As a seminarian, Cristhian David Mendieta Hernández had to flee Nicaragua, persecuted by the very dictatorship that had recently exiled his bishop.
The regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife and vice president, Rosario Murillo, ramped up its persecution of the Catholic Church in 2018.
After the dictatorship exiled Silvio Báez, the auxiliary bishop of Managua, from Nicaragua in April 2019, Mendieta, who as a seminarian often accompanied the bishop, was forced to flee the country as well, traveling first to Guatemala and then to Costa Rica.
His journey concluded in Miami in January 2022, where, with the assistance of Báez and Father Marco Somarriba, pastor of St. Agatha Parish in Miami, he was able to continue his priestly formation.
On May 9 at St. Mary’s Cathedral, he knelt before Archbishop Thomas Wenski and received the priestly ordination that the Nicaraguan dictatorship had attempted to deny him.
“I carry my people and my homeland in my heart, and I will offer my first Mass for them,” the newly ordained Nicaraguan priest, who will serve as parochial vicar at St. Thomas the Apostle in Miami, told ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, on May 10.
“This priesthood is a blessing for me, for my family, for the Church, and for the people of Nicaragua,” added Mendieta, who was born in La Concepción township in the Masaya district of Nicaragua.
He celebrated his first Mass on May 10 at St. Agatha, accompanied by Báez and other Nicaraguan priests who attended the ordination.
“I am grateful to the Archdiocese of Miami for welcoming me and giving me the opportunity to serve the people of God. Here we have a broader perspective that our ministry is for all of God’s people and that our people, especially those from Latin America, share the same aspirations for freedom, peace, and stability,” he emphasized.
Father Edwing Román, parochial vicar at St. Agatha, told ACI Prensa that “it’s a source of great joy to have Father Cristhian as another brother in the priesthood. He is a young man of many virtues and a dedicated scholar.”
“I admire his piety and humility as well as his ease in forming friendships with the faithful. May God bless him abundantly, and may he be a shepherd modeled after Jesus Christ, the eternal high priest,” Román said.
In a video posted by the Archdiocese of Miami on May 6, Mendieta recalled that when he was 6 years old and attending a concert, he announced that he was thinking of becoming a priest, which surprised his family.
Years later, while involved in his parishʼs youth ministry, the example of his hardworking parish priest, Father José Antonio, who strove to reach every community, no matter how remote, encouraged him to pursue his vocation and change his plans to become a doctor.
The young priest also shared that he enjoys classical music and Frank Sinatra, and that when he is driving, he entertains himself by listening to the British band Queen.
Along with Mendieta, the following men were ordained: Adam Cahill, Henry Cárdenas Afanador, Tomasz Kaziel, Arístides Lima, Carlos Luzardo, Saint-Clos Papouloute, Pietro Pironato, and Michele Sega.
In his homily, Wenski highlighted the diverse origins of the new priests — Nicaragua, Italy, Poland, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, etc. — and noted that “in an increasingly secularized world, where many have lost the sense of the transcendent, the priest is an enigma, a symbol of great contradiction.”
“Nowadays, many view religious faith with hostility or at best, with indifference. In such a world, the Church will always appear out of step and irrelevant. Often, such a Church will be viewed if not with contempt and mockery, with total incomprehension. As Jesus said: ‘If the world hates you, know that it hated me first,’” the archbishop said.
“Face the challenges of your ministry without anxiety or mediocrity, and do not allow yourselves to be intimidated or influenced by those who make power, wealth, or pleasure the primary criteria of their lives,” he exhorted.
After encouraging the new priests to lay down their lives for their faithful, Wenski urged them to be “generous with their time and available to hear the confessions of the faithful.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
