Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will ordain 10 men to the priesthood to serve the Church in Brooklyn and Queens. The ordination rites will take place at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, Prospect Heights, Saturday, June 4, at 11 a.m.
Most men were ordained as transitional deacons last fall and will receive their parish assignments from the bishop following the ordination Mass. The men are an average age of 34 years old. The oldest is 48 and the youngest will turn 26 this year, the earliest someone can be ordained without special permission. Three of them were born in Brooklyn. Seven were born outside the United States – in Haiti, Poland, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Nigeria – reflecting the ethnic make-up of the Diocese of Immigrants.
The diocesan network New Evangelization Television (NET TV) provided live coverage of the Ordination Mass, which was also live streamed on www.netny.tv. NET TV is a cable network featuring news and information with a Catholic point of view, and is available in the New York area on Time Warner Cable, Channel 97; Cablevision, Channel 30; and Channel 48 on Verizon FiOS On Demand. NET TV’s encore presentation of the ordination is on Saturday, June 18 at 9 p.m.
Below are brief biographies of the ordinands with details of their roads to the priesthood and plans for their First Masses of thanksgiving. The pieces were written by Tablet reporters Marie Elena Giossi and Maria-Pia Negro Chin.
Bishop DiMarzio ordained the 10 men on Saturday, June 4, in a two-and-a-half-hour ceremony at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, Prospect Heights. The new priests are Fathers Gesson Agenis, Yvon-Hector Aurelien, Victor Manuel Bolaños, Mark Charlton Mendelsohn Bristol, Ralph Edel, Lukasz Kubiak, Uririoghene Melchizedek John-Baptist Okrokoto, Ambiorix D’Jesus Osorio Torres, Jaroslaw Szeraszewicz, and Marcial Thomas.
Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio will ordain 10 men to the priesthood to serve the Church in Brooklyn and Queens. The ordination rites will take place at St. Joseph’s Co-Cathedral, Prospect Heights, on Saturday, June 4, at 11 a.m.
Diverse cultures, languages and people are what drew Haitian-born Father Gesson Agenis, 37, to be a priest for the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Father Yvon Hector Aurelien felt called to be a priest since he was 14 years old. After a long path, he can become what God intended: a priest who is there for His people.
Father Victor Manuel Bolaños, 47, never thought of becoming a priest. Not until World Youth Day in 2008 when he felt a vocational call so powerful that he could not resist it.
For Brooklyn-born Father Mark Bristol, 31, the call to priesthood flowed and ebbed while in the U.S. Navy. Ultimately, he discerned God was calling him to be a fisher of men.
Father Ralph Edel, 25, is looking forward to being a joyful priest, who radiates the fact that his encounter with Jesus Christ has transformed him.
Polish-born Father Lukasz Kubiak, 38, always loved the idea of having a big family, but never expected it would include over a million people in a diocese 4,000 miles from home.
Whatever God places before Nigerian-born Father Uririoghene Melchizedek Okrokoto, 28, he will use it to give God glory. In fact, his first name means “the glory of God.”
Father Ambiorix Osorio, 32, is ready to selflessly serve the people of God.
