Archdiocese to welcome eight new priests at annual Ordination Mass
Archdiocese to welcome eight new priests at annual Ordination Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels
Eight new priests will be ordained for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the annual Ordination Mass on May 31, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (555 W. Temple Street). Archbishop José H. Gomez will preside over the Mass. As in prior years, the ordination is ticketed and will be open to family members and friends of the ordinands. The Mass will be livestreamed via lacatholics.org/ordination and facebook.com/olacathedral.
“We are excited for the eight men who will be ordained priest this upcoming Saturday. These are men who are in love with Christ and His Church – they come with hearts that desire to bring the Love of Christ to the world and serve with humility as Christ did,” said Fr. Peter Saucedo, the Archdiocese’s director of the Office for Vocations that hosts the ceremony.
The eight men who will be entering the priesthood are Deacons Christian Morquecho, Jorge Oscar Moncada Hernandez, Johndy Gonzales, Joseph Cruz, Michael Paul Croghan, Paul Francis Collins, Allan Carodan, and Quoc Vo. All have completed five to seven years of theological formation at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, preceded by four years at Queen of Angels Center (for those who had not earned a university degree, which is mandatory), plus their service as transitional deacons and a year-long internship at different parishes in the Archdiocese. They will celebrate their first Mass as priests on Saturday, May 31, Sunday, June 1 and Sunday, June 8, and will begin their parish assignments throughout the Archdiocese on July 1.
The Ordination Mass is a sacramental ceremony in which a man becomes a priest and is enabled to minister in Christ’s name and that of the Church. The essential rite of the Sacrament takes place during the Laying on of Hands and Prayer of Consecration, an ancient tradition in the Church, mentioned in the Bible. The ceremony includes various rituals, rich in meaning and history, such as prostration, or when the men being ordained lay face down before the altar as a symbol of their dependence upon God and the prayers of the Christian community. They will also receive their investiture, the vest or robe used by the priests when they celebrate Mass from a priest; and will be anointed with chrism oil only used during baptisms and the anointing of the sick and dying.
Brief biographies and video stories of each of the new priests are available at lacatholics.org/ordination.