Worth a Thousand Words: Philip Johnson Completes Seminary

Last updated on: May 8, 2016 at 10:36 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

Worth a Thousand Words: Philip Johnson Completes Seminary 2016-05-08T22:36:57-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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He posted these images on Facebook today, with these words:

I finally finished seminary! Thank you all for your support and prayers! I hope to be ordained a priest in early January 2017.

This is, in so many ways, a miracle.

OSV took note of this two years ago, when it honored this young seminarian from the Diocese of Raleigh as one of their “Catholics of 2014”:

Johnson was on the brink of a shining time in his young life when he was diagnosed with incurable and inoperable brain cancer. He was 24 with excellent career prospects as a Naval officer. Johnson entered the seminary to pursue the priesthood — a call he’d heard since the age of 19. Patients with his type of cancer are typically given 18 months to live; but six years later, despite the pain and struggle associated with his illness, he is hoping to be ordained a transitional deacon in the spring.

Of his suffering, Johnson wrote: “I have traveled to Lourdes, France, the site of a Marian apparition and a place of physical and spiritual healing that is visited by millions of pilgrims each year. I have had the great opportunity to serve the infirm there who trust in God with their whole hearts to make sense of their suffering. Through my interaction with these people, I received much more than I gave. I learned that the suffering and heartache that is part of the human condition does not have to be wasted and cut short out of fear or seeking control in a seemingly uncontrollable situation. Perhaps this is the most important miracle that God intends for me to experience.”

Johnson also issued an impassioned plea to a young woman, Brittany Maynard, who in the fall of 2014 announced that her own battle with cancer had become too much:

When Maynard told People magazine in October that she was planning to take her own life on Nov. 1, people from all across the nation begged her to reconsider. Many shared their own testimonies and stories on blogs, websites, social media and letters to the editor as proof that life holds worth at any stage. Unfortunately, Maynard did carry through with her plan, dying on Nov. 1 in Oregon — a state where physician-assisted suicide is legal — at age 29.

Johnson was one of the many who reached out to Maynard. Despite being, in his words, “shy and introverted,” he shared his own struggles in an article for the Diocese of Raleigh. Though empathizing with Maynard’s pain, he encouraged others who suffer to spurn physician-assisted suicide as an option. His powerful witness has earned him a place in Our Sunday Visitor’s 2014 Catholics of the Year.

Philip Johnson wrote at the time:

I have experienced so much sadness due to my illness, but there have also been times of great joy. The support I have received from others encourages me to keep pushing on. I want to be a priest, I want to see my three young nephews grow up, and these goals give me the hope to wake up each day and live my life with trust.

God bless him. Keep him in your prayers as he continues his journey.

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