The Almudena Cathedral hosted on Saturday, April 18, the priestly ordination of 17 new priests in a ceremony presided over by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal José Cobo Cano, before an attendance that exceeded the temple’s capacity.
Of the 17 ordained, 15 will be diocesan priests of Madrid. Eight have been trained at the Seminario Conciliar de Madrid (Miguel Fragoso, José María Ausín, Jaime Echanove, Guillermo Ara, José María González, Alberto del Olmo, Jesús Nistal, and Alberto Ramírez) and seven at the Seminario Redemptoris Mater (Alejandro Cantos Rey, Lorenzo Carelli, Simone Colleluori, Francesc Xavier Esplugues Barquero, Marco Antonio González García, Andrés José Marín, and Christian Oliveira dos Santos).
The group is completed by a religious, Javier Carmena, from the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and a priest from Haiti, Almay Belizaire, from the diocese of Jérémie.
The celebration gathered more than a thousand people outside, in addition to the faithful who filled the interior of the temple, which required installing screens to follow the ceremony from outside.
In his homily, the cardinal highlighted that the priestly vocation responds to Christ’s personal call, which “changes history,” and warned that the ministry will combine moments of joy with situations of tiredness and difficulty.
Taking as a reference the evangelical episode of the road to Emmaus, he emphasized that the priestly model involves accompaniment, listening, and closeness, as opposed to approaches based on protagonism or prefabricated responses.
The archbishop also insisted on the need to maintain ecclesial communion at three levels: with the presbytery, with the body of the faithful, and with the most needy, pointing out that in the latter, Christ’s presence is manifested in a special way.
Likewise, he stressed the eucharistic character of the priesthood, indicating that the presbyter’s mission is not limited to liturgical celebration, but involves building living and cohesive communities.