Two members of the Neocatechumenal Way, James Tomelty and Pablo Arosemena Lozano, will be ordained as deacons in St Mary’s Cathedral at 7.30pm on Tuesday, 30 June, by Bishop Tony Percy.
They have been studying for the priesthood at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Chester Hill in western Sydney.
The seminary currently has 11 seminarians from six different countries. The Neocatechumenal Way is a post-baptismal catechumenate which leads people to an adult faith and to the discovery of their vocation.
Although coming from very different backgrounds, both Tomelty, 28, and Arosemena Lozano, 35, considered becoming doctors before joining the seminary. Arosemena Lozano entered in 2016 and Tomelty a year later.
Tomelty was born into a strong Neocatechumenal family, spending time at the mission in Daly River, an Indigenous community near Katherine in the Northern Territory.
Despite his strong ties to the movement, dating back to his grandfather’s involvement, his dedication to the church had ebbs and flows.
He first heard the call to priesthood at just 13 years old. Later on, he had a crisis of faith. Even though he never left the church, he says that he was attending Mass “in body, not really in spirit.”
“One thing that I had noticed is that in the mission in Daly River, I always saw different priests and seminarians … they were very happy and I saw that. I was missing a bit of that happiness,” he told The Catholic Weekly.
Tomelty was studying paramedicine when he attended World Youth Day 2016 in Poland.
He had a transformative experience hearing Pope Benedict XVI read the Gospel story about Zaccheus. He heard God calling him to “stop living a double life and to be fully committed.”
“I wasn’t fulfilled; I wasn’t happy at that time. I said to God, ‘I tried with my life and it didn’t work, now you do with me what you would like to,’” he said.
“That moment I felt that God was calling me to be a priest.”
Mexican-born Arosemena Lozano’s first experience with the Neocatechumenal Way came when his family discovered the movement shortly after they moved to Panama.
“My parents always told us that there were two vocations: you can either marry or become a priest or a religious, so that was always in the back of my mind since I was 15,” he said.
He said he imagined what his life would be like if he did become a priest, but it felt distant and he eventually earned a degree in medicine.
After completing his studies, Arosemena Lozano took a break, thinking about his life and his career. During this time, he received an offer to volunteer as a missionary in the Holy Land.
“I saw that even if I had a career and good prospects back in Panama, I was not fulfilled, I was looking for something deeper, another type of happiness,” he said.
“I had a very strong experience in the Lake of Galilee reading from the Gospel of John, and I was feeling that God was calling me to follow him in a special way.”
Looking ahead to service as deacons, each man has a distinct view of what he wants to achieve.
Tomelty wants to be able to evangelise through example and introduce God to those who may not know him or have forgotten God’s love. He will be putting a verse from the first letter of St John on his ordination card.
“This is what love consists of, not our love for God, but by God’s love for us, which is shown by the fact that he sent his son to expiate our sins,’” he quoted. “Then the next verse says, ‘if this is so and God has loved us, so then we ought to love our brothers.’”
Arosemena Lozano’s longing to be a missionary was spurred by his time in Papua New Guinea, which ended up being extended due to the COVID pandemic. It was a great blessing for him.
“What has touched me always has been the experiences of the people. The place, in a way, it doesn’t matter as much. It could be in Papua New Guinea; it could be back home; it could be anywhere in Australia,” he said.
“What this has taught me, in all the placements that I’ve done, is to find a community of people that are helped, so the work I do – or the work that God is doing in me and through me – really has an impact on them.”
