A priest forever: Father Álvaro Santamaría ordained to the priesthood on May 24

Álvaro Santamaría could not contain his smile as he processed into the Cathedral of Christ the Light. On his way to the altar, he nodded to faces in the congregation he recognized, people who had supported him during his formation, including a group from St. Joseph Basilica who enthusiastically waved photos of him mounted on sticks. Deacon Santamaría lived in the rectory there while assigned to St. Joseph Notre Dame High School. He will remain there through the 2025-26 school year.  

 In the days leading up to his ordination, now-Father Santamaría reflected with gratitude on the people who supported him on this priestly journey. “It’s beautiful to see the love from all the people of the diocese and from family and friends. It’s too much. In a good sense,” he said.  

 Knowing his ordination was imminent, Father Santamaría was reflective, experiencing a range of emotions. “It feels surreal. I’m thankful to the Lord for calling me to be one of His priests. It’s humbling to know that soon I will be consecrating the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and hearing confessions,” he said. He was already fielding requests from people eager for him to be their confessor.  

 He administered the sacrament at St. Joseph Basilica on May 25, before his Mass of Thanksgiving, and gifted the purple stole he wore as a first-time confessor to his father, Álvaro Santamaría, at the conclusion of his first Mass. His mother, Silvia Jarquin, received the purificator with which Father Santamaría wiped his hands after they were anointed by Bishop Michael C. Barber, SJ, at his ordination.  Photos by Justin Cardona

The ordination was the next step in a relationship with God that Father Santamaría recognizes was always there, even though he did not answer God’s call to the priesthood until a decade ago.  

Last week, Father Santamaría served at the ordination of his friend and classmate from St. Patrick’s Seminary, Father Larry Denis, in the Diocese of Honolulu. He awoke before dawn the next morning struck by the memory of a dream he had prior to his first Holy Communion. “I saw myself in a dream. I was a baby submerged in pure water. At eight years old, the Lord was speaking to me with words from the book of Jeremiah, where the Lord calls Jeremiah to be a prophet,” he said.

 Those words, chanted in Father Santamaría’s native Spanish, were the first reading at his ordination. They are the same words he heard a decade ago at the priestly ordination of a friend in his home country, El Salvador, when he had a moment of clarity that he would answer God’s call. “It felt like the Lord was speaking right to me. It was the same voice I heard at eight years old.” 

 Three priests from El Salvador -- Father Héctor Figueroa, Father Adrian Sanchez and Father Edgardo Rodriguez -- who each served as pastor at El Señor de Las Misericordias, Father Santamaría’s home parish during his formative years, participated in his investiture during the ordination. “I feel supported like a son who has been taken care of by his spiritual fathers. It is them telling me now is your time to be a good priest and spiritual father like we were to you,” Father Santamaría said.

 “Now, I can call them brothers,” he said of his fellow priests following his Mass of Thanksgiving. 

 That new status is one of the changes Bishop Barber described in his ordination homily. “In a few minutes, your life will be changed. A different man will walk down the aisle exiting the cathedral than the man who came in. As the Letter to the Hebrews says, you will be a priest forever. One of the most immediate changes in your life will be the way people address you. You will no longer be Señor Santamaría or Mr. Santamaría, you will be Father Santamaría or Father Álvaro.”

 Father Santamaría was prepared for his life to change. “I am asking the Lord for the grace to die to myself so that He may live in me,” he said. 

 Although his duties at the high school will remain the same, the way students address him will change. He believes that will lead to more change in his role. “It will be different when I am able to hear confessions and say Mass,” he said. “When they can call you ‘Father,’ it just represents more.” 

 Amidst all this change, one thing remained constant. Although the man processing out of the cathedral was different, the smile remained the same.

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