Fr Marek Woldan doesn't regret being a priest for even a day
Fr Marek Woldan has experienced a lot in his 25 years of priestly ministry.
He has been a curate in Poland, a parish priest and missionary in Papua New Guinea, and now serves in the parish of Manly-Freshwater.
Born in Poland, he was ordained as a priest in his native Archdiocese of Czestochowa before God called him to the rural outskirts of Papua New Guinea.
Fr Marek says his priestly vocation came very young.
"I was quite sure when I was seven I was going to be a priest," he says, adding he felt called to missionary service during his high school years.
"God showed me this quite vividly. There was no question for me, just the question of how this was going to happen."
Despite this, he didn’t join a missionary order, choosing to become Diocesan priest instead, knowing this could still be a path to a missionary vocation.
He was ordained on 10 June 2000 as a priest for the Archdiocese of Czestochowa.
After being ordained, he served for six years in local parishes before joining a missionary training school. With many priests already serving in Africa, the director of the missionary training school said his service would be most effective in Papua New Guinea.
In Papua New Guinea, the parish priest is called to exercise much more than sacramental ministry. On any given day he could be building a bridge, delivering the mail, installing solar panels, refitting the plumbing in the presbytery or using his carpentry skills to make new furniture.
"I loved it," Fr Marek says. "I never thought I’d be a builder, but I found myself in need of doing other things. There were so many things I was blessed to be able to attend to."
He also took on the role of doctor sometimes too, providing basic medicines to people and dressing wounds.
"Being able to provide them with these basics was helpful for them, but I also enjoyed it. It pushed me to discover some of my other gifts."
He was even asked by his bishop to travel around the Diocese installing solar panels.
He also found himself being inspired by the faithfulness of the people. "Faith wasn’t just part of their lives, it was their lives," he says.
Although he acknowledged missionary work in such a remote part of the world had its challenges.
"The greatest challenge was the difference in culture," he says.
"In the beginning it was great and exotic, until you start discovering some of the deeper relationships and customs you see. I started discovering there were a lot of things you wouldn’t accept like violence, the position of women and some other very harmful beliefs.
"Unfortunately, some of these ended in a really bad way."
While he loved his missionary work and all it encompassed, he soon he found himself desiring a return to ministry more focused on the Sacraments and pastoral accompaniment.
"I found I was giving too much time to those other things," he says. "The more I was doing it, the more I was realising that’s not why I’m here. What I love doing pastoral visits and helping people, so it was helpful for me to move on."
He says he felt called by God to begin ministering in Australia.
"I never thought about coming to Australia until I was over in Papua New Guinea and this idea came to me that now it was time to move," he says.
"I don’t know why and I can’t explain, it’s just where I felt called. I don’t have a really satisfying answer for this question, it just felt right."
He began working in the Diocese of Broken Bay in 2021 and has served in the parishes of Epping-Carlingford, Chatswood and now Manly.
"I feel like I’m in the right place," he says.
"I was in a country where people have nothing but they have God, now I’m in country where people have everything, but they don’t have much God.
"So it’s not just that I’m contributing here, I feel like God is leading me to grow my priesthood and my pastoral skills. Being here in Australia, I’m benefiting more."
Asked what advice he would give to young people discerning God’s own calling in their life.
"It can be overwhelming at first, but at the end, the best way to happiness is there, in whatever God plans for you," he says.
"It’s worth giving a try, even if at the beginning it may look or sound strange. It’s worth it to invest some time. It’s better to waste one year of your life discerning the wrong vocation, than wasting your whole life by not living how God has called you.
"I’m just very grateful for God to these 25 years and there’s not been a single day in that where I regret being a priest. It’s been challenging but very rewarding."
