Priest Appreciation Evening

Monsignor Doyle Council 1186 hosted a Priest Appreciation Evening on Thursday, November 27, 2025, at the Garrison Pub and Eatery in Calgary. The gathering honoured two priests associated with the council: Father Eric Nelson, Lecturer of Monsignor Doyle Council 1186, and Father Rowel Jose “Arjay” Abanto, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and chaplain of the council. Together, their priestly ministries total ninety years, with Father Eric marking sixty years of priesthood and Father Arjay celebrating thirty years of priestly service.

Sixty years of priesthood: Father Eric Nelson

This evening we give thanks to God for the gift of the priesthood, and we give thanks in person to the priests who have carried that gift among us. In a special way, the council honoured Father Eric Nelson, who has served this diocese with steady devotion for sixty years, and who has done so with a remarkably human heart.

In his own jubilee reflections, Father Eric quoted John Shea: “the Cross is the sign of a persistent and peaceful life in a violent world.” That insight describes him well. His priesthood has never been about display. It has been about quiet presence, steadfast fidelity, and helping people find Christ in the middle of real life.

Those who know his story know that real life shaped him early. He and his siblings faced the loss of their parents while still young, and his family speaks of the independence, grit, and quiet courage that grew from that. You see it in the way he has lived his vocation, as a man who has kept saying yes to God.

He has always been fully himself in that yes. His brother Mike remembers him as a St. Mary’s football man, a true athlete, the kind of priest his family teasingly called the “athlete priest.” He carries the ranching roots of his family too, an Alberta priest through and through, at home with city people and prairie people alike.

Ordained in 1965, his first summer was at Camp Cadicasu. What began as one assignment became decades of spiritual fatherhood to generations of young people. From there his ministry ranged widely: St. Michael’s and St. Mary’s Cathedral in Calgary, Taber, Lethbridge, St. John’s in Calgary, Pincher Creek and the surrounding communities, chaplaincy at St. Francis High School, and years of service helping couples prepare for marriage through Catholic Engaged Encounter. After retiring from parish administration, he gave another decade as chaplain to the Calgary Catholic School District, leaving that role in conscience when Catholic heritage was set aside. Taken together, these assignments span more than five decades of priestly service in this diocese.

Father Eric’s priesthood and his knighthood have been intertwined from the beginning. On March 1, 1965, he received his First, Second, and Third Degrees in the Knights of Columbus, and he has now been a member of the Order for more than sixty years. For that time he has embodied Charity, Unity, and Fraternity not as ceremonial words, but as the steady daily pattern of his priesthood.

As Lecturer of Council 1186, his reflections on the Word kindle faith in his brother Knights with a light that clarifies and strengthens, and his introduction of Lectio Divina has become the heart of the council’s COR gatherings.

A lantern shelters a flame against wind and dark, and then sets it high enough that others can find their way. It keeps faith with the flame, and in time the darkness yields. That image was used at the Priest Appreciation Evening to describe Father Eric’s priesthood among us, quietly, steadily, and without asking to be noticed.

Thirty years of priesthood: Father Rowel Jose “Arjay” Abanto

The Priest Appreciation Evening also honoured thirty years of priestly service for Father Rowel Jose “Arjay” Abanto, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and Columbarium in Calgary and chaplain of Monsignor Doyle Council 1186.

Father Arjay was ordained to the priesthood on June 10, 1995, for the Diocese of Daet in the Philippines. The youngest of eleven children, his early devotion was shaped by his parents and by frequent visits to church with his mother, where he memorized the novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help and grew in Marian and Eucharistic devotion. He entered Holy Rosary Minor Seminary in 1986, continued at Holy Rosary Major Seminary, and pursued further studies in liturgy and human development psychology.

For twenty one years he served in his home Diocese of Daet, including work as Diocesan Liturgy Director and Master of Ceremonies, and later as Rector and Pastor of the Parish and Shrine of Saint Anthony of Padua in Mercedes, Camarines Norte. In 2016 he was called to the Diocese of Calgary. His assignments here have included service at St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Peter’s Parish, Canadian Martyrs Parish, and then Sacred Heart Parish, where he was appointed pastor on August 1, 2023.

At Sacred Heart he has fostered strong Eucharistic and Marian devotion, including events such as Forty Hours of Adoration for Vocations and welcoming the Eucharistic Miracles of the World exhibition linked with Saint Carlo Acutis. His ordination motto from John 15 verse 16, “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” continues to guide his ministry and the way he encourages others to trust in God’s mercy and love.

Giving thanks

At the Garrison Pub and Eatery, members of Monsignor Doyle Council 1186 gathered to offer prepared tributes and words of thanks to Father Eric and Father Arjay, and to recognize the ninety years of priestly service that their vocations represent.