Eight men will be ordained to the priesthood on Sunday morning, April 26, in a Mass presided over by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Basilica.  

Among the future priests is Christian Sguazzino, who grew up attending the parish Church of San Giovanni della Croce (St. John of the Cross), where he also enjoyed playing soccer. “Even then,” he recalls, “I liked being in church, looking at the altar and the tabernacle.” Seeing priests who were happy in their vocation had an important influence on his discernment.

Stories of the future priests

Giovanni Emanuele Nunziante, 32, also felt a desire to be close to God as a child. “I used to think about becoming a friar,” he says.

However, life took other directions for the Rome-born man who also lived in England. While listening to the Gospel of the Good Shepherd back in 2016, he felt called to become “a father, generating others to the new life of faith.”

On the other hand, Jos Emmanuel Nleme Sabate was not Catholic. His family, originally from Cameroon, was Protestant. At 11, he was sent to study at the Minor Seminary of his home diocese.

It was there that he encountered Catholicism, and he was baptized at the age of 12. “During that rite, which I wasn’t familiar with,” he recalls, “I believe my choice to become a priest grew.” This call grew through his experience at Casa Betania, a family home, where his attention to disability deepened—a “vocation within a vocation.” Today, Sabate is studying sign language.

For Yordan Camilo Medina from Colombia, his priest uncle was a role model. Since childhood, he saw the joy in others as they received the Eucharist, and he chose this path of happiness.

In the Neocatechumenal Way, 27-year-old Antonino Ordine’s vocation flourished. In his hometown of Praia a Mare in Calabria, he had been studying medicine when this question came to mind: “Do I really want this?”

“I can say,” he admits, “that the Lord has made my life much more beautiful than I ever imagined. Whether here in the Diocese of Rome, in many parishes, or during some missions in Latin America, the Middle East, and India, I have understood that it is beautiful to serve the Church.”

Daniele Riscica was once considered “a new promise of international piano.” Yet, after attending the Conservatory in Frosinone, Italy and completing his classical music studies, at 24, he felt the Lord was calling him to something else. He had performed in Brazil, China, and Mozambique, but left it all behind to enter the seminary.

Giorgio Larosa, 30, from Italy, was inspired in his vocation through the example of “lay people and priests.” Through their witness, he saw “the power of the Gospel.” Guglielmo Lapenna, 35, from Pescara, had a job in a liquor factory. “During World Youth Day in Krakow in 2016, I decided to leave what I was doing and enter the seminary.” A decision that changed and enriched his life.

A prayer vigil for vocations

On Friday evening, April 24, the eight men will gather at St. John Lateran Basilica for a prayer vigil for vocations, themed “The Inner Discovery of God’s Gift.” This theme echoes Pope Leo’s message, which carries the same title, published in March for the 53rd World Prayer Day for Vocations, which falls on April 26, the fourth Sunday of Easter.

Although the Pope will not be present at the Vigil, a communication from the Congregation for the Clergy shared his “fatherly closeness” to the initiative, which he spiritually accompanies, seeing it as “a living sign of communion and ecclesial synergy in service of vocations.”

The Congregation for Clergy, together with the Diocese of Rome, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and the National Office for Vocational Pastoral Care of the Italian Episcopal Conference organized this prayer vigil.

Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung Sik, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, and Cardinal Baldo Reina, the Pope’s Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome, are expected to attend. The liturgy will be led by the Roman Major Seminary and accompanied by the Diocesan Choir, conducted by Monsignor Marco Frisina. The vigil will feature moments of listening to the Word of God, testimonies, liturgical signs, and a special involvement of young people.