Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to a special edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn, serving in Brooklyn and Queens, myself, Father Christopher Henry, here at St. Joan of Arc Parish. This is a great annual tradition where we bring back those men who were ordained, celebrating now their first year of priesthood for a podcast interview with Bishop. I always enjoy it. This last year's ordination class, the class of 2025, we saw in the diocese seven men ordained for the Diocese of Brooklyn. We're blessed to have four of them here with us on this podcast. And I'd ask Father Salazar live from Rome, to lead us in opening prayer.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of gathering here to give gratitude as we approach the anniversary of our priestly ordination.
We ask you to continue to impart that grace to make us holier and to give us a more fervent ardor to sanctify your people. We ask all these things through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Amen. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:20] Speaker C: Thank you, Father Chris. And we have a big weekend coming up. We have the celebration of ordination for deacon, soon to be Father Paul Zwalek. We're looking forward to his ordination actually tomorrow, the day after this podcast is released, it's become a little bit of a custom to meet with the ordination class from the year before to talk about the first year. So we have one priest being ordained this year. Last year we had seven, and they're all out, very, very busy. We have four of the seven with us today.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: We do. And it's great to welcome each of you gentlemen here with us on this annual edition of Big City Catholic, A Year in Review. Just to kind of get a glimpse of how has this year been for you. Some excitement, some surprises. Before we begin, why don't you introduce yourselves? Your name and your assignment, please.
[00:02:12] Speaker D: Hello, everybody. I'm Father Callistus Ibe. I'm assigned at St. Sebastian Corpus Christi Parish in Woodside.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: Father Alvaro.
[00:02:20] Speaker E: Hi. My name is Father Alvaro Morales and I am assigned at presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Jamaica, Queens.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Terrific. Father Gerardo.
[00:02:29] Speaker F: Hello, everyone. My name is Gerardo Platelpa and I am assigned at St. Michael's parish in St. Agatha in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: And Father Paolo.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: Hello, everyone. Pablo Salazar. I'm currently assigned to further studies in Rome.
[00:02:45] Speaker C: Wonderful. Father Salazar, I turn to you last because your assignment is a little bit different than the others.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: Yes, yes, it is. Currently doing further Studies. So I'm still enjoying the life of the student stuck in the libraries, but enjoying the work to be done. And it's obviously for the. For the good of the diocese, for the good of the church to.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: To.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: To study, currently doing studies in canon law, so bringing out the regulations of the church and how that plays into the dynamic for us as the faithful.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: And you studied at the North American College and you're continuing at the Casa Santa Maria, which is the priest residence of the college. Is it very different living in the priest residence than when you were a seminarian?
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Well, it's certainly a little bit of an adjustment. In the seminary, we had our own horarium, wake up at this time, lunch at this time. And now in the priest house, we have a bit more of a. Of a freedom to go about our days. We still have classes in the morning, classes in the afternoon, but we make the house what we do of it. We try to be as studious as we can while at the same time trying to go out and engage in the various pastoral ministries that Rome offers for us. And it's been a nice adjustment here, living at the. At the Cosby.
[00:03:58] Speaker D: That's great.
[00:03:59] Speaker C: That's great. Now, do you have any pastoral assignments in the city of Rome?
[00:04:03] Speaker B: I do. I do. So I am one of the chaplains for St. John's University study abroad campus.
And as well as I say Mass for a congregation of sisters nearby the Vatican about every week. So it's a good. It's a good way to still do priestly ministry and especially, most especially with the college students to get involved in the young adult ministry realm. And it's been a joy to be able to say Mass for them and to accompany them in their journey of faith.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: You can remember when you were first a student in Rome.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: And, you know, it's good. It's a nice connection that you still connected to a queen's entity living in Rome. That's great. That's great. Father Gerardo, you mentioned St. Michael's and St. Agatha, that it's a double assignment. How is that adjustment?
[00:04:48] Speaker F: Wow, that's. I think it's a wonderful assignment. I think both parishes there are a lot of Spanish speakers, so it's. Sometimes it's a little bit difficult. It's kind of challenging. But I really love spending time with the groups, you know, very good people, nice people. And yes, it is especially St. Michael's is a very busy parish. We always are very active here in the church, celebrating the sacraments.
A lot of people come to receive the sacrament of confession, you know, and anointing of the sick. I just love it, you know, living in community here with Father Fulgencio, who is my pastor here at St. Michael's
[00:05:26] Speaker C: it is a very, very active past parish, I. I'd have to say, and a lot of activity. And then, yes, Saint Agatha. The two parishes came together just about a year or so before you came. And so you're taking care of Sunset park together?
[00:05:40] Speaker F: Yes, we are doing activities together, like Corpus Christi, you know, Stations of the Cross. A lot of things we are doing together.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: Very good. And Father Callistus, speaking of busy places, you're at St. Sebastian and there too you have a double parish. But they're pretty big and busy parishes.
[00:05:58] Speaker D: Yes, Bishop Busy and Boslin with Faith. It's a beautiful community, both places, actually. I always make a joke to people that I'm glad I'm not the pastor, Father west, because I do feel for him going back and forth and, you know, organizing both places. The time I came here, already they're already talking about they've been in partnership. So it was the reality. I found myself right away going back and forth. Corpus Christi and St. Sebastian. And St. Sebastian itself is a big place. You know, there's a lot of activity, a lot of sacraments, the Masses and cause lots of people to visit homebounds and Communion and penance. So there's a lot that keeps me going.
[00:06:44] Speaker C: And you have a school there. Very busy school.
[00:06:46] Speaker F: Correct.
[00:06:46] Speaker D: We're getting ready for graduation coming up in a few weeks.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: That's great. And Corpus Christi is not a quiet place either. It's a little smaller, but it too is full of life.
[00:06:56] Speaker D: Yes, the faith formation there is very, very vibrant with the young people there and the youth group as well. So both places are thriving in their own capacity.
[00:07:07] Speaker C: I had the chance to be with you back in October for the Senor de los Milagros processions. Was that something new for you?
[00:07:14] Speaker D: Yes, it was my very first experience.
I never actually heard about it before until I got here. So I had that I had got the Father celebration. So there has been a lot of, you know, new devotions that I've come to learn and experience here at St. Sebastian and Corpus Christi. And it's very wonderful. Yeah, beautiful.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Excellent. And Father Alvaro, how has your first year been over a presentation.
[00:07:40] Speaker E: It's been wonderful. I enjoyed a lot the communion with all the priests that are here in the house. You know, it's Father Victor, the pastor. And also we have Father George Curran, who's Who's a priest, also a vicar here, Monsignor vc, who is also a great help. He is semi retired, but he helps us a lot. So just, you know, maintaining the communion in the house helps a lot. To do the work that we have to do in the parish, everything is somehow balanced. And I think that the people are also very appreciative of everything that is being done.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: That would be my sense as well, that the people are very grateful that this, again, a lot of activity. I was there for the Eucharistic pilgrimage during Lent, and he had a great turnout of people. There's a great devotional life over there. You mentioned Monsignor Visi. He's a real missionary, isn't he? He served in Latin America. He served in China. He has that missionary spirit.
[00:08:41] Speaker E: Yeah. And also Father George also. He comes from a congregation, so we sort of share the same spirit, you know, all around.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: That's right. So you and Father Victor Belanus are both members of the neocatechumenal way, and so you walk with communities yourself. But Pope Leo just greeted the members of the neocadic cuminal way, talking about that missionary spirit, that evangelical spirit. So that's something that's part of who you are and part of what led you to the priesthood. But at the same time, it's a parish that's filled with all kinds of groups. You have the charismatic groups and you have all kinds of movements and possibilities. So there's an awful lot going on at the parish.
[00:09:20] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. And that experience that we've had of precisely being out in the missions and being with different realities, Monsignor Vesey is a very good living example of that because, you know, he went out to Guatemala, he was in Paraguay, he was in China. And so he's had those encounters with people from different backgrounds and different religious expressions. And that is carried over here also in Jamaica, where the majority of the faithful are Hispanic and Spanish speakers. They come from different religious experiences, each one with their own traditions and each one also with their own charism and their own gifts, looking to encounter the Lord. And that's what we see here in Jamaica, is that people are looking to have an encounter with the love of God. And this is also what has moved us. I mean, at least for me, my experience of through the New York, even away, was the experience of the love of God. That's what moved me to give myself, to want to serve the Lord wherever the Lord invited me to God. And I'm very gracious to be here in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: One of our questions that we like to ask the guys on this annual podcast is sort of like, what were some of the greater surprises for you during this year of your ministry? A memory or a particular experience that really stood out, Whether it was waiting for this to happen or excited for this particular sacramental aspect of the ministry. Or we'll ask you, Father Gerardo, to
[00:10:46] Speaker F: begin with celebrating the Sacrament of Confession. I never thought about so many people coming to receive the Sacrament of confession here at St. Michael's on Saturdays we have two hours, three to five, and a lot of people don't come to receive the Sacrament of Confession. Plus weekdays is available the Sacrament of Confession for everybody.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: You know, it's truly quite humbling experience for us is a beautiful gift to be able to bring that sense of healing. Father Callistus, just a similar question to you.
[00:11:18] Speaker D: Well, I've had quite good surprises here, but I think the one that just, I can just remember now very vividly is actually the ability to celebrate this past Easter. I know a lot of priests I've spoken with, you know, they didn't get to celebrate the whole triduum in their first year as a priest, but it's an opportunity that I had as a newly ordained to do the entirety of the tridium because we share two parishes. And so Father west, take care of St. Sebastian. I would be at Corpus or I would do St. Sebastian here and he would does Corpus. So Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter vigil.
I was able to celebrate that as a newlywed end. And it was a very humbling experience for me being able to bishop, I know I was able to confirm.
[00:12:16] Speaker C: And into the church.
[00:12:18] Speaker D: I had people receive the sacraments at Easter vigil. It was a very beautiful moment for me as a newly ordained priest, you know, sharing that experience.
So I so much enjoyed that experience and it was very uplifting.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: Oh, how exciting. That's wonderful. A lot of preparation.
[00:12:36] Speaker D: Oh, yes.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: A lot of homilies and a lot of.
[00:12:39] Speaker D: Yes, it was, it was nerve wracking kind of. And again, it was also bilingual, the Easter vigil. So to even add to my nervousness, I had to do the sacraments in Spanish.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: Wow, that's great. That's great.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: I know. Father Callistus, you were in the Scola, were you not in the seminary? Did you sing the Exalted?
[00:13:02] Speaker D: I did, I sang the Exotet.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: So very nice.
[00:13:06] Speaker D: Yes, yes. And I'm happy to do it now as a priest too, because I did as a deacon, as a seminarian.
So it was very beautiful memory for me.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Very nice. Father Salazar, would you like to share? I think you've had a few exciting surprises being in Rome, perhaps this year.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: I think to echo along the lines, as Father Calista said, I think the Triduum really takes the cake. As a newly ordained priest, I got to celebrate the Triduum liturgies. The Pope was one who did them all. But I think just actually being in the sanctuary and being able to.
To confer the sacred mysteries that we believe in the Eucharist, especially on. On Holy Thursday. I think Holy Thursday for me was one that took the cake of being able to. To just be with so many priests from all over the world and unified as one body in Christ to celebrate the priesthood, to celebrate the cell, to celebrate the Sacrament of the. Of the Most Holy Eucharist. And it was actually a double header because it also fell on my birthday. So I think it was a very. It was a very nice birthday gift from the Lord. Very providential. But just, just Holy Thursday and being able to. In Rome, we do holy. We do Holy Thursday, the celebration of the Mass of the Last Supper, but also the Chrism Mass in the morning.
So it was nice to go to St. Peter's and to renew the priestly promises that we made just almost about a year ago and to continue to live that out with more fervor and with just a greater aspiration for holiness.
[00:14:34] Speaker D: Beautiful.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Now, I understand your parents were going over there in March. Were they there during Holy Week?
[00:14:38] Speaker B: They were. They were. So they were able to attend all the. All the celebrations as well. So for them, it was just an experience of. Just a profound faith.
[00:14:46] Speaker C: And that had to be something special for you to be with them.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Yes, yes, it really was.
To celebrate that the sacred tournament with them was very special.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: You know, Father Salazar, your. Your father is the deacon here at St. Joan of Arc. So the pastor had to give permission in order to allow that to.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Thank you. I'm appreciative of it. So thank you.
[00:15:07] Speaker E: I appreciate it.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Father Alvaro, would you like to just share a surprise, a blessing of grace, one of many, but that you'd like to highlight from this year?
[00:15:16] Speaker E: Yeah, I think one of the things that was very surprising or, you know, highlights also was celebrating the liturgies of Holy Week, being able to participate in the Christian Mass with all the. All the priests to see the Communion there. Also afterwards, being in the undercroft, being there with. With all the priests was also very nice, very experienced to see all of that. And then one recent, very recent experience was the ordination of as you know, I participated in one of the communities of the New Catechumen Way. So in my community there's a seminarian who's from Brazil and me and him and I started the seminary together. And so now he has been ordained for the Archdiocese of Newark. So I was able to accompany him throughout that. And it was very nice because he accompanied me when I was ordained as a priest. He was a deacon, and now I got to accompany him as a newly ordained priest. So it was very, very beautiful to see all that.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Very nice.
[00:16:15] Speaker C: Father Almer, we're talking about Holy Week sacraments. So I guess you would have the parish celebration, but did you also celebrate with the neocatechumen away, the vigil?
[00:16:26] Speaker E: Yes, yes, I did. So I celebrated.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: That's a long, long night, correct?
[00:16:32] Speaker E: Yes. I was awake for 24 hours.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: Because then you had to pick up on Easter Sunday morning, right?
[00:16:39] Speaker E: Correct, Correct. So it was starting Saturday morning and finishing Sunday morning and then resting for a few hours and then starting all over again. But it was very nice. I mean, for sure the body was. Was a bit tired, but I mean, the spirit was very willing.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: But it's the Lord's resurrection and so you find a way, right?
[00:17:01] Speaker E: Correct, Correct. It was beautiful. I enjoyed it a lot.
[00:17:04] Speaker C: Good, good.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: You know, Callistus, at St. Sebastian's I know this recently, just a few months ago, maybe two months ago, that you celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the founding of St. Sebastian School. It must be quite a blessing. I know that each of you, in your own particular ways, have work and work with the youth of your assignments. Father Callistus, with having an actual school there, an academy, St. Sebastian's what's that been like, a young priest with the youth actively involved?
[00:17:31] Speaker D: Well, obviously it's been a very great blessing for me. I've been actually lucky. My assignments have all involved schools as a seminarian and now as a priest.
And in a particular this year, like you mentioned, the celebrating 100th year of this school, which is now academy in the parish. And I've always found it very blessing that I'm able to be in their presence. And every day we do morning prayer with them, not morning prayer with them, blessing before they begin school.
And then I do have opportunity throughout the day to walk through the classrooms. And from time to time I would teach something in the religion class. But just being present to them, it gives me so much joy. And I'm sure they also appreciate my being around as well. For them, it's a very great thing that the community has it has a school and it's very generational as well. And you can tell people from the parish, there's so much love the school and the Father is still very active and serving the community.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: It must be also quite an experience to witness that hundredth anniversary I heard. I mean, I saw articles in the Tablet and just great crowds of people that came back to support Catholic education.
[00:18:43] Speaker D: Yes, it was a huge, huge night the night we had it.
And I was actually surprised how much people actually cherish this school because they came from all over to be back again and support their school. It was something very beautiful to witness as a community.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: That's fantastic. Father Salazar, in your ministry, you mentioned working with the youth of St. John's University. Is that the Trastevere campus?
[00:19:10] Speaker B: They're in the Prati area, so nearby St. Peter's more or less just about a stone throws away.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: How's that been for you in your early days of a priesthood?
[00:19:22] Speaker B: It's, it's been very life giving. Currently I live the life of a student, so there aren't too many times where I'm able to actually go out and exercise my ministry as a priest outside of just being a student.
But being with St. John's and the young adults there, the college students, it gives me an opportunity to be able to preach the gospel, to catechize them. Oftentimes we take them out to different churches in Rome to visit different saints that are buried there so that they could get to know a bit more about the faith and bring some of that back home because many of them go to many of the parishes in our own diocese. So it's nice just to, just to have that New York connection, but at the same time being able to show them the vaster and wider Catholic world that we have, the universality of the church.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: A beautiful opportunity for sure. I'm sure that they're excited to have that, that contact as well, that New York contact with them. Father Gerardo, I had the chance too to be a deacon for some time at St. Michael Sunset park, and they have a very dynamic youth program. Can you speak a little about that? How, how has that been for your early days of priesthood?
[00:20:29] Speaker F: Yeah, I think it's been such a great blessing because once in a while I bring a talk, I say a talk, you know, to them. So I think it's a wonderful experience because I have been asking them, you know, to be involved more in, in the parish. It's not just in the group. Yes, that's the parish, but like participating more in the liturgy, like, for example, at my home parish, already a refuge. Once a month, the youth used to ministry, like every. Like, for example, give communion, like ushers, you know, lectures.
So I'm trying to bring them more, a little bit deeper, you know, in the church.
So little by little, you know, they are coming more deeper and deeper. So I think that's something really, really wonderful to see the youth participating more in the. In the liturgy.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: The name of the group, it's an acronym, ccj.
[00:21:24] Speaker F: Ccj, Walking with Jesus, you know, like.
But we also have a holy hour for children, which we have once a month, you know, and it is a good way because I Almost all the time, every, I mean, last Thursday of the month, I expose the Blessed Sacrament. You know, I talk to them, the importance of the faith. You know, they are children, but little by little, they are learning, you know, about the Blessed Sacrament, about Jesus in the Eucharist. So that's something really powerful to me.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: That's beautiful. Father Gerardo, Father Alvaro, how's the aspect of youth ministry been for you?
[00:22:01] Speaker E: So here we have the youth group. The title for it is the Akutis ministry, taken after Carlos Acutis. And so I became very involved with them, with the youth.
They meet once a week, the first week of the month. They do a holy hour for vocations.
So I always join them, either me or Father Victor. But for the most part, I've been kind of the one ahead of being with them. And so now we're doing fundraisers for them to go over Youth Day. There are about 20 that have signed up that are interested. They seem very excited. And then also in kind of preparation for them, we began to. Or rather I began to expand on some topics of the theology of the Body with them. So we're kind of going over, you know, very briefly and just speaking about vocation, speaking about discovering what is the will of God for each one of them. And through that, it's been a very, very huge blessing to be with them. But also being with the Charismatic, the youth group that the Charismatics have, they did a retreat, and I was with them during the Holy hour and then also doing different talks. They've asked me now to. To give a few thoughts to. To them. So it's. It's great. I mean, I'm. I'm very helped that they are. They want more, you know, than what they're receiving. I mean, obviously they're receiving a lot, but somehow they. They also want to see us. They want to hear from us. And it's It's a blessing to. To be with them.
[00:23:25] Speaker C: Thank you, Fathers, for sharing such a rich experience of your first year as a priest serving in the Diocese of Brooklyn, serving here in Brooklyn, in Queens. We have ordination this week, actually the day after the podcast releases tomorrow. But your anniversary comes later in the month, on 28 June. Right. Which will be a Sunday. It dawned on me though, as you celebrated your first Mass, it was the feast of Corpus Christi. And so we come up to that weekend right now and we'll be looking at that connection between priesthood and the gift of the Eucharist. So I'll be thinking of you this weekend. I'll certainly be united in prayer with you on your anniversary day at the end of the month. Father Salazar, do me a favor. Greet some of our men who are in Rome. You're not the only priest studying in Rome. You have Father Elvin Torres and Father Nesta Martinez, who are living in the Casa with you studying, right?
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: You have Father Jun He Lee, who's working over at the Kaza, and then three priests who are in service to the Holy Father. So please give my best to everyone in Rome these days. To the rest of you, I look forward to seeing you in the comings and the goings in these next couple of weeks.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: And thank you as well, Bishop. Our listeners may not have realized that as we speak about these men's first anniversary of priesthood, just a week ago on the 27th of May, Bishop celebrated his 37th anniversary of priesthood. So Bishop, to you admutosanos, to many more years of faithful ministry, thank you for being our shepherd. Gentlemen, it truly was a great joy to have you join with us this week in this week's podcast, especially as we think about and pray for our soon to be priest, Deacon Paul Zwolak, soon to be ordained tomorrow, our one and only ordinand for this year's class of the Diocese of Brooklyn, we wish to just acknowledge the three other brothers of your class who have other responsibilities that weren't able to make it on this week's podcast. Father Robert, who's stationed at St. Francis of Assisi in Astoria, Father Benoit at Regina Pachas in Brooklyn, and Father Juan Herrera at Blessed Sacrament Parish in Jackson Heights. Those three men, we missed them certainly from this podcast, but they're working hard as faithful priests here in our diocese. Father Alvaro, as we close, might I ask you to please lead us in prayer?
[00:25:53] Speaker E: Yes. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:25:58] Speaker E: Father, we bless you. We give you thanks for your love that you have shown to us through your Son, Jesus Christ, who empowers us and gives us all the grace that we need to be able to carry out the work that he has entrusted to us, help us to grow closer to him, that we may model our lives according to His.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:26:21] Speaker E: In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[00:26:24] Speaker D: Amen.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Thank you, one and all. Thanks to those who listen each and every week to our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics. Keep the newly ordained Father Paul Zwolak in your prayers and keep all of us in your prayers. We hope that you'll join us again next week. God bless.
