Archdiocese’s newest transitional deacon to be ordained on May 17
The Archdiocese of Newark will soon have a new transitional deacon. On Sunday, May 17, Josue Daniel Betancourt will be ordained by Auxiliary Bishop Manuel A. Cruz at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ.
Betancourt told Jersey Catholic that a 2013 trip to World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was “essential” to the discernment of his vocation.
“For some reason, something was telling me that the pilgrimage would change my life in a way that I had never expected,” he said. “While attending a vigil of Pope Francis with youth, I had an experience that I will never forget. My sister and I went to look for a place where the pope would be passing by, and, to my surprise, he passed right in front of us. I looked at my sister and couldn’t stop crying because I truly felt that God was present through Pope Francis.”
Betancourt said he then prayed to God “to be open to whatever he wanted for me.”
“I felt God call me to the priesthood and I said ‘Yes!’ to him,” he recalled. “I was willing to go anywhere in the world because I had experienced God’s love for me. I realized I was not alone in my sufferings and struggles.”
The influence of his parents and the saints
According to Betancourt, his parents were also “crucial to my discernment to the priesthood,” as well as to the Neocatechumenal Way, the Catholic movement to which he belongs. “Through this charism, my parents transmitted the faith to my brother and sisters and me,” he said.
Many saints have also had an influence on his life, especially La Divina Pastora (The Holy Shepherdess). The devotion can be traced back to the 18th century, when a Capuchin friar saw a vision of the Virgin Mary dressed in the traditional clothing of a shepherdess, and holding a shepherd’s crook. The vision was painted and later translated into a sculpture, which is carried in procession every January 14, attracting millions of pilgrims to city of Barquisimeto in Venezuela. His home parish, Espíritu Santo, is located there.
“When I was a child, my parents used to bring me to the procession,” Betancourt said. “That was the first time in my life that I thought about the priesthood.”
Betancourt also points to St. John Vianney as inspiring his vocation due to “his difficulties with studies, his presence to his people, and his fights against the devil.” The life of St. Joseph of Cupertino and “how he became a priest despite his difficulties” also proved influential.
He added that Padre Pio has also accompanied him in his struggles, as has St. Rita of Cascia, patroness of the parish in the Bronx that became his second spiritual home. “I am a witness to her miracles in my life,” Betancourt said.
The Diaconate Ordination will be celebrated at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Sunday, May 17 at noon. You can follow the liturgy on livestream HERE.
Featured image: Josue Daniel Betancourt in the Chapel of Immaculate Conception Seminary. (Photo by Samantha Cappuccino / Archdiocese of Newark)
