Leap of Faith

Published: Monday, August 31, 1998

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.