We’ve had a lot to celebrate in the past month. Many of our seminarians birthdays fall within the months of August and September, so it was a lot of fun on Sept. 5 to go down to South Louisiana and celebrate Grayson Foley’s birthday, while also wishing Francisco Maldonado and Kevin Lopez a belated birthday, and wishing EJ Martin and Wilson Locke a happy ‘soon-to-be birthday.’
I was down at the seminary to move Kevin in after he received his student visa just before the deadline for entry into the seminary for the semester. Kevin has been in the process of transferring from his former seminary in Morelia, Mexico and it took a while to get all the paperwork in order. We are excited to have Kevin enter the fold. He has a real history here in Mississippi as his cousins live in the Tupelo area and he and his parents have spent extended time visiting them over the past several years. Kevin has gotten to know the priests in Northeast Mississippi during this time, and he had been attending the same seminary as Father Cesar Sanchez and so he knew Father Cesar as well.

Kevin will begin his formation with us doing intensive work on English, and we threw him right into the mix on that first day he was in town! I was grateful to him for being such a good sport, and we all encouraged him that his English is quite good already! One of the questions that I ask when considering a candidate is ‘how much time have they spent in our diocese?’ We are seeking to call forth a Homegrown Harvest, and we know that men from all backgrounds are a part of the Catholic Church here in Mississippi. Kevin is an example of someone who has close ties to the state and understands what it would mean to serve here. I can relate, after all, I’m not from Mississippi either, but part of my discernment was being honest with the Lord and my formators and closely discerning where the Lord was calling me to serve as a priest. It turned out that the Lord called me to serve here, and I’m grateful that I was given the opportunity by Father Matthew way back in the day to discern that call.
I am so grateful to all the men who have responded to the Lord’s call to discernment, and I believe Kevin is a great addition to the crew. We are not looking for ‘cookie-cutter’ seminarians, but we do need every single man who studies to be a priest for our diocese to have the People of God in Jackson as their top priority. I believe these men that we have assembled all have serving the good people of our diocese in their hearts, and this is a great place from which to discern. Thank you for your continued prayers for our seminarians. I hope many of you are able to come to the Homegrown Harvest Festival on Oct. 11 at St. Francis in Madison to meet them and spend time with them!