that, like everything else, the Church has its
faults and problems. With a laugh he mentioned that it actually has
a documented history of faults.
Even so, he pointed out that it ought to be taken into
consideration that when looking now at the history of those faults,
sins and different kinds of brutality, people tend to judge with
their contemporary insight.
"We’ve evolved since then, so it’s not really fair," he said,
"but we do have to do it, we can’t try to conceal it."
Father Ted Vierra said the Church grows with society, that it is
in constant "dialogue" with it. The one change he spoke of with the
most enthusiasm was the increase in ethnic diversity within UCLA
and the Catholic Center itself.
When he arrived on the UCLA campus the first time, he received a
cultural shock. Growing up in a Polynesian environment didn’t
prepare him for the predominantly Caucasian one at UCLA.
"My first reaction was that everyone was sick because everyone
had pale skin," he said sheepishly. "I thought everyone was
supposed to be brown."
But, when Vierra returned to UCLA after more than 40 years, he
got another surprise.
"There’s such powerful diversity here," he said. "And that is
the most important thing in the world to me."
Content with viewing such an ethnic mix at UCLA, Vierra is
leaving with a satisfied air in that he has seen part of his dream
– to have all people come together – happen on this campus.
Though it’s been a slow process so far, Vierra is confident how
things will turn out in the end.
"Somehow, we’re going to make it through," he said.JAMIE
SCANLON-JACOBS/Daily Bruin
UCLA alumnus Father Ted Vierra is leaving the University
Catholic Center for a sabbatical in Cambridge.