North Carolina, USA: Philip 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. Patients with his type of cancer are typically given 18 months to live. Despite the many difficulties he was facing, Philip followed his desire to become a priest, and entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary — a call he’d heard since the age of 19.

Nine years later, despite the pain and struggle associated with his illness, Philip Johnson was ordained to the Priesthood in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA on Saturday January 7th!  He was ordained by Bishop Burbidge.

In addition to dealing with his own pain and suffering from brain cancer during the last several years, Philip has become a powerful spokesperson, empathizing with others dealing with terminal illness and pain, but also speaking out against physician-assisted suicide.

Of his suffering, Johnson wrote: “I have travelled 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, USA. 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.

 

 

 

source: Aletia