CAMDEN – The clouds and raindrops outside couldn’t stop the joyful light within the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception the morning of May 18 as Deacon Ricardo Lozano Cruz was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Camden.
“Serve faithfully and selflessly as a priest of Jesus Christ,” Bishop Dennis Sullivan said, imploring the newly ordained to gain glory for God in his new ministry. “May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfillment.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Priest Ordination of Father Ricardo Lozano Cruz
LIVESTREAM VIDEO: Rite of Ordination to the Priesthood
Before the Rite of Ordination, Bishop preached the homily, affectionately referring to Deacon Cruz as “sumercé,” or “your mercy,” a popular Spanish word from the young man’s native Colombia. Bishop noted that Deacon Cruz would be joining “a long line of immigrant priests who have come from afar to South Jersey and served this Diocese with distinction and commitment.
“Priests came from Italy, the Philippines, Ireland, Poland, India, Salvador, Africa, Malta, Mexico, Colombia … and the Bronx,” he said to a standing-room-only church full of laughter.
As the Ordination Mass fell on the Vigil of Pentecost, the Bishop asked Deacon Cruz to “let the Holy Spirit do for you what he did for the first priests, the apostles who experienced the breath and fire of God: They came to life and fearlessly announced the Good News … to the ends of the earth, on fire with the Holy Spirit.”
During the Rite of Ordination, the Rev. Mr. affirmed that, in his new responsibilities, he will “discharge without fail the Office of the Priesthood … exercise the ministry of the Word worthily and wisely … [and] celebrate faithfully and reverently, in accord with the Church’s tradition, the mysteries of Christ … and implore God’s mercy upon the people.”
He then lie prostrate as the Litany of the Saints was sung by the musicians, under the direction of Mike Bedics, diocesan director of Worship. Afterward, he knelt before Bishop Sullivan, and the Diocese’s shepherd laid hands on the Rev. Mr.’s head, a gesture indicating the bestowing of the Holy Spirit. Priests of the Diocese then also laid their own hands upon Deacon Cruz’s head.
Father Thomas Newton, pastor of Saint Damien Parish, Ocean City, bestowed the vestments of stole and chasuble. Bishop Sullivan then anointed the young man’s hands with the sacred Oil of Chrism. After the new priest’s paten and chalice were blessed by the Bishop, the Kiss of Peace was bestowed by the Bishop and then by the concelebrating priests. The Mass continued with the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
After Mass, the hundreds of clergy, seminary formators, religious, family and friends who have supported Father Cruz along his discernment journey received first blessings by the new priest in the nearby Cathedral Hall. Among those in attendance was Father Robert K. Suszko, vice rector of the Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University, South Orange.
“I’m the happiest mother in the world today,” said Miryam Cruz Ariza, Father Cruz’s mother. She and Father Cruz’s sisters, Erika and Anjelica, surprised the new priest by traveling from Colombia to be in attendance for his Ordination Day. “I give thanks to God,” she said.
Father Cruz’s older sister, Erika, called the day not only a great moment for him, but for the entire family. “I’m so proud of him,” she said. “It wasn’t easy for him to leave [Colombia] and start [seminary studies] in a new country, and learn a new culture and language, but I know it’s all God’s purpose.”
Father Newton has known Father Cruz since February 2018, when the latter first came to the Diocese of Camden. Father Newton said that as he witnessed the young man kneel before Bishop Sullivan during the Laying of Hands and Prayer of Ordination, “I felt a tremendous sense of gratitude and joy.”
“It was a long journey for him to get here, but he worked hard, studied hard and prayed hard. He’s filled with the Spirit of God,” Father Newton said.
Now, as Father Lozano Cruz departs the seminary life and enters fully into the Church of South Jersey, Father Newton is excited for the community to get to know a shepherd who “prays hard, laughs hard and enjoys life [and] invites people into his spirit and soul and into a relationship with God.”
“The humility he has, the sense of joy and peace he will bring to the people he encounters, will automatically draw people to Christ,” Father Newton said.
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