Road to priesthood takes deacon from Colombia to Worcester

Road to priesthood takes deacon
from Colombia
to Worcester

Second in a series about the journeys of the men being ordained priests

By Tanya Connor  
The Catholic Free Press

Doing psychotherapy with victims of civil conflict in Colombia showed him the importance of priestly ministry.
Tomorrow he is to be ordained a priest for the Worcester Diocese. And he has a goal for his priesthood, connected with the date of his first Mass.
Deacon Javier De Jesus Julio De Arco tells this story of his journey to this day.
Son of Belarmina De Arco and the late Olegario Julio, he was born Aug. 16, 1979 in Puerto Libertador, Cordoba in Colombia. He has three brothers and four sisters.
He graduated from German Gómez Peláez High School in 1999.
While in high school he joined a Catholic movement called Benposta Nación de Muchacho, he said. They sent him to Avre Institute in Montería, Córdoba, where he got a bachelor’s degree in psychotherapy in 2002.
He worked with the movement, doing psychotherapy with children victimized by the conflict among groups that were trying to take over the country.
“I realized that most of the people – in that moment, they needed spiritual help; it was not only psychological,” he said. “And I saw many priests helping them and how that spiritual help worked on them.”
There is a point when people involved in Benposta are asked to make a three-month retreat, then decide whether to pursue priesthood, lay celibacy or marriage in the Catholic Church, Deacon Julio said. Those on retreat worked on a farm to get their own food each day, prayed and read Scripture together and visited people living nearby.
“We went to share the Gospel with them, to share our experiences with them, and we played with the children … teenagers – soccer, volleyball,” he said.
“I felt that God was calling me to become a priest in order to help people that needed spiritual help,” he said. After the retreat, “I was ready to go to seminary.”
He contacted religious communities and seminaries and in 2005 entered the Missionary Servants of the Holy Trinity. He was with them for seven years, earning his bachelor’s in philosophy from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellín in 2007 and taking two years of theology.
“When I was in Colombia with them, the experience was absolutely amazing,” he said. Each day they went to work with people in neighborhoods.
In 2010 he did his novitiate in Mexico, receiving spiritual formation, but not doing ministry.
He realized he was called to something other than religious life, he said. So he left the community, but remains in contact with them. (He just made his pre-ordination retreat with them at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling, New Jersey.)
In 2012 and 2013 he provided religious education and spiritual formation in parishes for the Archdiocese of Medellín. In 2013 he completed his bachelor’s in theology from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.
His spiritual director, Father Fernando Bernal, told him the Worcester Diocese was seeking candidates for priesthood.
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t speak English, but I will try,’” Deacon Julio said. “It wasn’t easy, but I’m so happy here.”
He said he was interviewed by Skype with a translator’s help and came here on Jan. 12, 2014 – from a place where it is always summer.
“It was my first time in the U.S. and the weather was awful,” he said. “But to see snow for the first time was amazing. It was wonderful. I played outside the whole day, like a child.” Other Colombian seminarians at Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies in Worcester played in the yard there too, and they took photos, he said.
His troubles weren’t limited to the weather.
“My first day at Clark University was terrible,” Deacon Julio said. “Everybody in the classroom spoke English except me. … When I came here I couldn’t say any word in English and I couldn’t understand any word in English.” His classmates in this English-language class had been here awhile, he said. After class each day one of them – his “angel” – told him what had been said.
 In 2016 he went to St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore, finishing several months ago.
Bishop McManus ordained him a transitional deacon June 3, 2017 in St. Paul Cathedral. From January to May 2018 he served as a transitional deacon at St. Gabriel, the Archangel Parish in Upton.
His other parish assignments were St. John, Guardian of Our Lady, Clinton; Our Lady of the Lake, Leominster, and Our Lady of Providence, Worcester.
Anticipating his ordination Deacon Julio said, “I’m excited. I can’t wait … I have been waiting for a long time.”
He said his mother and sister could not get visas to come to his ordination, then his mother’s doctor told her she shouldn’t travel. He’s hoping his family can attend his Mass of Thanksgiving July 8 at Sacred Heart of Jesus in Puerto Libertador.
“I’m happy here,” he said. “I want to be a priest for the diocese and I have in my mind my goal as a priest,” to fulfill with God’s help. “I hope to serve without counting the cost, to witness without expecting worldly recognition and to preach the Gospel with clarity, conviction and compassion. I just want to be a priest for the people of God, and I will do my best.”
He said he was thinking about his mission at Clark University, in seminary and during his diaconate service.
He said that, when he realized he would celebrate his first Mass on June 24, the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, “I connected my goal with John the Baptist, and I realized it is what Jesus is calling me to do. …
“He served the Lord without counting the cost and the cost was his life,” Deacon Julio said. “He was a witness … and he also preached the coming of Jesus with conviction and compassion for the people. When I saw this, my mission was clear, my goal as a priest.”