8 new priests to be ordained by Cardinal Tobin on May 23
On Saturday, May 23, Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., will ordain eight men as priests for the Archdiocese of Newark. Each of these deacons has experienced a unique journey. Some heard God’s call while participating in major events like World Youth Day, others through their admiration for a parish priest or while in a foreign land doing missionary work. All of them expressed gratitude to God for their vocations and thanked family members, friends, and fellow parishioners for their untiring support.
Here are their stories:
David Andrade
Home parish: Our Lady of Sorrows, Kearny, New Jersey
Deacon David Andrade began studying history at Montclair State University but left before completing his core classes. At the time, he believed that he was not “cut out for studying,” but it was really a matter of motivation and finding the right purpose for his life.
His vocation eventually came to him though his personal experience.
“I was inspired to the priesthood by the example of many priests who have ministered to me and my family over the years,” Deacon Andrade said. He has depended upon the prayers of his friends, family members, and fellow parishioners. “I have received great patience, encouragement, and affection from those closest to me,” he said.
After entering the seminary, he found the focus and motivation that eluded him in his early college career, earning his bachelor’s degree in Catholic theology from Seton Hall University. “Soon, I will earn my master’s degree in divinity from there as well,” he said.
Deacon Andrade said that one moment will especially stay with him from his time as a transitional deacon: visiting the sick with Father Andres Codoner, pastor of Saint Columba Parish in Newark.
“The most memorable moment was being present at a parishioner’s deathbed,” he said. “I saw how Father Andres helped the dying man and the family members who were present to enter into God’s will with hope and joy in the midst of sorrow.”
Asked what message he would like to share with his future parish, Deacon Andrade said that he was “very excited to get to know all of you and grow in holiness together with you.”
Alan de Almeida Barreto
Home parish: Santa Zita e Nossa Senhora do Caminho, São Paulo, Brazil
Deacon Alan de Almeida Barreto was an accounting student for two and a half years before entering the seminary. His original plan was to have a career and settle down in his home country. “I never thought of living outside Brazil or of traveling the world,” he said. “However, God surprised me with a greater plan for my life.”
Initially, he was moved by some of the priests at his parish, especially their “words of wisdom,” and how they gave their lives to their people, along with the joy they demonstrated in their ministry. Through their example, he saw the priesthood as an attractive calling. “They definitely helped me to desire the priesthood,” he said.
“It was through a small Neocatechumenal community” at his parish that he experienced “God’s deep love for me,” however. “It was then that my calling to the priesthood became real,” Deacon Barreto said. “That community was essential for me to hear God’s call, discern it, and persevere in it to this day.”
“My family, parish, and friends have supported me immensely in different ways, mainly through their prayers, but also with words of encouragement, by listening attentively to my struggles, and even financially at times,” he said. He also appreciated that they did not distract him or weigh him down with outside concerns during his formation.
His time as a transitional deacon at Saint Benedict’s Parish in Newark has shown him “how people are eager and thirsting for the Good News,” he said. “I have also come to see how important it is to spend time with the people of God.”
Deacon Barreto’s message to his future parish is simple and direct: “Trust in the Lord! God loves you and He is faithful!”
Jorge H. Diaz, Jr.
Home parishes: Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary & St. Michael’s, Elizabeth, New Jersey and San Agustin Cathedral, Laredo, Texas
Deacon Jorge H. Diaz, Jr. originally aspired to become a cardiologist. “For a long time, I thought that I could do the most good as a doctor, helping people with their heart problems,” he said.
An atheist during much of his teenage years, Deacon Diaz said that his life changed during the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid. While in Spain, he visited Caravaca and its famed cross, which is said to hold a fragment from the True Cross of Christ. “The catechists who were leading the pilgrimage invited all of us to pray and ask Jesus to help us carry our crosses,” he said. Accepting the challenge, “just to prove that nothing would happen,” he prayed. “I have never been so happy to me wrong.”
Following his conversion experience, mission work with the Neocatechumenal Way opened him up to the possibility of entering the priesthood. “When I left college, I spent a whole year in Belize in Central America where I helped with the evangelization there. I was constantly called to give of myself and lead a rich life of prayer. In that situation, I found happiness and meaning.”
Seeking to further discern his vocation, he entered the seminary and experienced a sense of peace. “About four years ago, I realized that I could be immensely happy by living my life through the priesthood,” Deacon Diaz said.
The COVID crisis gave him further insight into the meaning of his vocation. While volunteering with other seminarians at St. Michael’s Hospital in Newark, he volunteered to don protective gear to bring Holy Communion to a priest who was in quarantine. The experience made him recall his earlier desire to practice medicine. “As a cardiologist, I could have saved some lives, but my patients would have died sooner or later,” he said. “I saw that as a priest, however, God could use me not only to save people in this life, but for eternal life.”
Deacon Diaz said that he is excited to meet the members of his future parish. “I ask that you please be patient with me since I will be the new guy,” he said. “I will need a lot of help and am ready to learn a lot from all of you.”
Deacon Konrad Kosiek
Home parish: St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, Linden, New Jersey
Deacon Konrad Kosiek credits his parents and parish priests for inspiring his priestly vocation. “My parents always had a strong reverence for the Catholic faith and for the priesthood,” he said. “From a young age, I always admired the priests of my parish, particularly when I began serving at Mass as an altar boy.”
Fr. Ireneusz Pierzchala, the pastor of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus in Linden, made a special impression on him, Deacon Kosiek said. “The way he celebrated Mass and the countless hours he spent in the confessional made me want to be just like him.” He said that it was Father Pierzchala who encouraged him to explore the call to priesthood that he had felt at an early age but then set aside.
A network of family, parishioners, and friends helped support him through his journey. “Their prayers, encouragement, and honest counsel have sustained me through both the joyful and demanding moments of my formation,” Deacon Kosiek said. He added that his family provided a model of “fidelity and perseverance” for him to follow. “My home parish also reminded me that a vocation is never lived in isolation but grows in a community of faith.”
Close friends have kept him “grounded and human” through laughter and accountability, Deacon Kosiek added.
For the past year, he has served as a transitional deacon at Saint Paul the Apostle Parish in Jersey City. “Proclaiming the Gospel and preaching for the first time as a deacon was a decisive moment for me,” Deacon Kosiek said. “Standing at the ambo, entrusted with the Word of God, made me feel the weight and beauty of that responsibility in a new way.”
“Quiet conversations, whether in pastoral settings, during spiritual direction, or simply walking with someone during a difficult time also deepened my understanding of the profound, unique mystery and gift of the priesthood,” he said.
Asked what message he would like to share with his future parish, Deacon Kosiek said, “My only desire is to help you encounter Jesus Christ,” and that everything he does will “flow from that single aim.”
“Hopefully, despite my imperfections, God can work through my ministry in this way,” he said.
Deacon Michael Oasheim
Home parish: Immaculate Conception, Lafayette, Colorado
Deacon Michael Oasheim studied software engineering in college, then worked for 4 years at an engineering firm with his twin brother, Matthew.
“My dreams were simple: build a successful career, get married, and stay close to my family,” he said. Though he had been raised Catholic, “if you had told me then that one day I would become a priest, I would have laughed and thought you were out of your mind.”
Even so, “a deeper question began to form in my heart,” Deacon Oasheim said. He began to wonder about the purpose of his life. “The more I tried to ignore it, the louder the question grew.”
When he was 18, Deacon Oasheim joined a Neocatechumenal community in his parish in Colorado. Through that experience, which he continued at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Ridgewood, NJ, “I slowly began to discover who I really was and to experience, in a very personal way, God’s love for me.”
The months he spent as a missionary were especially meaningful, he said. “I came face-to-face with how deeply the Church needs priests and catechists who can accompany others and guide them toward an encounter with Jesus Christ. Seeing that need so clearly left a deep impression on me,” Deacon Oasheim said.
While serving at a retreat center in Israel, he said that he witnessed “God touching people’s lives in ways that I never could have imagined.”
Deacon Oasheim expressed his gratitude to his family for raising him in the Catholic faith, for teaching him how to pray, and for helping him to recognize God’s love. He said that his father in particular “taught me to search for answers, to be honest with my questions, and to look for God in the midst of them.”
He said that when he reflects on his journey to the priesthood, he is amazed. “Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine the places He would lead me, or that some of the deepest joys I would experience would come from serving others.”
Deacon Oasheim’s message to his future parish: “I look forward to helping and walking with you on the journey of faith. I ask for your prayers and will be praying for you.”
Deacon Ricardo Padilla
Home parish: St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Hughson, California
Deacon Ricardo Padilla grew up working in his family’s used car business in California.
Those years taught him “responsibility, discipline, and leadership,” he said. After five years of study at California State University, Stanislaus, he was preparing to enter grad school to study physical therapy when he realized he was being called to the priesthood.
Although his family was shocked, he left for Newark, New Jersey, to enter the Redemptoris Mater House of Formation. He said that his vocation was born within his experience of the Neocatechumenal Way, “through my community and through the priests who served as catechists for us.” He expressed his gratitude for the support he received over the years from followers of the movement in California and New Jersey.
According to Deacon Padilla, two priests from his home diocese in California made a deep impression on him. Father Pedro Olmos, “continues to serve faithfully, despite being confined to a wheelchair” after drug cartels twice tried to kill him. Another priest, Father Jairo, was kidnapped by guerilla forces in Colombia “and converted many people in captivity.” He died in 2017.
There was also Siliva Gil, a catechist in the Neocatechumenal Way, who passed away from cancer in 2023. “Amid her trials she showed me what it meant to be Christian and sparked in me the desire to experience the same such joy from God regardless of any suffering,” he said.
“A 2023 pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Neocatechumenal Way, (also) deeply marked my vocation,” Deacon Padilla said.
While visiting Jerusalem’s Western Wall, participating at a Mass inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and traveling to the Church of the Primacy of Saint Peter in Tabgha, he was helped him to see how his own vocation was connected to salvation history. “Originally, my plan had been to remain in California with my family, but God called me out, away from those plans. He invited me on an adventure that has changed my life forever,” he said.
Deacon Padilla expressed gratitude for his family’s support. Although his leaving for New Jersey was painful for them at first, “they never placed obstacles in my path,” he said. “I am certain I would not have persevered in my vocational journey without their prayers.”
“The grace of God is real,” Deacon Padilla says to his future parishioners. “Jesus Christ is the only one who has the power to change a life and give it meaning. I am a witness of His grace.”
Deacon Jose Eduardo Sanchez
Home parishes: El Salvador Catholic Church, San Miguel de Tucuman, Tucuman, Argentina, and Saint Joseph Catholic Church, East Rutherford, New Jersey
Deacon Jose Eduardo Sanchez is the oldest of seven brothers and sisters, all of whom live in Argentina. He was in his third year of studies to become an aeronautical engineer in that country, when he left for the seminary in Newark.
“Up to that moment, I never thought of leaving my small town,” he said. “It was everything to me, and I had everything I wanted near me,” he said.
His vocational journey has been a “miracle from God,” Deacon Sanchez insists. Although he was raised Catholic, “I had not been particularly religious.”
“It was through the Neocatechumenal Way that God kept me in the Church,” he said, saying that the charism had been a great help to him and his family.
Feeling uncertain about his future, he asked God for guidance. Soon after, he was offered a free ticket to World Youth Day in Brazil. “During that pilgrimage, I not only found my calling, but my purpose for me life,” he said. “God showed me that he was not indifferent to my sufferings and that He has always been by me.”
Following the event, Deacon Sanchez began to attend discernment meetings. A year later, he would board a plane for the U.S. “I remember the day when I left for Buenos Aires to depart for Newark as if it was yesterday because it was the very first time I saw my dad cry and my mom comforting him,” he recalled. “That memory has accompanied me in the years since, because I saw the love of God and my parents’ freedom and trust in God in letting me go.”
After completing his first year of theology, Deacon Sanchez was sent on a three-year mission trip to different U.S. locations. “Up to that moment, I still had many doubts about my vocation,” he said, adding that the mission trip helped him overcome his worries. “During those years, I saw how God was victorious over all my fears,” he said. He returned from the trip confident that God was guiding him to the priesthood.
Asked what message he would like to share with his future parish, Deacon Sanchez said, “God is faithful and very near to us.”
Deacon Jose Miguel Serafini-Careaga
Home parish: Medalla Milagrosa, Fernando de la Mora, Paraguay
Deacon Jose Miguel Serafini-Careaga, who comes from a large family, was studying electromechanical engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion in Paraguay when he realized that he might be called to the priesthood.
A catechist of the Neocatechumenal Way, who was speaking about missionary families in China and the need for evangelization, inspired him to think seriously about his vocation. “When I told my dad, he was a bit hesitant and recommended that I first finish my college degree in case the vocation to the priesthood did not work out.”
Deacon Serafini-Careaga then spent a year in discernment guided by a priest. “The next year, when I mentioned my discernment to my dad again, he saw that I had matured and told me, ‘Go, my son. Do not worry about finishing the degree.’”
As for his mother, she had long thought that her son would feel called to the priesthood, but “she never said anything to me because she did not want to influence me.”
Certain moments in his formation have influenced how he understands his vocation, the deacon said. In 2023, for instance, he helped organize a pilgrimage of young people to World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. Though he had prepared extensively for the pilgrimage, once it was underway, events changed how he understood his vocation.
He explained how a flamenco performance in Madrid struck many of those present in a profound way. “Beauty spoke to them in ways that words could not,” he said. The experience taught him that “God is the one who leads the mission,” and that it is Him “doing the calling, changing plans, and touching hearts.”
“This is my vocation: to follow Him,” Deacon Serafini-Careaga said.
His message to his future parish: “I am excited to come to know you. Please pray for me.
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The Rite of Ordination to the Priesthood will be celebrated on Saturday May 23, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. All are welcome to attend. You can also watch the ordination via LIVESTREAM.
Men discerning a call to the priesthood are encouraged to contact the Archdiocese of Newark’s Office of Priestly Vocations, which promotes vocations through prayer, accompaniment and discernment.
Featured image: On May 23, 2026, eight men will be ordained as priests for the Archdiocese of Newark by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R. The ordination will take place at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart. (Photo courtesy of Immaculate Conception Seminary)
