San Antonio native professes final vows for Congregation of Holy Cross, ordained as deacon

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San Antonio native professes final vows for Congregation of Holy Cross, ordained as deacon

With joy and thanksgiving, the Congregation of Holy Cross will celebrate the final profession of vows of five men on August 28 at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame.

Father William M. Lies, CSC, provincial superior of the Congregation of Holy Cross, United State Province of Priests and Brothers, will preside at the Mass and receive the vows of Drew Clary, CSC, of Castroville; Cameron Cortens, CSC; and Gabriel Griggs, CSC. He will also receive the vows of Shohag Gabil, CSC, and Tias Gomes, CSC, both of whom are from the Sacred Heart of Jesus Province in Bangladesh.

The five men professed perpetual vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience according to the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross. For the past several years, they have been in a period of temporary vows, which they renewed annually. On August 28, they will commit their lives and work to the communal life and ministry of Holy Cross.

They were ordained to the Order of the Deacon on August 29 in the Moreau Seminary Chapel by the Bishop Edgar da Cunha, SDV, of the Diocese of Fall River, Mass.

A San Antonio native, Drew Clary is the oldest of four children of Pamela and Richard Clary, of Castroville. He graduated with a bachelorā€™s degree in economics and political science from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. He earned a masterā€™s in education through the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) in 2011. He entered formation with the Congregation of Holy Cross in 2015 and earned his Master of Divinity in 2021.

Clary taught religious education at St. Adalbert Parish, South Bend (2015-16), and worked at La Parroquia de Nuestra SantĆ­sima Madre de la Luz (Nuevo LeĆ³n, Mexico), during the summer of 2016. While at the Holy Cross Novitiate (Cascade, Colorado) from 2016-17, Clary served at Penrose Hospital, Catholic Charities, NamastĆ© Alzheimer Center, and at Sacred Heart Parish. He assisted at the Catholic Worker in 2017-18 and completed a language immersion program in Puebla, Mexico, during the summer of 2018. He also led small group Bible studies for Notre Dame Campus Ministry in 2018-19 and spent the summer of 2019 at the Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal. Clary was an assistant rector at Oā€™Neill Hall (University of Notre Dame) in 2019-20 and has been living and ministering at St. Adalbert and St. Casimir parishes in South Bend, Indiana since summer 2020.

He will continue at St. Adalbert and St. Casimir parishes as a transitional deacon in preparation for priestly ordination.