Priestly Ordinations in Rome (21 May)

On Saturday, May 21st, twenty-four faithful of the Prelature of Opus Dei will receive priestly ordination in Rome. The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. (Rome time) and will be broadcast live on this website.

Filipino Jose Paulo (Cholo) Luistro is one of the 24 new priests of Opus Dei.

05/19/2022

Link to follow the ordinations on May 21st

The ordaining bishop will be Bishop Ricardo Garcia, bishop of the Prelature of Yauyos-Cañete-Huarochiri (Peru). The Prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, will accompany the future priests during the ceremony and will meet with their families and friends afterwards.

The 24 candidates come from Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, United States, Philippines, France, Mexico and Switzerland.

The celebration will begin at 10 a.m. in the Basilica of San Eugenio (Viale delle Belle Arti, 10, Rome), and can be followed live on this website. Commentary will be provided in both Spanish and English.

Among the new priests is José Paulo Luistro from the Philippines. 32 years old, he was born in Manila. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology at the University of the Philippines, after which he taught English in a school in Quezon City. “It was during my first months as a teacher that I decided to join Opus Dei as a Numerary,” José Paulo says, “even though I began considering this possibility soon after entering the University. With my priestly ordination, I will be able to lend my hands to Christ and give Him to others through the Eucharist, in the midst of a world in which so many souls are truly hungering for Him.”

VIDEO: Rev. Jose Paulo Luistro was asked: “Who is Christ for you?”

The architect Jorge Castillo was born in 1978, in Toluca, Mexico. Before pursuing his studies in Rome, he dedicated himself to activities of Christian formation for adolescents and university students in Monterrey. He moved to Seoul, South Korea, to help organize some of these same activities and also worked in the automotive industry on projects for Hyundai and Kia. “My experience in Asia was truly a gift for me, a great cultural and professional discovery. I think that God makes use of very diverse experiences to prepare each of his priests so we may serve Him in the best way possible, wherever God wants.”

Swiss Lorenzo de Vittori, 35 years old, studied theoretical physics at the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich, and later pursued studies of theology in Rome. As a researcher he specialized in the field of general relativity and obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the gravitational waves emitted by the collisions of black holes. For ten years he formed part of the team of directors of the Allenmoos University Residence in Zurich, while teaching mathematics in the University and assisting in educational projects with young people. Reflecting on his future as a priest, he says he hopes “to be able to help people discover the beauty and marvel of God’s forgiveness for us, and the equally divine forgiveness between one another.”

A number of the European priests come from Spain, including the Valencian Marcos Cavestany, who is 33 years old. Before coming to Rome to study theology, he studied architecture in Barcelona and in La Coruña, combining his professional work with running a number of associations for youth and volunteering in the NGO International Cooperation. “I learned a lot in the volunteer activities, both guiding adolescents and assisting the elderly near the end of their life. I see the priesthood as a vocation fully identified with the idea of the service our Lord is asking of us.”

When asked about his future ministry, Marcos says that “now, when the Pope is inviting us to enter more deeply into the meaning of synodality, I ask the Holy Spirit to make us experts in the art of encounter, in order to accompany all our brothers and sisters in the Church, enrich ourselves with their experience, and dedicate a lot of time to listening, especially through spiritual accompaniment and the sacrament of Confession. As the Pope stresses, it should be a listening that involves our whole heart and not only our ears, and that implies first being open to what God is telling us through his Word, through the saints, and through the tradition passed on to us by those who have gone before us on this path of more than two thousand years.”

The new priests also include an American, John Boles, born 31 years ago in Pasadena, California. The second of nine siblings, he studied evolutionary biology in the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He worked in New York City as a research assistant in the area of prosthetic hips and knees. In Rome he studied Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He asks for prayers so that “all of us priests may truly know how to serve, with the same sentiments as Christ. This will only be possible if we rely on the grace of the Sacrament, the help of our Lord, and everyone’s prayers.”

Several of the new priests come from Latin America, including the Ecuatorian Andres Cardenas Matute, 32 years old. After studying journalism, he wrote articles for the media, particularly in the area of culture. “It is a meeting place,” Andres says, “where one seeks God’s presence, even if in a ‘halting way,’ as Saint Paul says. As a priest I am excited to be able to pass on my experience of God’s presence to many people, above all in the Eucharist but also in ordinary life, which is the source of authentic peace. I have discovered this personally in my own life, and I hope to pass it on to many others.”

These are the names of the deacons who will be ordained priests on May 21: