Adorno Father Teodoro Kalaw was recently appointed as the 60th superior general for the Adorno Fathers, a high honor for the priest who served for several years with the order in South Carolina.
The appointment came on July 11 at the order’s general chapter meeting in Rome.
As superior general, Father Ted will be based in Rome. His term is for six years.
“I was chosen by the Spirit of the Lord to guide our Order,” Father Ted wrote in a letter to his fellow Adornos. “I have no words to utter but the words of Mary, ‘Fiat Voluntas Tua.’ (Thy will be done). The day I was elected was the feast day of St. Benedict the Abbot, the master of contemplative and monastic life. I am certain that this is the work of the spirit … I sometimes tremble with the responsibility that lays before me … I know that I am gifted with a great family like you, who will support, welcome and willingly help get things done according to our charism and rule of life as rooted in the Gospel.”
Father Ted first came to the Diocese of Charleston in 2010, when he was assigned to Jesus Our Risen Savior Church in Spartanburg as parochial vicar. He worked in several ministries in the Upstate, including campus ministry, which included work as a chaplain for Wofford College, Converse College and the University of South Carolina-Upstate.
While still in Spartanburg in 2012, he was appointed Superior of the USA-Philippine Delegation, which he held for six years. Father Ted bid farewell in July 2015, when he was appointed pastor of the church where he was ordained.
Father Ted was born in Lipa City, Philippines, and is one of six children of Francisco and Belen Kalaw. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in secondary education from De La Salle University in Lipa City before entering the Adorno Fathers’ House of Formation in Ramsey, N.J., in 1999. He received a masters of divinity in pastoral theology from Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University.
He professed solemn vows with the order on June 4, 2005, and was ordained a priest by auxiliary Bishop John W. Fleesey, of Newark, in 2005 at St. Joseph Church in Lodi, N.J.
Father Ted was assigned to the Adorno Fathers’ Formation House in Ramsey from 2005-2007, and then served as vocations director and prefect of discipline at the Adorno Fathers Seminary in Vinzons, Camarines Norte in the Philippines from 2007 until 2009.
While serving in the parish of his ordination in 2017, he became superior and rector of the Adorno House of Formation in Ramsey.
The Adorno Fathers, also known as the Clerics Regular Minor, serve the Diocese of Charleston in Sumter, Spartanburg and the Charleston area.
To read more about Father Ted’s appointment and selections from the homily he delivered to his fellow Adornos, visit www.adornofathers.org.
Photo provided: Father Ted Kalaw is appointed as superior general for the Adorno Fathers.
