New Orleans – Four Jesuits of the USA Central and Southern (UCS) Province will be ordained to the priesthood at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 10, 2023, in New Orleans. The Most Reverend Gregory M. Aymond, Archbishop of New Orleans, will preside at the sacred liturgy of ordination at Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church.
Jesuits José R. Dueño Gorbea, William A. McCormick, W. Tucker Redding and Aric M. Serrano are among the 17 Jesuits to be ordained in the United States, Canada and Haiti this year. All have undergone extensive and holistic training intentionally designed to equip them to serve as pastors, educators, ministers and leaders in the Catholic Church of today – and tomorrow.
To join the livestream of the Ordination Liturgy, visit bit.ly/JesuitOrdinations2023. Follow along with the worship aid.
Meet this year’s ordinands for the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province:
José R. Dueño Gorbea, SJ, was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He met the Jesuits while a student at Colegio San Ignacio, the Jesuit secondary school in San Juan. After college, he entered the Society of Jesus at the novitiate at Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. Highlights of his formation include two years working as a videographer at America Media in New York City and teaching Puerto Rican history and French at Colegio San Ignacio for a year. His novitiate pilgrimage was in the northwestern part of the Dominican Republic, near the Haitian border. He stayed and worked with a different family, in a different village, each of the five weeks of his novitiate pilgrimage. This experience, he says, was valuable in learning to trust God’s actions in the people he met along the way.
Following his ordination to the diaconate in 2021, he served as a deacon at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Mission Hill neighborhood in Boston, working primarily with the Hispanic community.
Dueño has a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and film and television production from New York University; a licentiate in philosophy from Centre Sèvres in Paris; a Master of Divinity from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry; and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.
After he is ordained to the priesthood, Dueño will teach at Colegio San Ignacio and assist at Parroquia San Ignacio, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
William McCormick, SJ, was born in south Texas, where his faith was nourished by the unique Catholicism of the border region. While he heard the call to the priesthood from a young age, it was only after meeting Jesuits that he recognized in them the form of priesthood to which he felt called. In college he was introduced to a heady, cerebral faith that nourished his intellect, and in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest he recognized the joys of service.
His novitiate experiences took him to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Denver, Kansas City, Mo., Michigan and Mobile, Ala., among other places. Living at L’Arche Mobile, he learned profound lessons about community and discipleship. During theology studies, he led a program to form laypeople in his parish to lead 19th Annotation retreats. He says his regency experience, teaching political science and philosophy at Saint Louis University, and becoming a contributing editor for America Magazine, was one of the greatest gifts of his Jesuit formation.
McCormick earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Chicago; a master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science at the University of Texas-Austin; a master’s degree in philosophy at Fordham University; and a Master of Divinity at Regis College in Toronto.
Following ordination to the priesthood, McCormick will serve in mission and ministry at St. John’s College in Belize City, Belize.
Tucker Redding, SJ, was born and raised in Boerne, Texas. During college, he began to grow in his faith through his involvement at St. Mary’s Catholic Center on the campus of Texas A&M University, where he was a member of several student groups, including a retreat team that planned and staffed retreats for parishes. It was on a student trip sponsored by St. Mary’s Catholic Center that Redding first met a group of Jesuits. He was intrigued by the variety of ministries they engaged in and their community life. What seemed like a random encounter served as a spark to his ultimate discernment to become a Jesuit.
After graduating from Texas A&M, Redding served as the coordinator of youth ministry at St. Justin Martyr Parish in Houston for four years before entering the Jesuit novitiate in Grand Coteau, La. As a novice, he did apostolic work in Kansas City, Mo., St. Louis, Baton Rouge, La., Nicaragua and Jamaica. His ministerial assignments began with teaching theology and producing videos for the advancement department at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. He then moved to New York to work as an assistant producer in the audio/video department at America Media, where he helped with the production of various videos and podcasts. He even created his own podcast on Ignatian contemplation called “Imagine: A Guide to Jesuit Prayer.” Redding wrote for and produced videos for The Jesuit Post throughout much of his formation, including as editor-in-chief for two years.
After his diaconal ordination in September 2022, Redding served as a deacon at St. Brigid and Gate of Heaven Parish in Boston.
Redding has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Texas A&M University; a master’s degree in communication from Saint Louis University; and a Master of Divinity from the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.
After ordination, he will serve as an associate pastor of St. Francis Xavier College Church in St. Louis and work part time in the U.S. Central and Southern Province’s communications department.
Aric M. Serrano, SJ, was born in Mankato, Minnesota. One of 13 children, he moved with his family several times before they settled in Pecos, Texas. He learned about the Jesuits from reading about the lives of Sts. Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier. His connection to the Jesuits came through his aunt, Sr. Teresa of the Eternal Father, OCD, in Lake Elmo, Minn.
A talented musician, he played guitar in both jazz and ska bands. While he was an undergraduate at Eastern New Mexico University, he attended Jesuit discernment retreats and loved sitting in silence and praying with Scripture. After graduation in 2012, he entered the novitiate at Grand Coteau, La. As a novice, he did apostolic work in Kansas City, Mo., New Orleans, Tampa, Fla. and Guyana. He also had the opportunity to study conducting as part of the European American Musical Alliance summer session in Paris.
His apostolic work included teaching elementary music to the students of St. John Chrysostom School in the Bronx and teaching both boys and girls theology, guitar and band, and directing the freshman girls retreat at Regis Jesuit High School in Denver.
Serrano currently serves as a deacon at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in downtown Oakland. After ordination, he will serve at St. Peter Claver Parish in Punta Gorda, Belize, where he will join two other Jesuits to help provide sacraments to more than 30 Mayan villages.
Serrano has a bachelor’s degree in music education from Eastern New Mexico University; a master’s degree in philosophy from Fordham University; a Master of Divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University.