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: 49
Hometown: Manila, Philippines
Home parish: St. Madeleine Church, Pomona
Parish assignment: Beatitudes of Our Lord Church, La Mirada
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Sometimes Catholics, especially in the United States, might take their faith for granted. Allan Carodan is not one of them.
Trying to practice your faith in Saudi Arabia will do that for you.
Carodan had felt called to the priesthood in high school, and had been accepted into the Comboni Missionaries in the Philippines at 18 years old. But after two years with them, he said he had to leave to support his family.
As part of that journey, he found himself years later as the executive assistant to a CEO in Saudi Arabia.
Where in the Philippines he could practice his Catholic faith freely, in Saudi Arabia, he said it had to be done privately, in secret.
You could not display religious images, like Jesus or the Virgin Mary, he said. You could not carry around a Bible. You could not clutch a rosary out in the open.
If you were caught, you could be deported or physically harmed, he said. But because of his strong faith, he said he had nothing to fear.
“I know God is with me, so I don’t much fear that physical pain or deportation,” he said. “One thing for sure is the joy that makes me do what I’m doing despite the security.”
Carodan especially savored having the Eucharist, since they could only celebrate the sacrament maybe once or twice a year.
“I’ve tasted how hard [it was] to exercise that Catholic faith,” he said. “To see the other Christians who are really longing for the sacraments, especially for the Eucharist.”
While working, he got to travel and experience the world. But Carodan said God shielded him from letting the world consume him, knowing he had another mission.
“Eat, drink and be merry, I experienced all those things,” he said. “But here I am looking back, ‘Wow, Lord, thank you for allowing me to experience those things, and thank you for keeping me in your hands, directing me.’ ”
In 2014, he came to the United States and eventually began attending St. Madeleine Church in Pomona. Not knowing how to drive or having a car meant he had to walk three miles just to attend Sunday Mass. Thankfully, he eventually made friends who began helping him and giving him a ride. “God provides,” he said.
“I don’t ever complain because the joy that I’m getting from that simple Sunday obligation, it means a lot,” Carodan said. “And it grew day by day.
“Whatever your condition in life, whether you’re really able to go to the church, whatever means you have, do it, because there is great joy.”
More than 30 years after joining the Comboni Missionaries, he’ll finally be ordained a priest. But it will be bittersweet because his mother didn’t live to see it. She died in November 2024, an unplanned event that led Carodan to be ordained a deacon in his native Philippines instead of with his LA classmates.
Despite the challenges and the longer path to get here, Carodan knows God made him for this. The way he approaches his vocation is a model for how others can see theirs.
“Whether your vocation is single, blessedness, married life, or this religious or holy orders, fear is normal,” he said. “But don’t allow that fear to paralyze you of not doing your role as a parent, as a child, as an educator, as a priest.”
Carodan’s life experience has taught him that the “role” he’s been called to is worth the difficulties that may await.
“I do it for the Lord,” Carodan said. “Who am I to say no to a given task, whether it’s a simple task or very difficult? You gave me everything, and I'm giving you everything, all my energy, all my talent.
“What else can I ask for? I give my hands during the time that I was not a seminarian. I give my hands and my heart. Now I can give my whole life.”
