QUEENS VILLAGE — Deacon Alvaro Morales Sanchez studied to become a diesel mechanic, but his true passion is fueled by his deep connection with God.

Ordained as a transitional deacon in 2024, he spent the past several months serving weekends at St. Finbar Church in Bath Beach while completing his seminary studies, eagerly awaiting June 28 — the day he will be ordained to the priesthood at the Co-Cathedral of St. Joseph in Prospect Heights.

“I’m very happy, very excited. Also, I see that this is a great gift,” he said. 

“There’s nothing that I have done to say that I merited, that I somehow deserved or earned this gift….I had my own ideas of where I wanted to be, what I wanted to do with my career. And this is nothing like that,” he explained.

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He is currently living in the Brooklyn Diocesan Missionary House of Formation in Queens Village, where he reads Scripture, prays, attends Mass, shares meals with 19 fellow seminarians and occasionally looks under the hood to fix an engine.

Deacon Morales Sanchez’s vocation came as a surprise to him. He thought he would have a career as a mechanic repairing diesel engines in trucks, something he became interested in while attending a vocational program in high school in Kenilworth, New Jersey.

While he was happy with his career plans, he felt something was missing. “I had all these things (that were) very good, but somehow I still felt empty, I still felt unsatisfied,” he explained. 

And then God came calling. 

Deacon Morales Sanchez’s life story begins in Mexico, where he was born and where he lived until age nine. Out of a desire for a better life, his parents, Juan and Josefina, left Mexico when he was five and entered the U.S. as undocumented immigrants, settling in New Jersey. Alvaro and his brother Juan Carlos, who is two years older, lived with their maternal grandparents back in Mexico.

When Deacon Morales Sanchez was nine, his parents arranged for him and Juan Carlos to join them. Upon their arrival in New Jersey, the brothers found that their parents weren’t the only ones happy to see them. 

Their parents had become followers of the Neocatechumenal Way (the movement in the Catholic Church that focuses on encouraging adults to deepen their faith) and were part of a community at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary and St. Michael’s Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Deacon Morales Sanchez recalled the reception he received. “The first welcoming that we had was the community — these brothers and sisters (from) different walks of life. Some were married, some were single, some were young, some were older…And I remember being in a house where they welcomed us and all these people were very happy,” he said.

Like his parents, Deacon Morales Sanchez embraced the Neocatechumenal Way and the family settled into a nice routine that centered on church, work and school.

It wasn’t until he was in middle school that he realized that he, his brother and his parents were all undocumented immigrants. And after graduating from high school, he found that he couldn’t continue to pursue his vocational education. 

Then he heard about the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that was introduced during the Obama Administration in 2012.He applied and was accepted, receiving a worker’s visa, which enabled him to go to automotive school. 

“I was not very excited about studying for a long time, so I tried to find something that was quick and that I can start earning money,” he said, explaining his choice.

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Deacon Morales Sanchez first felt God’s call to the priesthood as a young adult. He was invited to a retreat and meeting a missionary family from Spain inspired him.

He also experienced the realization that God loves him unconditionally and it had a profound affect on him. “I entered the church knowing that God loves me as a sinner. I always thought that somehow you have to be good to be loved,” he explained.

He decided to answer God’s call and entered Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology in the Archdiocese of Newark in 2014. 

However, it wasn’t until 2016 that he was sure he had made the right decision. His epiphany came when he met a missionary priest in Michigan.

The priest was the pastor of three churches, all of them more than an hour’s drive from each other. And Deacon Morales Sanchez saw the the priest travel to all three churches in a single day with a heart full of joy. 

Deacon Morales Sanchez saw how this priest “gave his life, completely without reservation, for his parishioners, for the people.” It was a revelation to him. 

“I said to myself, ‘Well, maybe God can do the same thing with me.’ And that was that,” he recalled.

While at Immaculate Conception, he was asked if he would be willing to consider serving as a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn. He said yes and transferred to St. Joseph Seminary and College in Yonkers in 2018.

As he looks forward to his ordination, he remains open to whatever assignment he is given. He speaks three languages — English, Spanish and a bit of Italian — and reflects the diversity of the diocese, which is often called the Diocese of Immigrants.

“I’m ready to serve in whichever ministry the Lord is inviting me to serve. I’m ready to do anything,” he said.