HUNTINGTON, N.Y. — Brandon Valdivia, 17, is active in the youth group at St. Bartholomew’s Parish in Elmhurst and helps coordinate the parish’s 300 altar servers. A student at Aviation High School in Long Island City, he said his work in youth ministry has deepened his faith.
He was among 50 young men, ages 16 to 26, who recently spent a weekend at the Retreat & Conference Center of the Immaculate Conception discerning a possible call to the priesthood.
“We need to spend more time strengthening our spiritual relationships with the Lord,” said Valdivia, who, following an invitation from his pastor, attended the diocese’s annual vocations retreat for the second time. “I’ve made a lot of new friends. It’s been a really good experience. And it’s an honor to have the bishop here with us.”
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Bishop Robert Brennan was present all three days of the March 13-15 retreat, as was Father Christopher Bethge, the diocese’s vocation director. Father Bethge said there are 37 men in priestly formation in the diocese.
He noted that nearly all of them have experienced either a retreat or a Project Andrew session, which introduces interested people to priests who minister in Brooklyn and Queens.
Eighteen-year-old Melvin Balderas is a senior at Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary in Elmhurst, who has applied for college-seminary studies.
“It was at the end of my junior year that I made the decision,” he said. “I was on retreat, and it really touched me. It made me realize how much strength I need from God. I seriously asked myself, ‘Is this what God wants me to do?’ ”
A member of St. Stanislaus Kostka-Transfiguration Parish in Maspeth, Balderas credits Msgr. Joseph Calise, his pastor, for planting the seeds of a possible vocation. He stays involved in his parish as an altar server and lector and will choose between Seton Hall University and Providence College for his collegiate studies.
“It’s something beautiful if it’s God’s calling,” Balderas said. “The bishop’s talk makes us reflect back on whether the Lord may be calling us.”
This summer, he said he is planning a vacation to Mexico, where he hopes to visit the shrine to St. José Sánchez del Río, a 15-year-old martyr and his favorite saint.
“He inspired me to open my heart and to follow this vocation,” explained Balderas.
On the second day of the retreat, three seminarians from St. Joseph’s Seminary and College, Dunwoodie, spoke about their vocation journeys. All three encouraged trust in the Lord and the courage to consider vocations to the priesthood.
“Everyone’s story is very different,” said first-year seminarian Alex DeMachena, who said getting involved in parish ministry as an adult was his turning point. “My story was one of not giving God a chance.”
Kevin Michael Kamel, from Immaculate Conception Church in Astoria, told participants, “God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.”
David Rodriguez, who looks forward to being ordained a transitional deacon on the road to priesthood next year, attended LaGuardia Community College and became a professional accountant with hopes of being a CPA. He had stopped going to Mass but turned his life around by going to confession and being reconciled with the Church. Then he went to speak with Father Sean Suckiel, director of vocations at the time.
“My heart was just aching for it,” he recalled. “It’s been a long journey, but I’m looking forward to being ordained and serving others.”
Bishop Brennan reminded the young men that “you’re not signing away your life” when you consider a vocation as a priest, “You’re just giving God a chance.”