SOUTH CAROLINA
Hilton Head Island Packet
Story by JANUARY HOLMES
The Island Packet
Published Saturday, July 30th, 2005
Michael Cassabon says his happiness is driven by God's love.
And in return for that love, all the 25-year-old wants to do is serve 24 hours a day.
So he's joining the Roman Catholic priesthood.
"My goal is to do God's will -- whatever it is," says Cassabon, who is spending his summer break from seminary in Rome to intern at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Bluffton. "It's my overall goal, my daily goal and also my goal for the next 10 seconds."
The Greenville native feels his calling to the ministry so strongly that he isn't deterred by past scandals or ongoing accusations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.
"They are inexcusable," he says of the abuse. "But this is still God's church."
In fact, Cassabon says he and his 150 American seminary classmates in Rome are more determined because of the scandals, feeling that it is their calling to rebuild the honor of their profession.