In our province friars engage in a variety of ministries.  Campus ministries, parishes, our graduate school or mission in Mexicali, and internal ministries that we are committed to staffing on an on-going, long-term basis.  Specialized ministries are different in nature.  In our on-going ministerial commitments the province is making the commitment, but in specialized ministries only the individual friar(s) is making the commitment while the province administration, approving of the specialized ministry, releases the friar to engage in that ministry.  This is important, because not only is the friar able to go and do wonderful ministries elsewhere, but they have the support of the province in doing so.

When a friar leaves a specialized ministry, the province has no commitment to re-staff it.  In fact, some of the very best specialized ministries are where a friar sees a great need, begins a ministry, prepares, organizes and builds up the infrastructure to this new ministry for the express purpose of turning it over to someone else when they depart.  Not all specialized ministries are intended to continue on indefinitely.  Sometimes very valuable specialized ministries address a need that will come and go, and the friar will return to a regular province commitment or launch themselves in a new direction with a different specialized ministry.

Specialized ministries are beginning and ending on a perpetual basis.  It is too difficult to keep a list updated on this website, but here are some examples of specialized ministries of our recent past:

• Dominican professors are often asked to teach in many places beyond our own Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, e.g.
  • University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Angelicum, Rome, Italy
  • University of Virginia
  • Providence College, RI
  • St. Mary's College, Moraga, CA
  • Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C.
     
• Ministries of the Order, Church, and other dioceses
  • Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy
    International Director
    mv.vatican.va/StartNew_EN.html
  • Monastery of the Angels, Hollywood, CA
    Corpus Christi Monastery, Menlo Park, CA
    Chaplains to our Dominican nuns of the Western United States
    www.op-stjoseph.org
  • International Dominican Headquarters, Santa Sabina, Rome, Italy
    Support personnel
    www.op.org
  • Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem, Israel
    Biblical School and Research Center
    Professors and researchers of biblical texts
    www.ebaf.edu
  • St. Francis Center for Priestly Formation, San Diego, CA
  • Kenya Dominican Mission, Kenya, Africa
    Missionary helping the Vicariate of Kenya
  • Archdiocese of Vilnius, Lithuania
    Family Center consultant and missionary
  • St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, Denver, CO
    Rector and professor
  • Various individual parishes in various diocese.  Exceptional cases of friars ministering in a non-province commitment.
     
• Variety
  • DominICON
    Artistry of traditional icons,
    members.aol.com/DominICON/homepage
  • St. Therese Center, Las Vegas, NV
    Case manager for a HIV-AIDS relief ministry
    www.sainttheresecenter.org
  • Nathan Adelson Hospice, Las Vegas, NV
    Spiritual care for the dying
    www.nah.org
  • Catholic Answers, El Cajon, CA
    Chaplain and apologist for staff and radio program
    www.catholic.com
  • Mud Puddle Films
    A ministry of Fr. Dominic DeLay
    www.mudpuddlefilms.com
  • Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA
    Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, Colton, CA
    Hospital Chaplaincies
  • The Spiro Law Firm, San Francisco, CA
    Providing spiritual and legal services to the elderly and bereaved
  • United States Military (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines)
    Chaplains serving in WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, domestically, and more

  Be sure to see our campus ministry, parish, and other province commitments in our pull-down menu at the top of this web page called "Ministries".  The above specialized ministries are only a small example of the countless specialized ministries we have done over the years, and only a small part of the on-going ministry of the friars at-large.