Fr. Rolando (Rudy) Badiola: Holy perseverance

In the Catholic worldview, marriage is often held up as the example of vocational perseverance. As any long-married couple is able to testify, perseverance is key in marriage. It takes a lot of effort, prayer, and creativity to stay faithful to such a vocation, when internal and external factors begin to pull at the fabric of the marriage. However, marriage is not the only vocation that takes a daily mustering of courage and perseverance to remain true; the same is true of the complementary vocation of holy orders. As Fr. Rolando (Rudy) Badiola’s life demonstrates, the ordained priesthood can come with its own set of trials, requiring a man to persevere in faithfulness.

Fr. Rudy was born in Baao, Camarines Sur, in the Philippines, the second of twelve children. The Badiola house was located just on the other side of the local church, a fixture of daily life in their household. Being so close by, the priests would visit their house most often, and the seminarians who would stay in the rectory over the summer were role models to young Fr. Rudy. The vocation to the priesthood grew with Fr. Rudy as he grew, but when he broached the topic to his family, they were unsupportive, with his mother as the only exception. They felt there was no need for him to be a priest, and they were concerned that he would be assigned to the middle of nowhere, to “rot in the place with no chance of improvement”. 

When Fr. Rudy was ordained at the tender age of 23 for the Archdiocese of Caceres, he was technically underage. In addition to teaching Spanish at the high school, he was doing much of the work of running the parish, as the pastor was elderly and sickly. While in an assignment to a town in Camarines Norte, the province was split from the Archdiocese of Caceres, and made its own Diocese of Daet.

Without a pastoral charge, Fr. Rudy made his way to Manila, looking for somewhere that would take him in. He was recommended by a priest he knew to a parish in Manila, where the pastor took him in and treated him like an assistant pastor. Here he became beloved of his pastor for many reasons, one of which was his willingness to minister in the slums of Manila. Eventually, Cardinal Sin asked for priests who were willing to work abroad, and his pastor, the cardinal’s private secretary, recommended him for the work. The cardinal had to ask Fr. Rudy: “What have you done that your pastor has nothing but good things to say about you?”

Fr. Rudy spent the next couple of years in Iran, travelling around the country to visit the small community of Catholics there. When asked upon his departure from the Philippines if he would be afraid because it was a Muslim-majority country, he expressed no fear, rather that one simply had to stay on the right side of the law.

​However, the adjustment was intense; Fr. Rudy found Iranian food gamey and unpalatable, and Farsi difficult to master. Eventually, the government of Iran found out he was a priest, and he was sent back to the Philippines, but not before a trip to Rome, courtesy of the Bishop of Tehran who was a Vincentian, who arranged for his order to tour Fr. Rudy around. 

Back in Manila, an opening came up for a priest to go to Canada, and Cardinal Sin asked him if he would go to Vancouver. After a trying time in Vancouver, Fr. Rudy applied for a transfer to the Diocese of Calgary, where Bishop O’Byrne asked for his immediate arrival. He was assigned to St. Peter’s in Northwest Calgary first for four months, in the days when the parish was still in ATCO trailers.

Following this, Fr. Rudy was given his first pastorship in the Diocese, that of Sacred Heart Parish in Oyen. The assignment was a daunting one: the drive from Oyen to Calgary was comparable to the one from his hometown of Baao to Manila. It was to be a lesson in Canadian life.

​Fr. Rudy has many beloved memories of his time there, as he learned to visit his parishioners and share meals with them. He had no cooking skills, so this was partly out of necessity, as well as pastoral creativity. This was no small feat either — in these days, Oyen’s territory was vast with a small Catholic population, with smaller missions in Acadia Valley, Empress and Bindloss. Even today, some thirty years later, Fr. Rudy reflects upon how well the people of this far-flung parish treated him, as he met with them, visited them, broke bread with them, and even learned to ride on their combine harvesters. He learned to meet his parishioners in their happiness. In one moving incident, he visited an older lady living in the far northern part of his parish, near the boundary with the archdiocese of Edmonton. As he came up the stairs, she began to cry — he was the first priest who had ever come out to visit. All of this dedicated work paid off in spades, as he was able to pay off the debt on the parish church in 3 years and burn the mortgage. When Bishop O’Byrne asked how he managed it, the reply was simple: “All they needed was a priest they could trust.”

The next few pastoral charges were in the eastern part of the Diocese, in Strathmore, Drumheller and Medicine Hat, after which Fr. Rudy was made the diocesan advisor of the CWL and asked for a transfer to Calgary to be able to take up this new ministry more efficiently. This appointment came as a surprise to him, but he was reassured that it was in fact the CWL who had asked for him. This was a huge consolation in his ministry, being first diocesan advisor and then provincial advisor for 11 years. In this time, he travelled to every province in Canada, and made two trips up north to fish in Yellowknife at midnight, places that he never thought he would see. While it could be a gruelling task, Fr. Rudy views his time with the CWL as a tremendous blessing.

Nowadays, Fr. Rudy spends his time at the Providence Centre, having retired 14 years ago from his last post at Canadian Martyrs in Calgary; he turned 84 years old this month. He still spends at least two stints of 15 minutes each with the Blessed Sacrament daily, praying the breviary or simply in conversation with Jesus. Fr. Rudy stresses the importance of speaking personally to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, rather than simple recitation of rote prayers. Direct answers must not be expected, but sooner or later, in bringing one’s problems and questions to Jesus, the answer will come clear.

When asked for advice for young men and women who would also be discerning priesthood or religious life, Fr. Rudy offered what only sixty years of priestly ministry could offer. 

“I never doubted my vocation. I went on, despite the problems I encountered. Some superiors will not like you — I never paid attention to that. The important thing is that I did my job as a priest. Never worry about anything; build your relationships with people — don’t say anything, don’t demand — people will see your needs, and bless you in return. Follow your vocation — your vocation will give you the grace needed. If it is meant for you, then it will come.”

This is certainly visible in Fr. Rudy’s life. Any number of the trials of his life could have broken his vocation. However, each hardship only made his vocation stronger, a sixty year long vocation that we celebrate as a testament to faithful, trusting perseverance.

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Written by Solomon Ip for Faithfully

Fr. Rolando (Rudy) Badiola
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​Ordained: April 7, 1962 at St. John Cathedral Naga City, Philippines by Archbishop Pedro Santos.

Pastoral Placements in the Diocese of Calgary:

• Assistant: St. Peter’s, Calgary (March 1980 - July 1980)
• Chaplain: Rockyview Hospital (1980)
• Administrator: Sacred Heart, Oyen (1980-1983)
  Administrator: Sacred Heart, Strathmore (1983-1987)
• Pastor: St. Anthony’s, Drumheller (1987-1991)
• Pastor: St. Patrick’s, Medicine Hat (1991-94)
• Pastor: St. Anne’s, Calgary (1994-1996)
• Pastor: St. Bernadette’s, Calgary (1996-2003)
• Pastor: Canadian Martyrs, Calgary (2003-2006)
• Retired: August 2006