St. Francis of Assisi welcomes new priest

Intermountain Catholic

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OREM — Born and raised in San Marcos, El Salvador, Father Fernando Velasco is the new parochial vicar at Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Parish in Orem.

When he was 17 years old he entered a seminary in Santa Ana, El Salvador and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Santa Ana on Dec. 2, 2000.

"I was ordained during the Jubilee by Bishop Romeo Tovar Astorga, who is a Franciscan bishop," said Fr. Velasco.

He thinks that his priestly call started due to the Catholic environment in which he was raised.

"My mother was a very devout Catholic," he said. "Even when we were living in the fields and we didn’t have Mass very frequently, there were a lot of lay groups. There was a very big group called Legion of Mary, so in every house we used to pray the rosary; my mother had a great devotion to the Virgin Mary and to our Catholic faith."

At the times that a Mass was celebrated and the family was able to attend, Fr. Velasco remembers that he was always very attentive when he saw the priest.

"As a kid I remember I used to play with my brothers as if we were celebrating a Mass, so my parents decided that they were going to send me to the seminary so I could become a priest," said Fr. Velasco.

The idea developed through the years and the rest "was God," so everything fell into place, said Fr. Velasco.

His service as a priest developed for four years in El Salvador. Then, from 2004 to 2008, he was in Rome to obtain a specialization in institutional communication. Afterward he returned to El Salvador, then experienced a few years in the Diocese of San Francisco and also had the opportunity to come to Utah.

"There are four priests here in Utah who are from the diocese where I was born. Some of them were my classmates [Father Marco Tulio, administrator of San Felipe Parish in Wendover, Father German Umaña, parochial vicar of Saint Mary of the Assumption in Park City, and Father Fidel Barrera, parochial vicar of Christ the King Parish in Cedar City] and Father Jose Alberto Barrera, parochial vicar of Saint Joseph in Ogden, was the vicar from my parish, so we were always in touch. That’s how I ended up here in Utah," said Fr. Velasco.

Now, at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Fr. Velasco has many challenges as well as plans.

"I have many projects," he said. "I want to do a very strong evangelization with a method that has given a lot of results in Latin American dioceses. For the moment I have to talk with our priest [Father David Bittmenn] and we are going to start an evangelization through a system of a new evangelization that instructs the lay community more about the Bible, catechism, prayer and living in community," said Fr. Velasco, who also plans to have a Holy Hour and Adoration more frequently at the parish.

Father Velasco celebrates Masses in English and Spanish and he has been greatly welcomed by the Catholic community in Orem.

"His preaching is very good; he makes me reflect a lot and smile a lot," said Francisco Guzman, a parishioner of St. Francis of Assisi.

"I am here for everyone," Fr. Velasco said. "People are responding; they are calling me to visit the sick, to go to their houses. I am available. I am here to serve them as much as I can."