Anniversary: A Call to Vocation

Today, Monsignor Michael Hazard resides peacefully at St. Ambrose Parish in Parchment when he isn’t caring for the needs of patients at Ascension Borgess Hospital, where he serves as hospital chaplain. But almost 50 years ago, he was the second priest ordained for the newly founded Diocese of Kalamazoo.

Born and raised in Kalamazoo, Msgr. Mike was actually a transitional deacon for the Diocese of Lansing when the Diocese of Kalamazoo was founded. After both bishops (Bishop XX and Bishop Donovan) gave their approvals, he was incardinated to Kalamazoo and, on April 15, 1972, he became the second priest ordained for the Diocese of Kalamazoo. George Ross was ordained three weeks earlier, due in part, according to Msgr. Mike, to the fact that they both had too many friends to all fit in the Cathedral at once. Father Ross passed away in 1989.

Msgr. Mike remembers during a meeting prior to his priestly ordination, Bishop Donovan asked him why he thought he was called to the priesthood.

“I didn’t have a good answer for him so I said well I don’t know if he wants me to be a priest but I know he wants me to be happy,” Msgr. Mike remembers. “I’ve shown myself capable of doing the schoolwork, I have done some preaching and ministering as a deacon and some people say I’m the kind of person they’d like their priest to be,” Msgr. Mike remembers. “And Bishop Donovan says ‘And you don’t think that sounds like a call to a vocation?’

“My sister Alice says that when I was in the 2nd grade I announced I was going to be a priest. I don’t remember that but I don’t think she would lie, and I don’t remember ever wanting to do anything else. My parents were so hands off. They did not discourage me in any way but they were not people who liked to show me off or draw attention to ‘our son the seminarian’. Never. But I believe it’s a call, a call that comes every day,” he says.

As he looks back on the early days of his priesthood, one memory that really stands out is how much the older priests took care of him.

“Father Dave Adams, Father William “Fitz” Fitzgerald, Father Larry Woods — we didn’t see each other very much but when we did see each other I felt like not only were they happy to see me but they were interested in how I was doing and were encouraging in that way.”

Fr. Fitz, especially, became a mentor to the young Fr. Mike as he spent his first five years of ministry with him.

“Fitz kept opening my mind and heart to new ways of thinking about things,” he recalls. “I was giving a talk to some teens on the Incarnation, what it means that Jesus is both God and man. And so I asked Fitz what he would say to them. He said, ‘Many people think the importance of Jesus is that the eternal son of God became like us. I think more important is that he came to make us to be like him.’”

“So simple and yet so wise,” says Msgr. Mike. “In some ways I strive to be like him. Even now something in me listens for his voice in my prayer.”

As one of only a handful of priests who served under all four Bishops of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Msgr. Mike tried to describe their leadership style in
only a few words:

While Msgr. Mike has had several roles at parishes and the diocese, including director of vocations, Vicar General and almost 30 years as pastor at St.
Joseph Parish in Kalamazoo, it is the role he has now found himself, as hospital chaplain to Ascension Borgess, that he says feels most fulfilling.

“This hospital work, it’s really right at the heart of what priestly work is — preaching in a way, administering the sacraments, consoling, encouraging, lifting up, praying with people at difficult moments in their lives,” he says.

“The people I see are hungry, and I have the great privilege to bring them the food that can satisfy.” Serving as a hospital chaplain during a pandemic
proved to be challenging but also brought a renewed understanding of the importance of the sacraments.

“Ministering the Sacraments means you have to get close to someone,” he says. “Quite early in the pandemic there was a Zoom meeting of Catholic chaplains and the question was asked, would it be possible to minister the anointing of the sick without going into the room; could you stand at the door and administer it? It dawned on me the sacrament without the oil and without the laying on of hands, without that touch and closeness, is prayer. It’s not the same; the sacramental power has something to do with the physicality of the sacrament.”

He has also learned it’s okay to not have all the answers to the questions those facing major medical difficulties may be asking.

“Companionship is more important than having all the answers. I often find myself say ‘Well I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I can sit
here with you and make sure you won’t be alone.’”