By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
Pride.
Awe.
Gratitude – even from a mother who’s given up her son in a significant way.
These were among sentiments expressed after Saturday’s ordination of three men at St. Paul Cathedral.
Juan-Sebastian Sanchez Guzman, from Colombia, was ordained a priest. Thiago Moises Da Silva, from Brazil, and Vijaya Sagar Gundiga, from India, were ordained transitional deacons, preparing for priesthood.
“I want to say thank you to all the Diocese of Worcester because they are very welcoming and have accepted my son in the community,” Father Sanchez’ mother, Luz Elena Guzman, told The Catholic Free Press after the ordination. (She came in from Colombia, and he translated for her.)
“You are making him feel part of the family,” she said. “I’m very thankful for all of you. Thousands and thousands of thank yous. God bless you.”
Saturday was very special, said Jeanne Jekanowski, of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Leominster, where Father Sanchez was serving and has now been named associate pastor.
“And tomorrow when he says the Mass, I’m going to be lector,” she said of his Mass of Thanksgiving there. She just happened to be scheduled to read and “I wouldn’t change with anybody,” she said.
“Today I’m speechless,” said her fellow parishioner Germaine Fagnant. “This young priest … he’s a very special person. I can feel it when he talks to me. He has his calling. He’s like one of my sons.”
Marina Pineda, of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fitchburg, pointed to Father Sanchez and said he’s from her country and he called her to remind her to come to his ordination.
Paul Cormier, of Annunciation Parish in Gardner, said his mother, Anna Cormier, made her first visit to St. Paul Cathedral for the ordination. He said both Father Sanchez and Deacon Da Silva served at their parish.
“It’s impressive when we can have vocations in our parish,” Mr. Cormier said. “We have one that’s from our parish – Lucas LaRoche. It’s wonderful to see them blossom.” (Mr. LaRoche is still in seminary.)
Mrs. Cormier said Deacon Da Silva “loved to come and eat at our house.”
“He even helped with the dishes,” – putting them in the dishwasher that is – Mr. Cormier said of the time Deacon Da Silva visited them.
Members of the Brazilian community at Holy Family Parish in Worcester were rejoicing too.
“We are very proud,” Niciane Bonilla said of the ordination of Deacon Da Silva.
“I’m so happy – he’s coming from Brazil,” said Salete Bittencourt. “Good guy.”
Fatima Dias said he represents more blessings for their Brazilian community.
Dagmar Pinto said the ordination was beautiful and everything was very organized.
Blaise and Cynthia De Souza are from India, like Deacon Gundiga, and at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Upton, where he served in the past and has been assigned deacon assistant, beginning Feb. 1, 2019.
“It’s nice to have the first priest from India to be ordained for the Diocese of Worcester,” Mr. De Souza said. “It’s nice for the Indian community.”
Mrs. De Souza said the ordination was beautiful.
“It’s too bad his family couldn’t be here,” added her husband. “We represent his family, in a way.”
“Sagar makes a mean curry; he’s always enthusiastic about cooking for everyone,” said Assumptionist Brother Brian Verzella, who lived with Deacon Gundiga when they were both with the Augustinians of the Assumption in Worcester and Brighton. (Deacon Gundiga left to pursue diocesan priesthood. Brother Verzella remains with the Assumptionists in Brighton.)
“We still keep in touch,” Brother Verzella said. “Whether a religious or the diocese, we’re all playing for the same team. … Our door is always open to him and he comes by quite often.”
St. George Parish in Worcester was blessed to have Deacon Gundiga serve there as a seminarian, said JoAnn Nally, who is active there. The number of parishioners who attended the ordination, his Mass of Thanksgiving at St. George’s and the parish’s reception afterwards spoke for itself, she said.  
“I just always found him to be hardworking,” she said. “What impressed me was his humility, always willing to learn, very open to people and their suggestions, very respectful of others. What stands out to me most…is his joy. And I feel that’s the joy of the
Holy Spirit.”

Editor’s Note: The ordination can be watched live on the diocesan website, https://livestream.com/dioceseofworcester/2018Ordination.

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New priests says a vacation led to his vocation

By Tanya Connor  | The Catholic Free Press

What he thought was a vacation turned out to be a vocation – away from home at Christmas.
This year his mother came to his new home for Christmas – to celebrate his embrace of that vocation, after repeated rejections.
Deacon Juan-Sebastian Sanchez Guzman, who is to be ordained a priest for the Worcester Diocese tomorrow, tells this story of how he got here.
When he was growing up in Colombia, his family didn’t attend Mass regularly. One day when he went as a teenager, he heard about a youth trip. Since his family wasn’t going on vacation, he signed up.
“I really thought we were going to a farm … with a swimming pool,” Deacon Sanchez said.
He was in for surprises: The teenagers were joining a priest and seminarian for a mission trip, Dec. 11-26, 2004,  to a community without a priest.
Like him, his parents assumed he’d be home for Christmas. Learning the trip was for prospective priests, he explained, “I am in the wrong place.” But the priest told him he would have no transportation home until they all returned.    
The teenagers formed a brotherhood with the priest, a blessing since “I have a sister, but I never had brothers,” Deacon Sanchez said. They had served in their parishes. He wanted to be like them.
“I organized plays,”  he said. “It was the only thing I was good at.”
When the priest asked those desiring priesthood to raise their hands, they all did. Deacon Sanchez said he wanted an excuse not to raise his, but also wanted to raise it – and did.
“From those 22 only two of us became priests,” he said.
The seminary would accept only eight men. Deacon Sanchez worked with the vocational director, and went to another mission and Masses.
He’d loved going to Mass and Bible studies with his grandmother, and to first Communion classes. But when he got nervous and couldn’t recite the Creed, the priest said he had to wait a year for his first Communion.
“My mother took me to another parish,” Deacon Sanchez said. “I received my first Communion with people I didn’t know. … I felt like I was cheating,” because his priest had said he couldn’t do it.
Upset, he stopped attending Mass regularly, but continued with religious education classes, and, as a teenager, social gatherings which kept him somewhat connected with the Church.
Interviewing him for seminary, the rector asked, “What do you do in your church?”
“I read the Gospel,” replied the new lector, who didn’t know the difference between the readings.
“We need someone with more experience,” said the rector.
“It was like having a castle of dreams … falling apart,” Deacon Sanchez said. This was the first time he’d had a strong desire for something.
It was too late to apply for the university, so he took individual classes which he thought would be helpful for mission work.
He told another man who’d been rejected, and was going to apply to a different seminary, that not being accepted meant they weren’t called. But he joined the man on a retreat – to support him. Experiencing Christ in the Xaverian Missionaries of Yarumal who were leading the retreat, Deacon Sanchez felt again the priestly call. The missions had brought him back to the faith and “these people do missions all the time,” he thought.
At their next retreat, in November 2005, he told the priest he wanted to enter the community and be a missionary. The priest told him they had too many applicants who’d been attending retreats longer. He could apply in a year.
Allowed to go on a mission with them, he and two others showed up, and those who’d been in the process longer cancelled. So the priest told the three: “Welcome to the seminary; you are the only ones who really care about the missions.”
“I went to seminary,” Deacon Sanchez said. “I was very happy.” The seminarians went on missions to serve the poor and help them love God despite their suffering.
He studied at the Missionary Institute of Anthropology and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, both in Medellín, but left the seminary when his parents divorced, needing to rest and be with his mother. His superior agreed he could take a year off. The new superior told him those who leave have no right to return.
This third rejection was tough, Deacon Sanchez said. He’d become a man with this community.
He worked as a professor’s secretary and offered spiritual formation in a lay community.
One of his professors, Father Fernando Bernal, asked if he wanted to be a diocesan priest. He said he wanted to be a missionary, not work where there were already many priests. Father Bernal told him there were not enough priests in the Worcester Diocese and he decided to apply. Then his superior asked him to return to seminary; his year off was up.
“It was very difficult for me to leave” seminary, Deacon Sanchez said. “But it taught me God loves me, with or without the community. God can give me a new community … a new mission. And my new mission is the Diocese of Worcester.”
He was accepted, came here in August 2014 and finished his studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore in January. He continues serving at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Leominster, his most recent assignment.
He’s still in touch with the Yarumal Missionaries and two are to attend his ordination: Bishop Medardo Henao, bishop of Mitú, Colombia, a fellow missionary and mentor, and Father Tulio Ramirez from the Bronx.
His mother, Luz Elena Guzman, has returned to Worcester to attend his priestly ordination – and for Christmas. She came in June for his diaconate ordination.  
His Masses of Thanksgiving are: 4 p.m. Dec. 15, Good Shepherd Parish, Linwood; 11:45 a.m., Dec. 16, Our Lady of the Lake, Leominster; Dec. 30, Caldas in Antioquia, Colombia.
“If they decided to accept me (at the first seminary) I wouldn’t be here,” Deacon Sanchez says. “So today I thank God for that rejection. … It has been an adventure, jumping from one mission to the other one – the adventure of God. He takes you where he wants.”