June 16, 2025 — This month, four members of Jesuits West were ordained to the priesthood at two different Masses. Fr. Peter Berger, SJ, was ordained at his home parish, St. Paul Cathedral, in Yakima, Washington, on June 6 by the Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson, Bishop of Yakima. On June 14, the Most Reverend José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles, ordained three more Jesuits at American Martyrs Catholic Church in Manhattan Beach, California: Fr. Dominic Chai, SJ, Fr. Ulises Covarrubias, SJ, and Fr. Fernando Saldivar, Jr., SJ.
In his homily at Fr. Berger’s ordination Mass, Bishop Tyson noted that at the offertory, unique to the Rite of Ordination, the bishop receives the bread and wine and then hands them to the newly ordained priest. He told Fr. Berger that this gesture suggests to him that “I’m not only receiving the bread and wine and the labor of the fields, I am receiving the labor of love that is you. Peter, you are a work of love for the holy people of God that we consecrate for priesthood. You are, in a certain sense, the bread and wine as well.”
At American Martyrs Catholic Church, Archbishop Gomez told those gathered, “Every ordination is a sign of God’s love for his people, a sign that the Lord is with us until the end of the age, that his Spirit is alive and working in his Church. And every ordination is a beautiful sign that the call of God’s voice is still heard in the heart of his children.”
He noted that every priest is a missionary, but that has a special meaning in the Society of Jesus. “In the spirit of the great St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Lord is sending each of you to be an apostle and a shepherd … to proclaim the word of God, the word of his love, and to feed his flock with the bread of life.”
“You are now part of the great club of Jesuit witnesses who have come before you, who have preached the Gospel literally to the ends of the Earth,” Archbishop Gomez told the three ordinands. “Jesus is your mission and your mission is love.”
Referring to the Gospel reading, Archbishop Gomez told Frs. Chai, Covarrubias and Saldivar: “We pray that on this, your ordination day, you will open your hearts to the words Jesus speaks to you today: ‘Love one another as I love you.’”
Before they were ordained, each took time to reflect on their Jesuit formation. Fr. Chai said one of his most meaningful experiences of formation was being welcomed into Yup’ik communities in Scammon Bay, Hooper Bay and Chevak, Alaska, as a novice. “At first, I wanted to do something — to contribute in some way — but instead, I learned what it meant to simply be present. I began to see ministry not as offering something, but as being with others, listening and sharing in their daily lives.”
“Their way of life, deeply rooted in community and resilience, gave me an insight into what it truly means to walk with others,” Fr. Chai said.
For Fr. Saldivar, living in community reminded him “that as Jesuits we are called not only to help souls, but to do all of this together.” He recalled a time when his mother was in the hospital with a serious illness and then came down with Covid while Fr. Saldivar was living in Nairobi, Kenya. After sharing with his brothers in community what was happening, they prayed at Mass for the recovery of “our mother, Nellie.”
“That touched me to the depths of my soul and reminded me what it means to be a Jesuit in community. We’re family,” Fr. Saldivar said.
Fr. Berger noted the role Ignatian spirituality played in his formation. “I love the spirituality of the Jesuits as given to us by St. Ignatius. It has had a huge impact on me and continues to. It is facilitating an intimacy with Christ I didn’t know was possible before I did the Spiritual Exercises. It has been key for preparing me for important spiritual experiences.”
Fr. Covarrubias said he never imagined being able to do a stage of formation in a culture and language that were foreign to him, calling the three years he spent in France for theology studies “the most formative in my Jesuit life.”
“Although I recognize that I had many resources to facilitate my experience, I feel that I was given a taste of what so many migrants go through: the loneliness, homesickness, insecurity with the language. At the end, I walked away knowing that there are so many diverse and beautiful forms of expression and communication, so many different ways of entering into relationship, and that our God is always greater than we imagined.”
