Q&A with the five new priests – Class of 2022
From Panama to Englewood, the five men to be ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Newark have traveled diverse paths. They share a similar calling, however, and on May 28, 2022, they will be ordained by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., in the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
This year’s class features a physics professor, a scholar-athlete, a youth minister, and a Starbucks barista. The ordinandi describe their vocation and transformational journeys to the priesthood.
To learn more about the call to the priesthood, visit the Office of Priestly Vocations of the Archdiocese of Newark.
Roberto Julio Moreno Andrión
Roberto Julio Moreno Andrión is 37. He was born and raised in Torrijos Carter, Panama. He earned a B.A. in Physics from the Universidad de Panama, and later M.A., and M.Div degrees from Seton Hall University. Before entering seminary in 2013, Father Andrión was a high school and university physics teacher for six years and spent a year doing research work. Father Andrión’s home parishes are Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary and St. Michael’s Church, in Elizabeth, N.J., and Cristo Hijo de Dios, in Samaria, Panama. He served as a transitional deacon at St. Benedict and St. Aloysius parishes, in Newark, N.J. Father Andrión will celebrate his first Mass at St. Benedict Church, in Newark, N.J., on May 29 at 11 a.m.
Despite these challenging times, why do you still want to be a priest?
I want to be a priest to help others to discover the love of Jesus and that God is their father. I grew up in a dangerous area in Panama, my family transmitted to me by their example the good values of honesty, hard work, studies, etc., but we seldom went to Church. I did not know the meaning of being a Christian, and I did not know that God was my father. I went through a difficult time during my superior studies when new ideas combined with some difficult events in my life made me doubt God. I dedicated myself to making money and trying to make myself happy, but it was never enough. There was always something missing.
The book of Sirach says, “faithful friends are a sturdy shelter; whoever finds one finds a treasure” (Sirach 6:14). I found one. He and his family brought me back to Church through the Neocatechumenal communities, where I experienced the love God has for me even when I was a sinner. This love changed my life, and I began to have the desire to share this good news with others: that God exists, and that he loves us so much that we cannot even imagine it. I want to be a priest to share this love that I have experienced with the thousands of people out there that are in the same situation I was, not knowing really what it means to be a Christian, not knowing that they have a Father in heaven, not knowing that they are a beloved son and daughter of God.
What was the moment/event that confirmed your decision to enter the seminary?
When I started to think that maybe God was calling me to the priesthood, I was very afraid. The priesthood was never part of the plans I had for my life. My plan was to get married one day, have a nice house, a nice family, etc. I wrestled with God for many years. I put a lot of work into becoming a successful physicist, and a lot of effort into my relationships. It was not easy for me to give up all of that.
Little by little, I began to realize that when I did my will, I was not really happy, but doing His will gave me much more peace and lasting happiness. I realized that it was better to do his will instead of forcing him to do mine. To enter the seminary has been the best decision of my life. I was still very afraid, but during a pilgrimage to Spain for the World Youth Day of Madrid 2011, we visited the sanctuary of the martyrs of Barbastro. I prayed in front of the bones of these young martyrs. I asked them to give me the courage and strength to follow the path God was opening for me. I know they have been helping me since that day. When I finally joined the seminary, I said to myself that I would try it for three months, and if I did not like it, I would go back to Panama. Nine years after, I am still here.
Matthew Gonzalez
Matthew Gonzalez is 28. He was born in Englewood Hospital and grew up in New Milford, N.J. He earned a B.A. in Catholic Theology from Seton Hall University, an M.Div. (Master of Divinity), and an M.A. in Systematic Theology from Seton Hall University. Father Gonzalez entered seminary in 2015. His home parish is St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield, N.J. He served as a transitional deacon at St. Bartholomew the Apostle in Scotch Plains, N.J. Father Gonzalez will celebrate his first Mass at St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield, N.J., on May 29 at 3 p.m.
Despite these challenging times, why do you still want to be a priest?
God sent His only Son into the world as light and as salvation (John 3:16). As priests, we are sharers in Christ’s own mission to enter into challenging times, offering the light of truth, the freedom of salvation, and the fullness of life which is found in God alone.
As an instrument of Jesus Christ, my desire is not to ignore or retreat from the darkness, but to receive the love of the Father and bring that love and healing to those who are lost. Though our present age is full of moral and societal difficulties, which will take Christ’s own courage to face, I still want to be a priest so that people may come into friendship with the One who made them, calls them, and offers them eternal life. As I say “yes” to receive the priesthood of Jesus Christ, I put my hope in God, who will grant me every grace necessary to be a mediator and shepherd for His people.
What was the moment/event that confirmed your decision to enter the seminary?
There was not a singular moment that confirmed my decision to enter the seminary. Rather it was the continual encounters with the person of Jesus Christ and acts of service that eventually directed me to seminary formation.
I first experienced a palpable call to the priesthood when I was eight years old in St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Oradell. While the thoughts of priesthood did not remain as prominent as I continued through elementary school, they reemerged while in high school. During this time, I began to serve as a youth minister at St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield.
My love for God and His Church began to grow as I ministered to youth through music ministry, giving talks, and leading retreats. Inflamed with love for the Gospel and leading others to Christ, thoughts of my vocation to the priesthood resurfaced with a newfound ardor and conviction. Reaching a point in college in which I longed for a sense of fulfillment and direction, I knew I needed to respond to God’s call and enter the seminary.
After seven years of seminary formation, maturing in self-knowledge, virtue, and love for God’s people, I am convinced that this is exactly what God has made and called me to do. It is only through His grace that I have been able to persevere and receive the gift of the priesthood.
David Hinojosa
David Hinojosa is 29. He was born in Garden Grove, Calif., and grew up in Santa Ana, Calif. He earned a B.A. in Catholic Theology from Seton Hall University, an M.Div. (Master of Divinity), and an M.A. in Systematic Theology from Seton Hall University. Father Hinojosa entered the seminary in 2012. His home parish is Sacred Heart in Lyndhurst, N.J., and he served as a transitional deacon at Saint Peter’s Church in Belleville, N.J. He will celebrate his first Mass at Saint Peter’s, in Belleville, N.J., on May 29, at 11:30 a.m.
Despite these challenging times, why do you still want to be a priest?
My call to the priesthood is not dependent on the level of difficulty or easiness of the times but, rather, on Christ. The life of Christ was full of challenges from the moment he was conceived in the Virgin Mary up until he breathed his last on the Cross. I think the question that should be answered is, why didn’t Jesus alleviate the challenges of his life but rather willingly enter into his Passion and Death, the greatest challenge of all? Well, precisely to demonstrate that death has been overcome, the greatest challenge of all has been overcome! This is the greatest news anyone can receive.
“Life’s challenges” do not cease because, as it is implied in the description, they are challenges that simply come with living life. But to live in total freedom from fear, anxiety, depression, and despair—all of which I have suffered in my life—now, that is good news. That is precisely what I have been called to announce, the gospel, the good news: Christ has destroyed death. The sacramental life of a priest draws people to live this event in their lives at the very moment they receive the sacraments. The evangelization that the priest participates in is bringing people into a relationship with the risen Jesus. I have met this risen Jesus, and He has called me to imitate Him, and in the process, I have found a joy that goes beyond circumstantial challenges, a glimpse of eternal life.
Describe a meaningful encounter/assignment that convinced you of your priestly vocation.
I did two years of missionary work on a team with a young couple from Houston who had five children. It was in spending much time with this family that I saw the nitty-gritty of parenting and the married life. There was no real ah-ha moment, but I just know that during those two years, God confirmed my vocation to the priesthood. The more I saw this young couple give their lives for each other, their children, and the evangelization, the more I understood that to do all that they did, they needed a special calling from God, a calling that I had not received. I returned to the seminary after that period of mission with a clear understanding that I did have a call from the Lord, and it was not to marriage but to the priesthood. Then I understood that I was called to be a priest precisely for the sake of the families that make up the Church, to be a support for them, to bring the sacraments to them, to encourage them, etc. I understood in a deep way the beauty of the word “vocation;” that it really is a call from God, a call to live out one’s baptism in a way that God has planned for each of us from the moment we are conceived.
Peter Jacob Volz
Peter Jacob Volz is 30 and was born in Orange County, Calif. He has a B.A., M.A., and an M.Div. Before entering the seminary in 2012, he was a barista at Starbucks for two years. Father Volz’s home parish is St. Barbara’s in Santa Ana, Calif., And he served as a transitional deacon at Church of the Nativity in Midland Park, N.J. He will celebrate his first Mass at Church of the Nativity on May 29 at noon.
Despite these challenging times, why do you still want to be a priest?
I think that these challenging times have helped to confirm my vocation even more. I have been in the Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary since 2012, and when the Covid-19 Pandemic began, I was doing a year of missionary work in the D.C. area. While the Church, and indeed the world, was locking down, I was able to see the need for priests and for the Good News of Jesus Christ in a new way. The parish I was staying in at the time was the only parish to not shut down its food pantry, and we were able to provide food not only to the poor but to people from all walks of life when the supermarkets were empty.
During the lockdown, I was impressed by how many people came to the Church to look for answers and, unfortunately, found the Church closed. So many people were without hope, and I saw clearly the need to announce the Good News that Christ has conquered death. I was jealous of many priests I knew who were paying clandestine visits to families to celebrate the Holy Mass for them, and I was happy that I was able to participate in a way by bringing communion to many families during the lockdowns. This new challenge pushed me to announce the Gospel in a new way. I think that the challenges are growing, but I was consoled during the pandemic to see that even though the Church buildings were closed, the Church, which is the people of God, was very much open and very alive.
What was the moment/event that confirmed your decision to enter the seminary?
I first felt the call when I was very young, around 7 or 8 years old, and even though my parents encouraged me, the pull of the world turned out to be stronger, and as a teenager, I all but forgot about the call to the priesthood. When I was 20 years old, I was going to community college and working at a coffee shop, but I felt like my life had no direction and that I was just stuck doing the same things every day. I wanted to shake things up a little bit, and God opened the way for me to go help a missionary team of the Neocatechumenal Way, and I was sent to a team of catechists helping the evangelization in Utah and New Mexico. Those six months were fundamental in my decision to enter the seminary. There were three of us on the team of catechists and we had no income or means of any kind at all; living completely on the providence of God and seeing how He provided food, a place to say, a car, and anything else we needed gave me a freedom that I had never experienced in my life. I was on an adventure with no security, spending all my time in evangelization and witnessing the Holy Spirit changing people’s lives as we spoke to them. It was at that time that I felt the call to the priesthood again, missionary priesthood. In 2012 the initiator of the Neocatechumenal Way, Kiko Argüello, came to Chicago for a meeting with youth, and he made a call for young men who felt called to the priesthood. I stood up there in Chicago and was sent by lottery to the Missionary Seminary of Newark.
Ashton Ignacio Francisco Wong
Ashton Ignacio Francisco Wong is 30 and was born in Guam. He attended Pontifical Lateran University, where he earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (B.S.T.). Before entering the seminary in 2009, Father Wong worked in building maintenance and landscaping for four years. His home parish is Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica in Hagatna, Guam. He served as a transitional deacon at St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield, N.J. He will celebrate his first Mass at St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield on Sunday, May 29, at 10:30 a.m.
Despite these challenging times, why do you still want to be a priest?
Why? Because that’s what God is calling me to! I know that if it’s God’s will, I’ll be happy. I’ve spent my entire life doing my will, and the fruit of doing my will has always been misery. However, the times that I’ve done the will of God, I’ve been fulfilled. So, on a personal level, there’s the fact that I’ll be happier doing God’s will rather than my own.
Also, I am very similar to the people of this generation: We are all trying to live our best lives based on what we know. However, there are many people who don’t have all the facts! Many people are living and making choices without knowing that God loves them and has a marvelous plan for their lives! Someone announced this to my family; they announced that we didn’t have to live only for this world, only for the weekend, only for the next paycheck…we could live for something more because God loves us!
This announcement changed my family; it changed me. I am not better or holier than anyone; rather, God had pity on me and pulled me out of living a meaningless bachelor life. There are many people today who don’t know what I know, who don’t know that God loves them. God is calling me to the priesthood because this is the best way that I can bring this announcement to this generation.
What was the moment/event that confirmed your decision to enter the seminary?
The moment that confirmed my vocation was two years after entering the seminary. In 2011, fruit of my experience in the Neocatechumenal Way, I asked my parents for forgiveness for the horrible way I treated them throughout my high school years; for my violence, for the times I made them cry, for the times I humiliated them because I thought they were doing a terrible job and because I resented our poverty. Their response to all my violence? They forgave me.
That year, I experienced the concrete intervention of God in my life: He gave me a new relationship with my parents and enlightened the events that I thought were “mistakes.” The result of healing my wounds and enlightening my life? They opened my heart to really accepting the call of the Lord to the priesthood (even though I had already been in the seminary for two years).
To clarify: there wasn’t a moment that confirmed my decision to enter the seminary, but there were a series of events, a narrative where God patiently allowed me to be wrong until he showed me how “right” His plan was for my life. There was a lot of attention and follow-through dedicated to my faith journey. This dedication came from my catechists, my community, and the missionary priests and seminarians who sought me out when I wanted to have nothing to do with the Church. This experience was the fruit of being in the Neocatechumenal Way.
Describe a meaningful encounter/assignment that convinced you of your priestly vocation.
On Dec. 27, 2014, my father died. We spent that Christmas in the hospital at his bedside. The people that stayed with my family that day were from the Church; they were the brothers and sisters from my family’s community. Many families, priests, seminarians, and even the archbishop visited us in the hospital, effectively canceling their Christmas plans and parties to be with us. These were the people I dedicated the least amount of time and attention to, and yet they were there for us.
At the funeral, the cathedral was packed with people from the communities. I was an extremely successful scholar-athlete, with frequent appearances in the local paper and news broadcasts on TV and local magazines. I was very popular. My younger sister was even more popular: that year, she was Miss Guam – she had thousands of followers on social media. My younger brother was a more accomplished athlete than I was: he was asked to represent Guam in the Olympics on the Track and Field Team. None of our friends, coaches, or teammates, none of our “followers” and fans, were at the funeral of my dad. It was the people from Church, from the communities. Our friends weren’t bad or horrible. They were simply busy. The Church has always been there for me, especially at my lowest point. From this experience, God confirmed that he was calling me to be the same presence of the Risen Christ for others, the way my Neocatechumenal community was for me.
Discuss the person(s) who most influenced your vocation.
The people who most influenced my vocation were my parents.
What are your fondest memories and/or challenges of your seminary experience?
I first entered the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Guam. The property was located by the beach (as are most properties…because it’s an island). To help offset the costs of food, we incorporated self-sustaining projects into our formation, like farming and fishing.
Some of the best memories were the ones I made in the ocean! We would go spearfishing in the middle of the night so that we’d have something to eat the following day. My spiritual director was from Spain, and he was an excellent chef. He even made paella for the Pope! We would catch fish, lobster, and eel. He would use the fish and lobster in the seafood paella…delicious!
On another occasion, Fr. Vincent Twomey, a disciple of Benedict XVI, gave a conference at our seminary. That week, a whale washed up on our reef. We took this respectable and distinguished priest, scholar, and professor on a journey to see this whale. He braved the waves and the strong current, trusting that we’d navigate the rough waters safely.
As great as New Jersey is, I doubt I’ll be making those kinds of memories here any time soon. If you want to see whales, swim with dolphins, or catch a glimpse of turtles at the bottom of the ocean, you are more than welcome to visit Guam!
This is a snapshot of the experiences I had, and every year the Lord outdid himself in generosity and creativity, not just in beach life but in every aspect of my life: the seminary was the place where I discovered that God did not want to take anything from me (money, my youth, time, freedom, etc.), on the contrary, he has always given me the best: I am learning how to be a son, brother, and father, a follower of Christ and shepherd of His Church. It’s the best!
Featured image: The five men to be ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Newark on May 28, 2022 from left to right: Roberto Julio Moreno Andrión, Matthew Gonzalez, Ashton Ignacio Francisco Wong, David Hinojosa, and Peter Jacob Volz.
