Jim Hale / Catholic Herald
Twelve men were ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, June 7, making it the second-largest ordination class in the diocese’s 51-year history.
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrated the ordination Mass at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington before a congregation of more than 1,000 people, the Arlington Catholic Herald reported. The only year with more ordinations was 1996, when the diocese ordained 13.
The newly ordained priests are Fathers Timothy D. Banach, Emmanuel Carreño García, Joseph D. Connor, Jordan A. Evans, John Fimmuchime, Raymond E. Goins, Andrew T. Lewandowski, Richard M. Malebranche, John M. Meyerhofer, Christian N. Njodzela, Michael C. Sampson, and Alfredo D. Tuesta.
“You will see among them a former construction worker, an engineer, researcher, teacher, attorney, a FOCUS missionary — some are musicians, some are athletes,” Bishop Burbidge said in his homily. “These men, uniquely gifted and chosen by the Lord, are ordained at a very exciting time in the life of the church. They are ordained in this Holy Year, this jubilee year of hope…Dear beloved sons, this is the hope you are called to bring to others.”
The ordination rite included the Promise of the Elect, in which each man affirmed his intention to unite more closely with Christ and to consecrate himself “to God for the salvation of all.”
During the Litany of Saints, they lay prostrate before the altar, a gesture the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops describes as signifying “his unworthiness for the office to be assumed and his dependence upon God and the prayers of the Christian community.”
“It was like dying to oneself,” Fr. Tuesta told the Arlington Catholic Herald. “When you have all the saints interceding for you. When you know you’re becoming a priest, you’re binding the wood of the cross with Jesus. It’s like a death to self.”
Others in the group described their experience as well.
“I’m feeling amazing, ecstatic, words can’t describe,” Fr. Banach said. “It’s been such a long journey but I felt very at peace today.”
Fr. Connor said the most powerful moment came when his former pastor, Monsignor John C. Cregan, vested him.
“That was the most touching and poignant time of the whole rite for myself,” he said.
Fr. Evans described the moment as “a taste of heaven,” while Fr. Sampson noted the significance of their shared journey.
“It was especially good to be there with my brothers who I’ve been walking with for the last six years,” Fr. Sampson said. “To look in their eyes and see them ordained at the same time was a beautiful moment.”
During the Rite of Ordination, Bishop Burbidge asked Father Michael C. Isenberg, the diocese’s vocations director, if the men had been found worthy of the priesthood.
“That was the greatest honor of my time as vocation director to testify that they have been found worthy,” Fr. Isenberg later told Arlington Catholic Herald. “Finishing my time as vocation director with 12 men being ordained to the priesthood is a beautiful gift to the church because it gives us a glimpse of the incredible power of God that is so quietly at work in the hearts of men.”
Fr. Isenberg will become the dean of men at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
