On May 31, Archbishop José H. Gomez will ordain eight new priests for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
In the days leading up to their ordination, we’ll be introducing them all.
Age: 28
Hometown: Mexico City
Home parish: St. Cornelius Church, Long Beach
Parish assignment: Resurrection Church, Boyle Heights
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Jorge Moncada’s family weren’t exactly practicing Catholics. Born and raised in Mexico City, Moncada grew up attending church three times a year: Christmas, Easter, and Ash Wednesday.
But that didn’t stop him from taking his father’s dress shirts as a kid and pretending to use them as a priest’s chasuble. Or from cutting his grandmother’s flowers — much to her dismay — and going around pretending to bless people.
Looking back, Moncada can see that God was calling him from this early age, despite his lack of exposure to the Church.
“Scripture tells us that he knows us, even from a mother’s womb,” Moncada said. “He knows our entire lives from beginning to end. I think that was like the beginning to say, ‘You belong to me. I’m setting you apart. You might not know it yet, but this will happen to you.’ ”
In 2008, he and his mother moved to Oxnard, leaving his father and sisters behind. Even there, thousands of miles away, God found a way to bring Moncada into the Faith.
He discovered that a classmate was an altar server and that interested him. So he became an altar server at his parish, Santa Clara Church in Oxnard, and other ministries followed, becoming a lector, a sacristan, joining the choir.
He started getting the attention of fellow parishioners.
“They would see this young guy, and they would say, ‘Have you thought about becoming a priest?’ ” Moncada said. “So I think that question alone was just kind of like, oh, maybe I could be a priest. Maybe the Lord is really calling me for this.”
In high school, he seriously began considering and praying about the priesthood. He was pretty set on joining the seminary.
The problem? He didn’t feel like he had enough life experience yet.
So he enrolled at Thomas Aquinas College and figured that after four years he would either confirm that he wanted to be a priest, or he’d have a degree — and a wife.
His epiphany came sooner than that, after his junior year of college. He was attending a friend’s wedding and he put himself in the groom’s shoes. How happy could he be with that? Love, marriage, children, passing along the faith.
Pretty happy.
“Then the priest started speaking and something in my head was like, ‘Put yourself in his shoes. How happy would you be?’ ” Moncada said. “And when that happened, I remember I had a big smile and had this burning thing in my heart. I opened my eyes and I said that’s it. That’s what you want, Lord.”
His biggest challenge in the priesthood is there are only so many hours in the day and he’s an extrovert. He loves talking to people. He loves getting involved in their lives and the parish life. He also loves food, mariachis, and beautiful scenery.
“I love to go everywhere,” Moncada said. “I love to be with people. So I think it would be not having enough time to be present for everything, which is something we have to learn as well.”
Because his own family has gone through so much turmoil and separation, Moncada is grateful for all the families who have been there for him through his schooling and into this moment. He’s looking forward to engaging with many more families going forward.
“I’m blessed that there are a lot of people that are praying for me, that have been supportive of my journey,” he said. “Just to be able to see their prayers at work and the fruits of their prayers is something beautiful.
“And I’m a crier, so I also know that it’s very sentimental and emotional in many ways for me just to be able to get to this step to priesthood.”
