WASHINGTON - The ordination Class of 2009, with computer experts, refugees, marathon runners and second-career men, mirrors the United States today. The men from dioceses nationwide show that the call to serve God is heard at all ages. Respondents include attorneys, financiers, teachers and farmers.
Justin Minh Nguyen, of the Diocese of Austin, Texas, a skilled tailor, was a refugee from Vietnam. He was a parishioner of the only Vietnamese parish in Austin and is one of five men to be ordained for the diocese. He decided to be a priest when he was 10. Pablo Migone, one of four men to be ordained for the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, is a native of Lima, Peru, and came to the U.S. when he was nine. He started to think about priesthood in tenth grade.
Others from outside the United States include Fernando Jimenez, the first Hispanic to be ordained for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, and Pawel Sass, a native of Poland to be ordained for the Archdiocese of Washington. Budi Wardhana, of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, will be the third native Indonesian-born priest ordained to serve in the United States.