When Father John Monaghan moved into his new home at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish last month, he was making a bit of history.

Father Monaghan, who was appointed pastor of the Sacramento parish Sept. 1, is a member of the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order new to the Diocese of Sacramento.

Father Rodolfo Delgado, the former pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, has been assigned as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Gridley.

What Father Monaghan brings to the richly Hispanic parish community is 24 years of ministry to the people of Quintana Roo in southeast Mexico and a grounding in a religious order known for empowering the laity to live out their Catholic faith.

Father John Monaghan, new pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Sacramento, spent 24 years ministering to the people in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Nancy Westlund/Herald photo

Born and raised in Western and Central Ireland, Father Monaghan knew two things before he reached his 16th birthday. He wanted to be a priest and he wanted to work as a missionary on another continent. It was a member of the Legionaries of Christ, visiting his high school on a vocations mission, who shaped the path he would choose to take.

“What caught my attention was his enthusiasm about his own priestly vocation and the way he expressed the necessity the Catholic Church has today for more priests to work on missions,” he recalled.

As a young man he was intrigued by the idea of working in Africa, but by the time he was ordained to the priesthood in 1975, he knew his destination would be Latin America.

“God had different plans for me,” said Father Monaghan, who lost his heart to the people in Mexico who lived in extreme poverty. His work took him to cities and to the rural parishes of the Mayan jungle.

“They are an open-hearted people, poor people who live day by day,” he noted. “They are very open to the help a Catholic priest can give them and are happy to feel themselves sons of God.”

The Legionaries of Christ were founded in 1941 by a Mexican priest, Father Marcial Marciel. The members of its lay apostolic organization, the Regnum Christi Movement, share a mission of evangelization and living lives that give witness to Christian values.

They have initiated programs like “Helping Hand” schools, where poor children, mainly in Mexico, receive a tuition free education funded by the Legion’s network of private schools; “Helping Hand” missions in which health care professionals provide free clinics and medical missions in Latin America; and family centers that provide parenting education.

The arrival of Father Monaghan and the Legionaries of Christ at the invitation of Bishop William K. Weigand is very much an answered prayer for the diocese, which currently has only six Hispanic pastors or parochial administrators, according to Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Garcia.

“We are so blessed for this priest to come to us who knows the Mexican people and customs so very well,” he said. “Even though he was born in Ireland, he has a Mexican heart.”

Bishop Garcia added that the charism of the Legionaries of Christ, with their focus on adult formation and education, is another welcome gift.

Father Monaghan views his job description as pastor as “helping the parish community come closer to God.”

“A priest is like a bridge between God and the people,” he said. “He has to bring down the grace of God from heaven and spread it out among people.”

Father Monaghan says his first objective is to further enrich the religious education program for children and their teachers.

“Our hope is for children to come and not just learn questions and answers to receive first Communion, but to form themselves in the love of God and Christian commitment,” he said.

A second goal is to inspire people to stretch their faith to serve more than an hour on Sunday, to be Catholic “24 hours a day every day of the year.”

“A priest alone can’t do everything,” Father Monaghan said. “He must sew the seeds and hope it falls on open hearts.”

Father Antonio Rivero, also a member of the Legionaries of Christ, is expected to join Father Monaghan as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Guadalupe in January.

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