From left to right: Ismael Valenzuela Salazar, Andres Rivera, Michael Arinze Ezeoke and Jorge Téllez will be ordained to the priesthood on May 28 at Sacred Heart, Rancho Cucamonga.
By Fr. Emmanuel Ukaegbu-Onuoha
The time of the year has come to ordain the priesthood candidates who have completed their long and arduous years of seminary formation. As a diocese, we are excited that this year’s priestly Ordination is ready to take its unique place in the history of priesthood ordinations in the Diocese of San Bernardino.
Since the inception of the Diocese of San Bernardino in 1978 there have been a total of 52 priesthood ordinations. Of those ordinations, 42 were for diocesan priests (a total of 84 priests), one diocesan priest was ordained in Mexico, and ten of the ordinations in the Diocese were for religious priests (a total of 11 priests). This means that the 2022 Priesthood Ordination will be the 53rd of its kind in our history.
The Diocese is immensely blessed by these priestly harvests because from them it can boast, to the glory of God, of ordaining a total of 96 priests.
Even though such ordinations are almost an annual event, this year’s Diocesan Priesthood Ordination has something historic and unique about it: among this year’s candidates is one who will be our first Igbo (Ibo) and African born diocesan priest.
On a personal note, the four candidates for ordination – Michael Arịnze Ezeoke, Andres Rivera, Jorge Tellez and Ismael Valenzuela-Salazar – happen to be the first products of my ministry of accompaniment as a teacher and formator of seminarians at St. Junipero Serra House of Formation. It seems like yesterday, the scholastic and formation year of 2015-2016. But the truth is that Serra House is moving forward and fast – Siempre Adelante!
It is indeed gratifying to note that in our society today where excellence is sacrificed for mediocrity, hard work for convenience, merit for favoritism, and discipline for anarchy, there are still some places and institutions where the tradition of excellence, hard work, discipline and efficiency could be, and have been, preserved. The diocesan house of formation and the other seminaries where our seminarians go to finish up their formation for the priesthood shine out as living examples.
What a rewarding moment for the foresight of our Bishop Emeritus, Gerard R. Barnes, and our current Ordinary, Bishop Alberto Rojas, for continuing to steer this ship; what a moment of satisfaction for the people of God who support our seminarians and our seminary; what a sense of achievement for those who labored in the training of these young men; and what a time of thanksgiving to God, whose mercies have brought these about.
But one may ask, why priests? Do we need priests in a society whose problems are rooted in the culture of consumerism and dictatorship of relativism, lack of unity and sense of cohesion, constant political hostility and economic discriminations, prejudices and biases, sexual abuse of minors and adults’ pride that have left many people killed, wounded, displaced and homeless in our world and society? The list goes on.
The response is an unequivocal ‘yes.’ We need priests today more than ever. Life is not only eating and drinking. Though priests may not bake bread, their work is indispensable for good living. They may not be angels, yet the world would be terribly worse off without them.
In our world riddled with fear and despair, we need priests to proclaim the gospel of hope. In a world distracted by over-weaning ambitions, suffocating materialism and unbridled lust for power, we need priests to point the ephemerality of earthly life and the vanity of worldly riches.
In a world where the poor and the weak are strangled under the weight of the strong, we need priests as the voice of the voiceless and the defender of the defenseless. In a world where a few are swimming in affluence and the majority are lacking the necessities, we need priests to decry the yawning injustice and the greed of the few. In a world where men are under the yoke of sin and pathological guilt, we need priests to preach conversion and proclaim God’s mercy. So, a world without priests is a world without hope and life. Spiritual health is an indispensable condition for authentic progress and development.
This explains the reason behind our joy and excitement as we prepare for the Ordination and to celebrate our newly minted 2022 group of priests. We are joyful because we are hopeful that these young men are going to pull together with the Holy Spirit to be the source of spiritual, moral force and energy for joy of the gospel in the new evangelization.
So, as we march on toward the Ordination to the priesthood of deacons Ezeoke, Rivera, Tellez, and Valenzuela-Salazar, we salute their courage in answering God’s call. Despite all difficulties, they have maintained faith and resolve. It is our belief that they will be worthy of the trust reposed in them by the people of God, and the privilege granted by Divine Choice.
We will welcome to the priesthood of Christ, our dear 2022 priests of San Bernardino. “You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of trumpet, and a voice of whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them ... No, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” (Heb. 12:18-19, 22-24)
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news of Peace, Faith, Hope and Love (Is 52:7; Rom 10:15).
Fr. Emmanuel Ukaegbu-Onuoha Ph. D, is the Director of Academic Formation at St. Junipero Serra House of Formation in Grand Terrace.