March 15, 2023 / 9:04 p.m.
This 2023 the congregation of the Legionaries of Christ will give 32 new priests to the service of the Church: 29 of them will be ordained in Rome on April 29, by Cardinal Fernando Vérguez, president of the Governorate of the State of Vatican City, in the Papal Basilica of Santa María la Mayor.
The other three will receive priestly ordination at different times of the year.
The new priests of the Legionaries of Christ come from Germany, Colombia, Chile, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, El Salvador, Spain, the United States, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela.
The broadcast of the ordination in Rome, on April 29, can be viewed live on the congregation’s website at 10:00 am (local time).
In dialogue with ACI Prensa, Miguel Esponda Sada, a seminarian of the Legionaries of Christ who will be ordained a priest this year, said that “to be a priest is to be a sign and living presence of Jesus Christ among men, makes the world see the incarnate love of God ”.
A priest, he continued, is “taken from among men, he is chosen and consecrated to be a mediator and a bridge between God the Father and men.”
“He knows well and makes the pains and hopes of men his own; he knows well and makes the heart of God his own, ”said Esponda.
In a testimony collected on the Legionaries of Christ website, Pablo Lorenzo-Penalva, another of the seminarians who will receive priestly ordination this year, asked Catholics to say “a Hail Mary for all priests, especially for those who we are going to be ordered, so that we never forget that the most effective way to reach Jesus is through His Mother Mary”.
The seminarian Carlos Javier Ruiz, for his part, highlighted: “My life was planned since I was little. But how great is God who saves us even from our plans. When He calls, if we answer, nothing is ever the same.”