As a seminarian, Cristian David Mendieta Hernández had to flee Nicaragua, persecuted by the same dictatorship that had recently exiled their bishop.
The regimes of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and Vice President Rosario Murillo increased persecution of the Catholic Church in 2018.
Exiled after dictatorship silvio baezIn April 2019 Mendieta, the auxiliary bishop of Managua from Nicaragua, who often accompanied the bishop as a seminarian, was also forced to flee the country, traveling first to Guatemala and then to Costa Rica.
His journey ended in January 2022 in Miami, where, with the assistance of Baez and Father Marco Sommarriba, pastor of St. Agatha Parish in Miami, he was able to continue his priestly formation.
On May 9, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, he knelt before Archbishop Thomas Wenski and received priestly ordination, which the Nicaraguan dictatorship had attempted to deny him.
“I hold my people and my homeland in my heart, and I will offer my first Mass for them,” the newly ordained Nicaraguan priest, who will serve as parochial pastor at St. Thomas the Apostle in Miami, told ACI Prensa, EWTN News’ Spanish-language affiliate service, on May 10.
“This priesthood is a blessing for me, for my family, for the Church and for the people of Nicaragua,” said Mendieta, who was born in La Concepción township in Nicaragua’s Masaya district.
He celebrated his first Mass at St. Agatha on May 10 with Báez and other Nicaraguan priests who attended the ordination.
He stressed, “I am grateful to the Archdiocese of Miami for welcoming me and giving me the opportunity to serve the people of God. Here we have a broad vision that our ministry is for all the people of God and that our people, especially the people of Latin America, share the same aspirations for freedom, peace and stability.”
Father Edwing Roman, parochial priest of St. Agatha’s, told ACI Prensa that “It is a great pleasure to have Father Christian as another brother in the clergy. He is a young man of many virtues and a dedicated scholar.”
Roman said, “I admire his piety and humility, as well as his ease in forming friendships with believers. May God bless him abundantly, and may he be a shepherd following the example of Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest.”
In a video posted by the Miami Archdiocese on May 6, Mendieta recalled that when he was 6 years old and attending a concert, he announced that he was thinking about becoming a priest, surprising his family.
Years later, while involved in his parish’s youth ministry, the example of his hard-working parish priest, Father José Antonio, who strove to reach every community, no matter how remote, encouraged him to pursue his vocation and change his plans to become a doctor.
The youth pastor also shared that he loves classical music and Frank Sinatra, and entertains himself by listening to British band Queen when he’s driving.
Along with Mendieta, the following people were appointed: Adam Cahill, Henry Cárdenas Afanador, Tomasz Cazal, Aristides Lima, Carlos Luzardo, Saint-Clos Papoulotte, Pietro Pironato and Michel Sega.
In his sermon, Wenski highlighted the diverse origins of the new priests – Nicaragua, Italy, Poland, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, etc. – and said that “in an increasingly secular world, where many have lost a sense of the transcendent, the priesthood is an enigma, a symbol of the great paradox.”
“Nowadays, many people view religious faith with hostility or, at best, with indifference. In such a world, the Church will always appear irrelevant and irrelevant. Often, such a Church will be viewed with contempt and ridicule, if not outright incomprehensibleness. As Jesus said: ‘If the world hates you, know that it hates me first,'” the archbishop said.
He called, “Face the challenges of your ministry without worry or mediocrity, and do not allow yourself to be intimidated or influenced by those who make power, wealth or pleasure the primary criteria for their lives.”
After encouraging new priests to give their lives for their faithful, Wenski urged them to “be generous with their time and available to hear the confessions of the faithful.”
this story was first published By ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language affiliate of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
