CHESTNUT HILL -- Entering the seminary was Father Diego Pena Rincon's way to "cut the umbilical cord."

Father Pena Rincon grew up in Zipaquira, a city outside Bogota, Colombia, with his parents, two siblings and extended family. It was the kind of town where everyone knew each other. His mother spoiled him, he admits, so when he entered the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Bogota at 16, it felt like he was light-years away from everything he knew.

"It was tough at the beginning, because obviously I was used to being with my parents, with all the family crew, with everyone at once, and then to be disconnected," he said.

Being away from home let him be independent and find himself for the first time.

"Even though it was difficult at the beginning, because I was young, I saw how it helped me mature," he said.

Father Pena Rincon is now 28 years old and even farther from home, at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chestnut Hill. On May 16, he and four other men will be ordained as priests for the Archdiocese of Boston. As his rector, Father Antonio Medeiros, likes to say, there are thousands of people waiting for men like Father Pena Rincon to become priests. That makes him excited for his ordination.

"That's what I have seen as a deacon, that people are really eager and longing to have a father figure, to have someone who listens to them, someone who can advise them, someone who cares for them," he said. "So that's the exciting part about the priesthood, to see that God is preparing me for this mission to be as an instrument to help him reach out to people."

His parents were Catholic but did not attend Mass faithfully. Despite this, he and his sister became altar servers, which inspired his mother to start coming to Mass. At school, Father Pena Rincon would make vessels out of paper and "play Mass," teaching his classmates how to be an altar server. Later, he met an older priest who was a missionary of the Neocatechumenal Way in Zipaquira. He was old and infirm, but he was happy to have given his life to the priesthood. That inspired Father Pena Rincon, along with his aunt and cousins, to find out more about the Neocatechumenal Way.

"It caused my curiosity," he said. "What are they doing? Why is it? They look happy. I want the same."

He joined the Way as a young teen. In high school, he didn't know what he would do with his life other than study math or languages. Joining a group for young people interested in vocations led him to decide to enter the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, which forms men who find their vocations in the Neocatechumenal Way, right after high school. His parish assignment was 90 minutes from the Bogota seminary, in a slum on the outskirts of the city.

"It was a very poor area, so it was kind of dangerous," he said. "But I was always safe in a sense, nothing ever happened to me."

The people of the parish remained in good spirits and would share their challenges with Father Pena Rincon.

"These (were) people who would struggle with work, who would struggle with life in general, but they were always very generous and attentive to my needs and to the needs of the priest of the parish as well," he said.

He arrived in Boston in February 2016. He caught a seasonal bug and was stuck in his room during his first weekend here. Looking out at the desolate, empty roads, he thought to himself, "I'm done. This is not my place." He missed Bogota.

"What kept me here (was) the sense of the mission to see that God has rebuilt my history, with my relationship with my own parents, my own life," he said.

Boston, he found, is much more religiously diverse than Colombia. Therefore, he must serve as a missionary.

"Sometimes you need to go and look for the people, because they're not right there," he said.

Father Pena Rincon is a transitional deacon at St. Patrick Parish in Brockton. The parish is located in an area that has historically struggled with crime and poverty. Many of the parishioners come from broken families.

The parish has a large Hispanic community that primarily hails from Ecuador. Many do not speak Spanish, but the indigenous Quechua language, which Father Pena Rincon is learning, so he can communicate with his flock.

Father Pena Rincon has seen quite a few struggling and "dead" parishes over the years. He has also seen God transform them.

"God always brings life out of death," he said. "So to see many of these places falling apart, then God intervenes, and everything begins to change. And then you begin to see people coming, people feeling loved, and in the manner that they feel loved, they love you, as well."



This article originally appeared in the May 1 issue of The Pilot.