When a man feels the call to priesthood, there is a ripple effect that impacts his family and community. Parents and siblings often say this milestone caused them to reflect on their own faith. During his homily for the 18th annual Seminarian Family Day Mass on July 27 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Landover Hills, Maryland, Cardinal Wilton Gregory said those entering seminaries should not feel pulled away from their families; rather, their relationships should deepen.
“[This Mass] is a good experience because it celebrates the fact that this community is destined to become a family. You are here with your own personal families, but you are also here because there are many things you share in common with the parents, the siblings, and the grandparents, and it’s a way for the parents to see their young men come together as brothers,” Cardinal Gregory said.
Cardinal Gregory celebrated the Mass, along with concelebrants Father Mark Ivany, the director of priest vocations for The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; Father Brendan Glasgow, a formation advisor at the archdiocese’s Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington; Father Mario Majano, St. Mary’s pastor; and Father Ebuka Mbanude, the archdiocesan director of the Office of Evangelization and Pastoral Planning.
Cardinal Gregory thanked the families of the seminarians for encouraging and supporting these men as they discerned their vocation.
“It’s important for parents to know where their young people are. When these young men were very small, parents wanted to know who their friends were, and sometimes even who their friends' parents were, because you wanted to know that they were being trained and being encouraged to grow up with the same values and virtues that you had tried to share with them,” Cardinal Gregory said.
Gian Gonzalez, who will enter the Saint John Paul II Seminary, said he already feels his family expanding. An only child to Gaio Gonzalez and Stella Gonzalez, he shared that his priest-brothers already feel like blood relatives, adding that a religious sister told him that “community is a school of love.”
“It really is kind of helping you to know who you are and who you are not and to really love those brothers that might irk you, might get at you,” Gian Gonzalez said, “but love is an act of the will to love your brothers – even if they bother you sometimes – because they are your brothers, and if God loves them, I do too.”
Gaio Gonzalez added that he and his wife have embraced their new, larger family. He explained that previously on spring break, his son would visit home alone, but that has since changed.
“This past spring, he came with his nine other seminarian brothers. Like the cardinal was saying, we are in a bigger family, we are now in God’s family…and it’s so joyful seeing them, the seminarians. They went fishing, we cleaned the fish, we grilled. So now we have a bigger family. We not only have one son, but a number of sons now that we communicate with,” Giao Gonzalez said.
The Gonzalez family’s home parish is St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.
Stella Gonzalez said her son “seriously discerned” the priesthood in 2022 when he was on a mission trip to Mexico and visited the apparition site of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“I’ve been always considering the priesthood for a long time. I remember even way back when I was a child, maybe seven years old, we would go to the [Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception] for the Filipino monthly masses. And there was one moment where I felt a call to the priesthood, but I didn’t really think much about it,” Gian Gonzalez said.
Before priesthood, Gian Gonzalez studied philosophy and economics at James Madison University in Virginia, with hopes of pursuing a professional career in New York City or Washington, DC. However, he felt an adjustment in his calling after attending mission trips and Bible studies.
“I realized that my prioritizes needed to shift, need to change, if God was at the center. Eventually, I would discern the priesthood and be where I am now,” Gian Gonzalez said.
His parents have resonated with his decision, even saying it has impacted their Catholicism.
“We opened our minds and our hearts like, ‘Okay, let's join in with this journey [of faith]. ' He inspired us with his studies, his letters, and his devotion to the Blessed Mother, and it set our path differently,” she said. “Instead of worldly things, we're more likely to go to adoration. We appreciate the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”
It was a local priest who sparked Joshua Wright’s interest, one day asking if he had ever considered religious life. His mother Angela Wright said although the vocation was not something she could have predicted for her son, she believes his personality fits what priests are called to do for their community.
“I think our priest saw something in Josh's personality and his helpfulness, and people are drawn to him just like when he was working in the medical office. He loved the patients and they loved him, and they looked to him to help them. And that's what he's always been – a helpful person. So … I could see the priesthood? No, but I saw qualities of a great priest since he was a little guy. That's just always been his personality,” Angela Wright said.
Their home parish is St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Piscataway in Clinton, Maryland. Joshua Wright had a career as a technician at an ophthalmology practice. While there are pros and cons to any job, Wright said, he did miss certain aspects.
“I do miss it a lot because one of my favorite things was interacting with the different patients. You meet different people every single day, and everybody's kind of at a different spot, and it's kind of amazing to be able to kind of be in a situation where you can help them and be with them and calm a lot of their fears that they have about their eyes or what might be going wrong with them that day,” Joshua Wright said, noting that these characteristics carry over into the duties of a priest. “God definitely had a hand in that.”
The Wrights were not always a Catholic family, having practiced nondenominational Christianity previously. Joshua Wright was the first in the family to convert about five years ago, and then his mother followed suit shortly after.
“I saw him come into the Church, and I saw ways that he was growing in his spirituality, and I was very open to that myself,” Angela Wright said. “He and I have always been very close. So we have a lot of discussions and everything, but we had some very heart to heart discussions, and I just felt it in me too. I felt the pull to the Church.”
She added that since her only son began his journey to priesthood, some people in her life have asked about grandchildren.
“People kind of look at me and think, oh, you are not going to have grandchildren. Just honestly, I think I've gotten that quite a bit. How do you feel about that? And things like that. I am good with that. It's okay. I mean, I think that would be such a blessing for some people, but this is also a tremendous blessing,” Angela Wright said.
Joshua Wright began considering priesthood during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he looks forward to building his relationship with his fellow seminarians.
“We have such a strong fraternity as seminarians. To be able to kind of get through these things together, whether if they're like papers or homework, or study sessions together, it's knowing that through this time of learning. Of course we're studying philosophy and theology about our Lord, so that's beautiful too, but to grow in our faith together and to know that God-willing, when we get ordained, the rest of our lives we will be together working in the vineyard together,” Joshua Wright said.
Looking to the future, Joshua Wright said he hopes to serve as a parish priest.
“My dream is to build a strong community around the church, to see the Church as a second home or even a first home for everybody, and to really build that community,” Joshua Wright said.
Following Mass, families and seminarians joined together to each lunch downstairs.
