Ordination day will be the culmination of a nearly lifelong journey for Peter John Penton, 55.
Born in Manhattan to parents of Cuban and Italian ancestry, he was raised as a member of St. Bernard Church, Chelsea, and attended the parish school, and Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Lenox, Mass.
He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education at the University of St. Francis, Joliet, Ill., and Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., respectively.
As a third grader, he became an altar boy and felt a “spark” when serving on the altar. He discerned his call to the priesthood through his high school years, but during college, he started dating and even considered marrying a long-time girlfriend. Yet that spark still lingered in his heart.
After graduation, he returned to New York where he taught for more than 20 years in public elementary and high schools as well as in the Catholic school system in the Archdiocese of New York. From 1985 to 1992, he took a break from teaching to travel the world as a flight attendant. In both fields, he became an advocate for unions in the workplace and justice for workers’ rights.
In 1992, his journey took a turn when he began teaching at his alma mater, St. Bernard. The pastor also asked him to volunteer in the rectory and his life began to revolve around parish life.
“That was when I started to discern on a deeper level,” he said.
He applied and was accepted by the Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Immaculate Conception, Manhattan. He completed his postulancy in Boston, his novitiate in Onset, Mass., and started pre-theology studies at St. John’s Seminary, Brighton, Mass.
His journey took another turn as he began to consider diocesan priesthood. He returned to New York in 1997 to teach again in the Catholic schools of the New York Archdiocese.
Eight years later, he moved to Bellerose to be closer to work and chose St. Gregory the Great Church to be his spiritual home. He became an active parishioner, and Father Joseph Cunningham, then-pastor, encouraged him to pursue becoming a priest of the Brooklyn Diocese.
He completed a year of discernment at Pope John Paul II House of Discernment, Cypress Hills, 2008-09, and went on to theological studies and priestly formation at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Huntington, L.I., and St. Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y. He earned his master of divinity degree from Immaculate Conception Seminary.
While completing his formation and studies, he served and temporarily lived in residence at Assumption B.V.M., Brooklyn Heights, while also teaching spirituality, life skills and GED preparation during summers at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center, Wards Island, N.Y.
He completed his pastoral year at Presentation B.V.M., Jamaica, and served as a transitional deacon at St. Luke, Whitestone.
In his priesthood, he aspires to be “a man of service” and will look to the examples of priests who have accompanied him on his journey, including the late Msgr. Joseph T. V. Snee, former pastor of St. Bernard.
His siblings, Mary, Armando and Elvira, have been great supporters on his journey to ordination, and he knows his late parents, Margaret and Peter, would be proud.
“They were the pillars of this whole journey,” he said.
Father Penton will offer his First Mass of thanksgiving at St. Luke Church, Sunday, June 29 at 2:30 p.m.
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