On May 15, the Diocesan Office of Vocations announced that 14 men have been accepted as seminarian candidates for the diocese. These 14 men will now participate in a year-long propaedeutic (the Greek word for preparatory) stage at Emmaus House of Formation at Assumption Seminary in San Antonio, TX. The 14 men are: Joshua Ramirez, The Holy Name of Jesus, Redlands; Angel Silva, Holy Family, Hesperia; Rudy Miranda, St. George, Fontana; Thinh Duc Nguyen, St. Adelaide, Highland; Felipe Pascual, Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, Riverside; Steven Portoles, Sa-cred Heart, Palm Desert; Leonard Borja, St. Frances of Rome, Wildomar; Gabriel Convento, Sacred Heart, Rancho Cucamonga; Dean Derrington, St. Andrew Newman Center, River-side; Tristan Luciano, St. Paul the Apostle, Chino Hills; Richard Pyune, Holy Innocents, Vic-torville; Christian Ramos, Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine, Riverside; Oscar Madrid, St. Frances of Rome, Wildomar; and Kevin Maradiaga, St. Louis, Cathedral City.
In 2023, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) implemented a new change to the Program for Priestly Formation whereby men who wish to enter the seminari-an program need to spend their first year as “candidates.” In the propaedeutic stage, they live together in an environment of fellowship and discernment before formal admission to seminary. In the previous classes since this new implementation there were eight candi-dates in 2023, four candidates in 2024 and ten candidates in 2025 who entered St. Junipero Sera House of Formation in Grand Terrace following their propaedeutic year.