Three Salesians Ordained
Bishop
Whalen Advises, “Remember, it’s always about Jesus.”
Julia St. Clair, coordinator of communications for the New Rochelle Province, contributed to this post.
Two Salesians of Don Bosco were ordained to
the presbyterate and one to the diaconate on Saturday, June 26, at St. John
Bosco Church in Port Chester, N.Y. They were Frs. Leonard Carlino and Steven
DeMaio and Deacon Ky Nguyen. All three men belong to the Salesian province of
St. Philip the Apostle, which covers the eastern U.S. and all of Canada.
Auxiliary Bishop Edmund J. Whalen of New York presided and preached. Also participating was Bishop John O. Barres of Rockville Centre, Fr. Lenny’s diocese of origin. Another 46 priests concelebrated, mostly Salesians, and five deacons also vested for service at the altar or participation by their presence.
The church was about half-full, a couple of
hundred people, with pews still marked off for social distancing. Attending were the ordinands’ families and
friends, members of the Salesian Family, and parishioners of St. John Bosco.
Many others tuned in via the live stream from St. John Bosco Church’s Facebook and YouTube.
“It’s
absolutely beautiful that someone so young has decided to dedicate his life to
God,” Joanna Garbatini, Fr. Steve’s cousin, proudly commented to Julia St.
Clair of the Salesian Communications Office.
“I
remember when I first met Deacon Ky, who was my small group leader on the
Salesian Leadership Retreat, and Fr. Steve, who was my homeroom teacher when I
was a freshman,” Anthony Del Debbio, Salesian High School ’19, shared with Miss
St. Clair. “Fr. Steve was the one who got me into the Salesian community.” He
then told a humorous story of an occurrence he encountered after Deacon Ky’s
departure from Salesian High. “[Deacon Ky] oversaw chapel when I was an altar
server. When he left, he left instructions for us on where everything was,
steps 1-20—and we didn’t find them until we called him for help!”
“It’s really overwhelming because I had the
grace of accompanying Fr. Steve for four years. I also know Fr. Lenny well
since we studied together. It’s beautiful this day has come, and they will be
wonderful priests,” Fr. Benny Di Bitonto, diocesan priest from Jerusalem, began
explaining to Miss St. Clair. “We will miss them but celebrate the Mass every
day. We are one and will always meet at the altar. There is no periphery; we
are all at the center.”
The
parish provided a buffet luncheon after Mass.
Both Fr. Lenny and Fr. Steve studied
theology for four years at the Studium Theologicum Salesianum in Jerusalem, also
known as the Ratisbonne Institute, an affiliate of the Salesian Pontifical
University in Rome, and both were ordained deacons on June 14, 2020, at the Church
of All Nations in Gethsemane, Jerusalem.
Fr. Lenny was educated at Forest Brook
Elementary School in Hauppauge and Hauppauge High School before entering the
Salesians in August 2009. At Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., he
earned a B.A. in Catholic theology, followed by an M.A. in religious education
from Fordham University in the Bronx. At the Ratisbonne he earned a Bachelor’s
degree in sacred theology; his thesis was titled “Consecration and the
Recapitulation of All Things in Christ.”
Fr. Lenny came to know of the Salesians
through the presence of Salesian Cooperators at St. Thomas More Parish, which
led to his participation in Salesian youth ministry retreats. He entered the
novitiate in Rosemead, Calif., in 2013 and made his first profession of vows on
August 16, 2014, at Haverstraw, N.Y., and his perpetual profession on August
17, 2019, also at Haverstraw. He completed two years of practical training at
Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, La., teaching religion and assisting
with band and choir (2015-2017). He has found his eleven years of Salesian life
a beautiful “life of consecration in prayer, community, and mission. I’ve been
blessed to meet Salesians from many different contexts, backgrounds, and
countries. While we are all unique, we share this identity as sons of Don Bosco
and followers of Christ as ministers of the Church to young people.”
As a newly ordained priest, Fr. Lenny is assigned to St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester as parochial vicar and coordinator of youth ministry. There he hopes “to personalize and truly interiorize the priestly ministerial identity through practice of the ministry at St. John Bosco parish, especially among the young people of the village.”
All of the newly ordained men were extremely
happy and grateful to have experienced such an amazing day. “It’s very good to
be here,” Fr. Lenny told Miss St. Clair. “For me, witnessing the wonderful
laypeople embrace their vocations helps me to live mine. While it’s been a long
time coming, God is with you and that makes it all worth it.” For Fr. Lenny,
the next step on his vocation journey is to “be at peace and have grace flow
through ministry.”
Fr. Lenny celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving in his home parish of St. Thomas More on Sunday, June 27, receiving a warm welcome from pastor Fr. Antony Asir and hundreds of parishioners.
Fr.
Steve got his schooling at Sherman Middle School, Canterbury High School (New
Milford, Conn.), and James Madison University (Harrisonburg, Va.); at JMU he
earned a B.A. in business administration. At the Ratisbonne he earned a
Bachelor’s degree in sacred theology; his thesis was titled “Created,
Accompanied and Divinized in Trinitarian Friendship.”
After his college graduation, Fr. Steve met
the Salesian Sisters in Lusaka, Zambia, while working for a Spanish NGO. That
encounter induced him to join the Salesians in 2010. He entered the novitiate
at Rosemead in 2011 and made his first profession of vows on August 21, 2012,
at New Rochelle, N.Y. He made his perpetual profession on September 7, 2018, at
Haverstraw, N.Y. He completed three years of practical training (2014-2017) at
Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y., teaching religion and serving as
campus minister.
He speaks of his Salesian experience thus
far as having “been one of healing and growth towards a deeper and more
intimate relationship with God through my encounter with my Salesian brothers
and the many people I have encountered on the way.”
Newly ordained, he will return to New
Rochelle to assist in the province’s vocation office. He “hopes to be a
dedicated and authentic Salesian priest wherever God sends me.”
Fr. Steve told Miss St. Clair that he’s “really
grateful to be back in the province.” He continued, “I’m excited to work with
vocations and youth and young adult ministry, accompany young people, and be a
blessing.”
Fr. Steve celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving
at St. Rose of Lima Church in Meriden, Conn., on Sunday, June 27.
Deacon Ky knew the Salesians early in life
because his father is a Salesian past pupil. He entered the Salesians as a
candidate in 2004 and made his novitiate in 2010-2011 in Ho Chi Minh City,
professing first vows on August 14, 2011. After immigrating to the U.S. in 2016
to rejoin his family, he made his perpetual profession on August 17, 2019, at
Haverstraw, N.Y.
Deacon Ky did his practical training in the
Salesian boarding school at Bao Loc, Vietnam,
teaching computer science and providing general assistance to the students, and
at Salesian High School in New Rochelle as a campus minister (2017-2018). As a
student of theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary, he resides in the
Salesian community of Orange, N.J., and continues youth ministry activities
there.
Concerning his Salesian life in two
countries, he writes: “Being a professed
Salesian for ten years has offered me chances to follow Christ in Don Bosco’s
charism, i.e., to serve young people. There have been up-and-down moments on
this journey. But in general, it has been a beautiful journey. Like Mary, who
said ‘Yes’ to the call to become the Mother of God without understanding what
it means, I am also called to continue to say ‘Yes’ to God with a complete
trust in his wisdom and providence.”
When asked how he felt after the ordination Mass, Deacon Ky remarked, “Wow! I’m full of hope and know this is what God wants.” He added, “It’s a vocation and journey of faith because the Lord is by my side.”
This summer Deacon
Ky will exercise his ministry at St. Rosalie and St. John Bosco parishes in Harvey,
La., which are administered by the Salesians. In the fall he will continue his
theological studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary. He says simply that he
hopes to “continue to grow in faith, being closer to Jesus.”
Preaching without notes, Bp. Whalen began by noting the blessings that the ordinands’ parents gave to them after they responded, “Present,” to the call to step forward for ordination. Their parents gave them the gift of God’s love, and through the ordained that love will flow on to God’s family, the Church.
The gospel reading (John 20:19-23), the bishop said, shows Jesus
coming to his disciples, challenging them, and sending them to visit God’s
people and breathe his life into them.
Then, citing the concluding words of the Eucharistic Prayer at
every Mass, “Through him, with him, and in him,” Bp. Whalen challenged the
ordinands to remember that their ministry is always about Jesus and his people.
He noted that this ordination is taking place between the memorial
of St. Joseph Cafasso (June 23) and the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (June
29), and that June 29 will be the 70th ordination anniversary of Joseph
Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. He urged prayer
that many more young men will come forward to answer God’s call and accept this
gift of love from God, as “young, skinny” Joseph Ratzinger did and the three
men are doing today.
The Bp. Whalen pointed to the priestly example of St. Joseph
Cafasso, whose ministry focused on Jesus and on the condemned prisoners to whom
he brought God’s love, “breathing on them the creative life of God.” St. Joseph taught that same focus and
attention to Don Bosco. He also imitated
Mary in his readiness to obey and readiness to suffer, because of poor health,
in his ministry.
The bishop turned then to the example of Sts. Peter and Paul. Like St. Peter, priests can bring Christ’s
forgiveness to people only after they have accepted that forgiveness. Like St. Paul, they are to be zealous (“not
zealots”) in bringing the gift of God that has been “boiling up inside them”
like hot water in a tea kettle.
Joseph Ratzinger has always remained a teacher attentive to
individuals, even after being called in obedience out of his classroom to
ministry as bishop, cardinal prefect, and Pope.
He kept his focus on Jesus through the sacraments of Eucharist and
Reconciliation.
Finally, the bishop emphasized, all priestly ministry happens through the Eucharist, and the ordained have to start every day by experiencing that gift: “through him, with him, and in him.”
A third Salesian, Fr. Charles Craig Spence of Pass Christian, Miss., will be ordained on July 31 at St. John Bosco Church in Harvey, La., by New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond.
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