On the very day that the Church celebrates St. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, the St. John Vianney Seminary community welcomed a new father as Father Angel Perez-Lopez was installed as the seminary’s fifth rector, the first alumnus to lead the community.
“It is most appropriate that we have the installation of the new rector on the Solemnity of St. Joseph,” Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila said in his homily. “For the rector is called, as we read in the Ratio Fundamentalis (The Gift of the Priestly Vocation) [a Vatican document on priestly formation], to be a father in the seminary. A fatherhood that Father Daniel has fulfilled over the past almost eight years, and that is now being handed over to Father Angel.”
Continuing the legacy of faithful service left by Father Daniel Leonard, the seminary’s fourth rector, Father Perez-Lopez looks forward to the opportunity to lead and form the archdiocese’s future priests, he told the Denver Catholic ahead of his installation.
“I am happy and full of gratitude to God and to Archbishop Aquila for this assignment. I hope that the Lord continues to help me, as he has always done in all my previous assignments, so that I can teach seminarians, by word and example, how to become holy priests,” he said.
“Father Angel Perez-Lopez has the right seminary experience as a beloved professor and successful formator,” Father Leonard said. “His experience as Vicar for Clergy will also be of help. He has the needed seminary leadership qualities of compassion, integrity, humility and mission commitment. I offer him my congratulations and prayerful best wishes.”
As the former Vicar for Clergy and pastor of St. Cajetan Parish in Denver took up his new responsibilities Wednesday, Archbishop Aquila encouraged reflection on St. Joseph's example and the three main fatherly virtues he embodies: faith, humility and obedience.
In humility, Joseph planned to divorce Mary quietly rather than expose her to shame. Hearing God's word through the angel, he faithfully obeyed God’s will and took Mary into his home. Again and again, Joseph acted in obedient faith when God asked something of him, humbly surrendering himself and his family to God’s plan.
St. Joseph’s example of faith, humility and obedience serves as a reminder and a roadmap for disciples through the ages — even more so for those called to priestly ministry, and even more still for Father Perez-Lopez, called to accompany and shepherd future priests.
“In that, Joseph emulated — and as future priests, you, too, must emulate — the love of the Father, that unconditional love,” the archbishop explained in his homily.
(Photos by Neil McDonough & Luke Metzer)
“So too are these three qualities of faith, humility and obedience ones to which all of us are called as disciples, but most certainly as future priests and as a new rector,” Archbishop Aquila continued. “As rector, that call to fatherhood. The task can look overwhelming, especially when you read the Ratio Fundamentalis and all that it puts on a rector or all that it puts on a priest or bishop. But the most important is to be those who are first of all people of a deep faith, people of a deep humility and people who are deeply obedient, knowing that those three virtues may not be the easiest to put on because of our own self will, our wanting it my way, or not accepting my limitations, but, rather, by opening my heart and trusting the Lord, that all his promises will be fulfilled.”
Vowing to preach, teach, pray and minister faithfully through the renewal of the promises he made at his priestly ordination and through the Profession of Faith, Father Perez-Lopez assumed his new spiritual fatherhood Wednesday amid a spirit of excitement and gratitude.
“After years of dedication, hard work and ministry to God’s people, God’s Providence is bringing Father Angel back to shepherd the next generation of priests,” Father Jason Wallace, archdiocesan vocations director, told the Denver Catholic. “God has blessed him with leadership, wisdom and compassion, which will surely bring great blessings to the seminary community. May the Lord continue to guide and strengthen him in this new role, filling his ministry with joy, grace and abundant blessings.”
“I look forward to working with Father Angel’s leadership to continue the mission of St. John Vianney Seminary, forming shepherds according to the Heart of Jesus,” added Dr. Charles Nolen, the seminary’s director of sacred music.
“It was such an honor to be a part of a ceremony installing the new rector and to represent all of our Lay Division faculty and staff,” said Daniel Campbell, the director of the St. John Vianney Lay Division, which offers biblical and catechetical classes to thousands of lay men and women worldwide. “A great feast day, as well, to install the new father of the seminary, on the day we honor the foster father of our Lord. We are so grateful to Father Leonard, too, for these past eight years and look forward to Father Angel’s leadership moving forward.”
“Having worked with him in the past, Father Angel is a big supporter of the diaconate and diaconate formation. We’re lucky to have him at St. John Vianney. I’m looking forward to working together to continue building up our programs,” added Deacon Tim Unger, director of the St. Francis School of Theology for Deacons at St. John Vianney.
For the seminarians Father Perez-Lopez will accompany, Wednesday’s installation marked the beginning of an exciting new chapter in their formation.
“Being at the Installation Mass for our new rector was a real gift,” said Luke Metzer, a St. John Vianney seminarian studying for the Archdiocese of Denver. “The rector is the father of the seminary, and I am grateful that a man like Father Angel is our father. He is a priest I look up to, and I am confident the Lord will use him to bring many blessings to the community here at St. John Vianney.”
"My hope, my prayer, is that he is able to see how to optimize and polish the already-great formation at St. John Vianney so that it's producing the highest-caliber priests. I'm excited to see what he does. I think we're all very excited," added Tommy Myers, another archdiocesan seminarian. "I know his focus is going to be on being a father, showing us by example how to be a father, which also entails teaching us how to be sons first. That's the other thing I'm most excited about: to have Father Angel as a father and to hopefully glean what I can from him and carry that into my own priesthood."
At the start of his new ministry, Father Perez-Lopez takes to heart the words of the rite of installation, which Archbishop Aquila spoke Wednesday: “Remember, my brother, always be a loving father, a gentle shepherd and a wise teacher of your people so that you may lead them to Christ who will strengthen all that you do.”
As he assumes the lofty responsibility of forming future priests, Father Perez-Lopez asks for prayers and support.
“Above all, readers can pray for me and for the whole seminary. They can also cultivate the vocations of their children in their families from an early age. After all, seminarians are not born in seminaries! They are born and raised in families,” he concluded.
“I encourage you, my sisters and brothers, to pray for the new rector,” Archbishop Aquila added, “that he may emulate these virtues and live them out in his life, that he may always keep his eyes fixed on Jesus, on the Father, on the Holy Spirit. And let us all pray for the gifts of faith, humility and obedience as disciples of Jesus, asking the Lord to constantly increase them, that, just as John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, ‘He must increase while I must decrease.’ Let us make that our prayer as we see it lived out by St. Joseph.”
