Be witnesses of Christ, Cardinal Tobin tells new priests (Photos)
“Stay close to Jesus and let your hearts be shaped by his compassion,” Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, advised the eight men he ordained as priests on May 23.
Deacons Alan de Almeida Barreto, David Fernando Andrade, Jorge Humberto Diaz, Jr., Konrad Kosiek, Michael Anthony Oasheim, Ricardo Padilla, José Eduardo Sánchez, and José Miguel Serafini Careaga listened intently as the cardinal addressed them on what he called “a day of deep gratitude, and unfeigned joy for the Church.”
They were joined by hundreds of family members, friends, and members of the faithful who filled Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart for the presbyteral ordination. Newark’s auxiliary bishops and numerous clergy joined Cardinal Tobin at the altar for the sacred ceremony.
Imitating the Good Shepherd
In his homily, Cardinal Tobin told the ordinandi, whom he addressed as “my sons,” that the vocation to the priesthood is “not a competition or performance, it is a relationship.”
“What matters most is not whether your path looks like someone else’s,” he said, “but whether you are following Jesus with trust and fidelity.”
He told the men that a priest was a witness before all else.
“People will not come to you looking for perfection,” he said. “They come hoping to encounter something of the patience, mercy, and kindness of Jesus Christ. However eloquent you will be, what they hope to recognize in your words and in the testimony of your life, are the words and the example of the Good Shepherd.”
The new priests should center their lives in prayer, the Eucharist, and in an awareness of their own need for forgiveness, Cardinal Tobin said, and they should “stay close to the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the forgotten.”
He also asked the people of the archdiocese to love and pray for the eight men, and to “please help them to be the priests the Lord is calling them to be.”
“A priest is never ordained for himself and never lives for himself,” Cardinal Tobin said. “He lives for the people that God has called him to serve; and in loving them, he loves the One who calls him.”
Asking God to ‘draw near’
After the homily, the men promised to faithfully preach the Gospel, teach the faith, faithfully celebrate the sacraments, remain celibate, pray unceasingly, imitate Jesus, and obey their bishop. They then prostrated themselves before the altar as those present prayed for them.
Cardinal Tobin then laid his hands upon their heads and invoked the Holy Spirit, and the other bishops and priests came forward and did the same.
During the Prayer of Ordination, the cardinal then asked that God “draw near” and grant to the men “the dignity of the Priesthood.” The newly ordained were vested with their priestly stoles and chasubles, and their hands were anointed by the cardinal with holy Chrism.
After family members came forward with gifts of bread and wine, and each of the new priests received the paten and chalice from Cardinal Tobin with these words:
Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him. Know what you are doing and imitate the mystery you celebrate; model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s cross.
Following the liturgy, long lines of the faithful waited patiently to receive blessings from the newly ordained priests.
CLICK HERE to view more photos from the Archdiocese of Newark’s presbyteral ordination.
View a video of the 2026 presbyteral ordination below:
Featured image: Eight men were ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Newark by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., on May 23 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ. (Photos by Julio Eduardo Herrera / Archdiocese of Newark)
