New priest from Philippines comes to Utah
SALT LAKE CITY — On Aug. 23, Father Joven Opalda arrived in the Diocese of Salt Lake City to begin his ministry.
Fr. Opalda was ordained on May 28, 2012 for the Diocese of San Carlos in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, Philippines. Before his ordination he attended St. Joseph Regional Seminary; Sr. John Mary Vianney Seminary; Manila Central University, where he obtained a medical technologist degree; and the Bicol Christian College of Medicine, where he graduated with an MD.
Early in his life, Fr. Opalda was what is called an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) and served victims of war and hunger in the Middle East. While doing that he felt his calling to the priesthood, he said. “There I was seeing the need not only in physical but in the spiritual aspect of life.”
After being ordained and serving as pastor in various parishes in his home country, Fr. Opalda received an invitation from Cardinal Jose Advincula of Manila to join him in his mission to help educate children in the Philippines’ mountainous area. Cardinal Advincula previously had been Fr. Opalda’s bishop in the Diocese of San Carlos.
Since then Fr. Opalda has served as superintendent, on the commission for clergy, and most recently as a chaplain at various locations in the Philippines.
He came to the Diocese of Salt Lake City at the invitation of Bishop Oscar A. Solis, whom he met about five years ago in the rectory of his brother priest, Father Jojo Opalda. Bishop Solis was there attending a bishop’s conference, and Fr. Joven Opalda was there on vacation.
“It was just a simple invitation to come to Salt Lake City … a heartfelt conversation and invitation [to minister in Utah] came,” said Fr. Opalda, who at the time was on a sabbatical from working for the Archdiocese of Manila as a hospital chaplain.
He has received a warm welcome in the Diocese of Salt Lake City from the very start, he said, beginning with his communication with Marylin Acosta, Bishop Solis’ executive assistant, and other members of the diocesan staff while he was still in the Philippines.
In addition to the Filipino dialects Ilonggo, Cebuano, Bicol and Tagalog, Fr. Opalda speaks English fluently and reads in Spanish.
He wants the Catholic community in Utah to know that he is a disciple of Christ, “dedicated in the service of the people of God. I have faith in God, preaching the Good News of Jesus in the Universal Church, celebrating all the sacraments in persona Christi,” he said.
Fr. Opalda expects to work “in peace in communion with the bishop and my brother priests in the Diocese of Salt Lake,” he said.
He is temporarily assigned as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Madeleine while he becomes oriented to the diocese.
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