Vashon
Staff Writer/The Catholic Spirit
ANNANDALE — As part of the Diocese of Metuchen’s 30th anniversary celebration, Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski conferred pontifical honors upon nine diocesan priests, Jan. 29, during an evening prayer service held in the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, Metuchen.
The bishop petitioned Pope Benedict XVI to bestow papal honors upon the priests in recognition of their outstanding service and significant contributions to the people of the diocese.
For Msgr. Randall J. Vashon, 56, the priesthood was a late vocation, but since being ordained 11 years ago, he has accomplished much.
“Under Father Vashon’s leadership, the number of seminarians studying for the diocese has nearly tripled. He has made several trips to Colombia, South America, to recruit seminarians who, please God, will soon be serving the diocese’s rapidly expanding Hispanic population,” Bishop Bootkoski wrote in recommending Msgr. Vashon to become a Chaplain to Pope Benedict XVI.
He added, "At my request, Father Vashon assumed additional responsibilities, becoming pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, one of our largest parishes, after its pastor was transferred." Vashon said being named a prelate of honor is not only a gift to him, but to the parish where he took his first steps to the priesthood.
It was in 1992 when Vashon was a parishioner and one of the youth ministers at Immaculate Conception that thoughts of the priesthood which began early in life took hold of him.
Born in Waterville, Maine, Vashon was one of three sons of Simone A. and the late Clarence G. Vashon. His brothers Jim and Wayne still live in New England.
Fostered by his family’s close relationship with parish priests, Vashon said his calling to become a priest began when he was in the third grade at St. Francis de Sales Elementary School in Waterville. One of the priests, who early on helped plant the roots of his vocation, was the late Franciscan Father Henry Madden, whom Vashon knew since he was 4.
“He was a good man, a good priest,” Vashon said. “He was always joyful and his family would come visit him a lot so you got to know his extended family as well. He concelebrated my first Mass and was part of my priesthood for my first few years.”
Because of his social life, Vashon’s interest in the priesthood began to wane when he was in junior high and Waterville High School, but thoughts of being a priest never left him.
"I was engaged to be married right out high school, much to my mother's chagrin," he said. "We dated throughout college and we broke up amicably. We are still good friends." After receiving an associate's degree from the University of Maine, Vashon began a career in the banking industry. He left Maine in 1981 for a job in Pennsylvania. His next position was in Parsippany, and then in 1990 he went to work for a friend whose office was in Beaver Brook, right across the road from Immaculate Conception.
While working in the banking field, Vashon said every once in a while he would think of the priesthood. Then start to ask himself, ‘Am I too old now? It is too late?’
“I started talking to then-Father Andy (Msgr. Andrew I. Szarlota). I was a little nervous. He said, ‘you should start applying to seminaries.’ After about a year of meeting with him I thought, ‘If I don’t do it now I will always regret at least not trying and see if this is for me.’
“The hard part was how do you leave a job and do that? But that is what we have to trust with God. Thankfully, I was given the grace to do this.”
Vashon enrolled in Holy Apostles College and Seminary, Cromwell, Conn. where he received a bachelor’s degree. He completed his seminary training at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary, Weston, Mass., where he earned a Master’s of Divinity degree.
He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Vincent De Paul Breen at the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi, Metuchen, May 27, 2000. His first assignments were as parochial vicar of St. Joseph Parish, Bound Brook, and St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Old Bridge.
In January 2005 Bishop Bootkoski appointed Vashon as director of the diocesan Office of Vocations. Prior to being assigned to Immaculate Conception Parish in 2009, Vashon served as the director of the St. John Vianney House of Discernment, Hopelawn.
Vashon said he considers each parish assignment a milestone, “one of grace and hard to leave, but I have maintained friendships from each of them.”
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