The Legionaries of Christ will ordain 29 new priests on Saturday, April 29. The ceremony of the priestly ordinations will be held at 10:00 am in Saint Mary Major’s Basilica, one of the four Major Basilicas of Rome. The ordaining Bishop will be Cardinal Fernando Vérgez, LC, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State and Member of Pope Francis’ Council of Cardinals.
In this ordination ceremony a pair of Mexican bothers will receive the priesthood, Alan and Aaron Ríos: the former will carry out his ministry in Italy and the latter in Argentina, both with adolescents and young people. Two other new priests have an older brother who is also a priest in the same Congregation: Chilean Andrés Poblete, LC, who is a brother of Father José Pablo Poblete, LC. American Matthew Bender, LC, is in the same situation, who is a brother of Father John Bender, LC.
In this generation of candidates for the priesthood, almost half began their journey in one of the Minor Seminaries of the Legion of Christ (48.2%): 14 of the new priests come from Vocational Centers of the Legionaries of Christ and 15 entered the noviciate directly at the end of their pre-University studies or even already with a career.
The youngest to be ordained is Brazilian Flavio Lopes, LC, 29, although there are three others of the same age: José Eduardo Gorocica, Thomas White and César Gálvez. The oldest of those to be ordained is Spaniard Manuel Frutos, LC, 45. The average age of the candidates to the priesthood is 32.
The future priests come from the following countries:
Chile: 1
Colombia: 1
South Korea: 1
Canada: 1
El Salvador: 1
Germany: 2
Spain: 2
Italy: 2
Venezuela: 2
United States: 3
Brazil: 5
Mexico: 11
The Legionaries of Christ have made available a Website with special data on this ceremony and the persons involved. It also includes the testimonies of some of those that will be ordained. It can be seen at this link:
https://ordenacionessacerdotales.legionariosdecristo.org/2023/.
The ceremony of ordinations will be broadcast live on their YouTube channel: link. During 2023 the Legionaries of Christ will ordain a total of 32 priests. One of them, Ricardo Patah, LC, was ordained in São Paulo, Brazil, on Saturday, April 22.
