Fr. Anthony Burchat

diocesan priest

Anthony grew up in Tramore, ON. He belongs to St. Casimir’s Parish in Round Lake Centre, but he went to St. Andrew’s School, Killaloe. He is a graduate of Bishop Smith Catholic High School. After high school he studied at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy, Barry’s Bay and Redeemer University College, Ancaster, ON.  Anthony also spent a year in the Madonna House pre-seminary formation program.  Between finishing his degree and entering the seminary, Anthony spent time doing carpentry, logging, and a summer in Alberta.  After finishing his studies at St. Augustine’s Seminary, Scarborough, Fr. Anthony was ordained a priest on June 24, 2017.

Vocation Story

I have always had a difficult time coming up with a vocation story.  Mostly this is because vocation stories seem to involve unlikely and sometimes dramatic coincidences - for myself anything dramatic was purely internal.  Like many guys I can’t really say there was one specific moment where I knew that God wanted me to be a priest. It was mostly a growing awareness.  That being said, spending my early university years at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom Academy in Barry’s Bay had a lot to do with it.  I went to the Academy as a sort of preparation for University.  I was planning on going to law school eventually and I knew that the Academy had a philosophy program so I figured that doing a year of extra studies wouldn’t hurt.  Basically what happened was that I fell in love with the place.  Both the community and the studies were excellent.  I was especially affected by coming in contact with a rational articulation of the Catholic Faith.  I had never doubted the truth of Catholicism, but I found that I had a real thirst to critically understand the things which I believed.  Within a few months of being there I had some sense that God might be calling me to be a priest.  At first the call was not strong and it was easy to ignore.  As the years went by the sense that God was calling me to be a priest became progressively stronger and also more difficult to ignore.  I ended up spending a year at Madonna House, I finished my philosophy degree and I worked for a couple years.  By that point I was in my mid-twenties and I was ready to join the diocese.  I still did not have any sort of iron-clad sign from God, but the sense that I must be a priest was so strong and so consistent through the years that any doubts I may have had naturally disappeared.