'Wells Guys' Take Their Vows as New Priests

"I mean, I've never seen so many people so happy," said Shea, who directs the religious education program at Sacred Heart Church in Bowie, where Wells is buried. "The faith in this room is amazing."

The men Wells mentored invariably invoke his zest for life in describing the gregarious man who was jauntily called "Boomer."

He encouraged them to enter the seminary and stick with it. He organized groups to ski out west and play golf. He talked regularly with them on the phone, and "we'd just laugh for five minutes, nonstop, and then hang up," said one of the new priests, Rob Walsh, 36, whose family knew Wells for years.

"We were stuck in traffic once, and suddenly he's laughing at the top of his lungs, nonstop," said another of the new priests, Greg Shaffer, 34. "Then he says, 'I'm just thinking of the party we're going to have after you're ordained, after your first Mass.' "

"If it wasn't for his death, I wouldn't have seen it so clearly," said Andrew Royals, 26, whose family became close to Wells when the priest was at Our Lady of Lourdes. "It was almost like a bugle was going off in my ear. I thought, 'I could try to be one of those guys.' "

Although the men and others who knew Wells say they are grieving, a celebratory air surrounds this weekend because many believe Wells's spirit and the prayer that followed his murder are directly responsible for last week's ordinations.

Shaffer, Royals and Avelino Gonzalez, a 41-year-old Cuban-born naval engineer, were members of Our Lady of Lourdes. Walsh was raised in Sacred Heart in Bowie, another parish Wells had worked in. Another priest, Mike Lavan, 43, also belonged to Our Lady of Lourdes but transferred to the Rockford, Ill., diocese after Wells's death. He was ordained there recently but returned to Bethesda to join the events and celebrate a Mass.

"I believe he has a much greater influence now than he had on Earth," Walsh said Thursday of Wells as the Washington class met for a rehearsal at the shrine. "Father Wells's prayers are doing such good, not just for us, but for this whole group."

Many at Our Lady of Lourdes also credit the ordinations to their method of prayer. Unlike most churches, the parish takes the wafer consecrated at each morning's Mass -- which Catholics believe is the body of Christ -- and puts it on display all day, every day, in a side chapel.

It was Wells's handling of the Eucharist -- the wafer and wine used in Communion -- that parishioners and the new priests say so vividly represented his faith.

"When he lifted it up, his eyes were clearly focused on it, in what appeared to be deep prayer, and that was very moving. And he did that Mass in and Mass out. He held that, and he prayed," Cecilia Royals, Andrew's mother, said. Grieving for Wells, she said it would take 10 men to replace such a priest.

Years ago, Wells and some of his guys talked about taking a golf trip to Ireland to celebrate if they became priests. Next month, on the anniversary of Wells's death, a group of them will do just that: golf, and celebrate Mass.

Staff writer Caryle Murphy contributed to this report.