Deacon says grandmother inspired vocation

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

His grandmother’s example inspired his vocation – and his plan for how to live it out. And that resonates with what he’s heard from Pope Francis.
Deacon Victor Alonso Sierra López shared these core aspects of  his journey to the priesthood as he prepared for his June 23 ordination at St. Paul Cathedral.
“I think vocation comes from God, but through family and through the people around us, the people who care for us,” he said.  “In my case, this person is my grandmother.”
He was born Oct. 29, 1989, in Santo Domingo, Antioquia, Colombia, the son of William H. Sierra and María L. Lopez. But when he was 4 years old, his parents separated and he went to live with his grandmother, Maria D. Castaño, in Bello. (He has three brothers and a sister.)
“I lived with her until I went to seminary, and she taught me everything I know, especially values,” Deacon Sierra said. “And through her I discovered – I felt – my vocation. When I was 6 years old I started thinking about becoming a priest.”
But he wasn’t thinking about standing at the altar wearing fancy clothes, he said.
“From my grandmother I learned that vocation is about serving others and putting ourselves last,” he explained. “She was always serving others, doing everything she could for others. And I think today that is the heart of my vocation.”
That led him to accept the invitation to discern a vocation for Worcester Diocese, where he was told there was a need for priests.
He’d gone to Candido Leguizamo School from age 5 to 11, then Jorge Eliezer Gaitan Ayala for six years of night school. (Starting at age 13 he worked days, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., selling home goods to pay for his studies, he said.)
At age 17 he entered the Seminary of Our Lady in Marinilla, where he got his bachelor’s in philosophy in 2010.
Deacon Sierra said he was originally aiming to be a diocesan priest. But observing the ministry of Palotinos in his home parish, he joined that religious community. He wanted to be a missionary like them.
They sent him to  Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin to study theology and to São Paulo, Brazil, for a year, to learn Portuguese and do mission work.
While he was at the university, one of his professors visited Colombian priest friends in the Worcester Diocese. Upon returning, the professor told him there was a need for priests here. He could learn English and then help in three languages, including his native Spanish and recently-acquired Portuguese.
“I thought, ‘Here in Colombia we have a lot of priests,’” Deacon Sierra said. “When you are ordained to the priesthood, you are ordained to the whole Catholic Church.”
So, at Bishop McManus’ invitation, he came to the Worcester Diocese on Aug. 18, 2014. The weather didn’t bother him, as it has some seminarians from abroad.
“I like change,” Deacon Sierra said. “I really enjoyed the four seasons here.”
He lived at Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies and studied English at Clark University for two years. Then he attended St. Mary’s Seminary & University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he got his bachelor’s in theology and master’s of divinity last month.
His local parish assignments were: St. Mary of the Assumption in Milford, where he served seven Masses in three languages on weekends his first year here; St. Stephen’s in Worcester, where he worked with Brazilians and Anglos; St. Cecilia’s in Leominster, where some funeral hymns were in French, and Holy Family of Nazareth in Leominster, where he used his Spanish and English.
He was ordained a transitional deacon Dec. 16, 2017 in St. Paul Cathedral.
His family was unsuccessful in getting visas to attend his priestly ordination next week, he said.
One of those who can’t be there physically is his grandmother, who died Nov. 28 last year. Deacon Sierra said he didn’t get to go to her funeral, but he returned to Colombia on his birthday, Oct. 29, to take care of her. She’d had a stroke, but knew he was there, he said. He expressed gratitude that Bishop McManus allowed him to go for a week, and he spent it by her side. It was really important to be there.
“We always lived together, just her and me,” he said. “We had our time together; it was really beautiful.”
Here he has found new family members.
At his ordination, he plans to seat in the “family” pew four women from St. Mary’s in  Milford, whom he calls his mothers: Carol Ann Thompson, Mary G. Castrucci, Marion Mairs and Rosemary Trettel.
“Actually, they are my family – family in the Lord,” he said, and noted that they visited him many times at the seminary.
Coming from Colombia for his ordination are two priests who were his scripture teachers (Father Hernan D. Cardona, who is to vest him, and Father Carlos M. Bustamante) and a lay friend, Marlo J. Losada, he said. Another Colombian priest, Father Marco A. Castaño, who is studying in Rome, is also planning to come.
Deacon Sierra said his Masses of Thanksgiving here are to be trilingual:  at 4 p.m. June 23 at Holy Family in Leominster and 10:30 a.m. June 24 at St. Mary’s in Milford.
 June 26-July 31 he is to be back in Colombia, where he plans to celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving July 1 at his home parish there, La Epifanía in Bello.
Aug. 1 he is to start his new assignment as associate pastor of both Good Shepherd Parish in Linwood, where he is to live in the rectory, and St. Augustine Parish in Millville.
Deacon Sierra said he wants to thank all the people who helped him throughout his journey, even those he doesn’t know, who prayed for him. As a seminarian he received cards which said, in effect, “You don’t know me, but I pray for you every day.” He said he’s had wonderful experiences writing back to these people, and has met with some of them.
“Please keep praying for us – for vocations, for our holiness,” he said, referring to priests and seminarians.
“It is really important to appreciate people,” he said; priests aren’t above lay people. “We serve only one God,” and all vocations are important. “I think that’s really important in the Church – to avoid clericalism. I think that’s the direction Pope Francis is pointing out – to serve others, to go out and meet people, stay with the people where they are in their suffering, in their needs.”