Pope Encourages Boy With Disabilities

Alvaro Calvente is a 15-year-old boy from Spain with mental disabilities.  He is the seventh of ten children and walks in the Neocatechumenal Way.  Absolutely amazing!  A young boy with mental disabilities who is capable of going on a pilgrimage and even becomes an active member in his parish. His story was published in Vatican News:

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Pope encourages boy with disabilities on Camino de Santiago pilgrimage

Pope Francis writes a letter to a young man with disabilities after he completes the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain, praising his courage during the Covid-19 pandemic.

By Devin Watkins

Alvaro Calvente, a 15-year-old with a mental health condition from Malaga, Spain, completed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage last week.

He was accompanied by a family friend and his father, who documented the journey of faith on Twitter (@CaminodeAlvaro).

Alvaro’s bio says he has “capabilities that you can’t even imagine.” He also says his dream is “to meet the Pope.”

Pilgrimage of prayers

Pope Francis went some way to making that dream a reality, with a letter dated 20 July which was published on the Diocese of Malaga’s website.

“Dear Alvaro,” wrote the Pope, “I received a letter from your father in which he told me that you have finished the Camino de Santiago and that, in your backpack, you carried not only your intentions, but also those of the many people who ‘joined you’ on the pilgrimage and asked you for prayers.”

The Holy Father admired the young man’s courage in undertaking the journey during the Covid-19 crisis.

“Thank you for daring to walk and for inviting many others to walk with you,” Pope Francis wrote. “In the midst of the pandemic we are forced to live with, you succeeded – with your sincerity, joy, and cheerfulness – to spark hope in the many people you met along the way or through social media.”

‘We never walk alone’

Pope Francis said Alvaro’s pilgrimage taught others “not to be afraid and to rediscover their joy, because we never walk alone.”

“The Lord,” he added, “always walks beside us. Thank you for your witness and prayers.”

Finally, the Holy Father blessed Alvaro and asked Our Lady of Mount Carmel to watch over him.

“Give my greetings to your parents and brothers and sisters,” concluded Pope Francis. “And please do not forget to pray for me.”

Active parish member

According to the Diocese of Malaga, Alvaro Calvente is the seventh of ten children, and belongs to the Neocatechumenal Way of St. Patrick’s Parish.

“His intellectual disability is not an impediment to participating actively in parish life, and his joyful experience of faith is a witness to all who know him,” wrote the Diocese.

Along with the pilgrimage, Alvaro also started a crowdfunding campaign to support the poor through the Cottolengo de Malaga charity.

Newark Archdiocese Ordains 10 Priests

The year 2020 will always be remembered as the year starting with the pandemic of the corona virus and then the massive protests resulting from the George Floyd murder. The priests today are faced with many new challenges. The following article can be found here.
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When Cardinal Joseph Tobin ordained 10 new priests during an hours long ceremony inside the Cathedral Basilica of Sacred Heart in Newark, the room filled with cheers.

The men, who will be dispersed to churches throughout the Archdiocese of Newark, range from locals born in Bergen County to men who have found their way to the Garden State from as far as way as Guam or Colombia.

The annual ceremony, which this year fell on Father's Day, was held on the first weekend when local churches within the state's largest Catholic archdiocese were given the green light to celebrate Sunday Mass at limited capacity, as restrictions set in place to curb the spread of COVID-19 are slowly lifted.

"Someone observed recently that the future is not what it used to be," Tobin told the small group of churchgoers on Sunday. "Together with the whole society over the last months, every sector of our church has had to respond to unforeseen challenges — even as restrictions begin to ease. And we thank God that today, this weekend for the first time, our people in limited numbers can gather." 

The new priests were ordained in a small ceremony that was also livestreamed on YouTube by hundreds of viewers from across the globe, in what has become a new norm for religious gatherings. In 2019, when Tobin ordained six priests into service, a large crowd filled the pews of the Newark cathedral.

“This is an uplifting moment for the archdiocese," Father Eugenio de la Rama, director of the archdiocese's priestly vocations, said in a statement. "In the face of civil unrest and uncertainty surrounding the global health pandemic, the ministerial priesthood is an opportunity to be a strong tower of hope that can pave the way for Jesus to heal and unite. It’s heartwarming to see these young men want to become priests.” 

The newly ordained priests range from 26 to 61 years old, and each traversed a unique path toward priesthood, according to biographies in The Catholic Advocate. The new priests are: Diego Arce Aricapa, Kamil Jacek Belling, John Paul Ginty, Drazen Hosi, Edmond Philip Ilg, Jae H. Joo, Anthony Joseph Palombo, Preston Daniel Peredo Perez, Darren Matthew Santo Tomas and Nicholas Charles Sertich.

The youngest of the class, Sertich, 26, was born in Englewood. His home parish is in Cliffside Park. After studying at Seton Hall, he continued his spiritual journey in Rome, before returning to Bergen County. 

Santo Tomas, 32, whose parish is in Bergenfield, was born in Guam, where at 19 he worked at a restaurant. In 2018, he joined the Redemptoris Mater Seminary before relocating to Kearny. Peredo Perez, 32 and born in California, was also raised in Guam, before entering the seminary in 2006.

Born in Brooklyn, Palombo, 34, said he has wanted to become a priest since he was a child. However, his faith was shaken when his father, a firefighter, died on Sept. 11. Palombo credits a trip to Israel with restoring his faith. The challenges continued after he entered the seminary, when his mother succumbed to cancer in 2013. "Only in the church have I found a relevant answer to my sufferings, and I want to minister to those who are suffering,” Palombo told The Catholic Advocate

A Bronx native, Ginty, 55, is a former nuclear engineer with the United States Navy as well as an auditor, a financial analyst and a Rutgers Law School graduate. His home parish is in Ridgewood. 

Ilg, 61, is also a New York native and a former chemical engineer. He shifted to the priesthood after the death of his wife in 2011, following his son's footsteps. 

A chunk of the priests in this year's class are foreign-born. Joo, 28, whose home parish is in Saddle Brook, hails from South Korea. Hosi, 44, was born in Croatia. Belling, 37, with a home parish in Linden, is originally from Poland. Arce Aricapa, 38, was born in Colombia, and his parish is in Jersey City.

"We welcome all of you to the ordination of our 10 brothers to the priesthood," Tobin said to those following virtually. "We welcome especially all the members of their families that cannot join with us today physically because of the restraints from COVID-19."

The ordination of these new priests — four more than last year — comes at a time when the Catholic Church is struggling with a priest shortage that has left many New Jersey churches without a full-time pastor. The archdioceses of Newark and New York have about half as many diocesan priests as they did during the heyday of the 1960s and 1970s.