Meet Our Seminarians

Deacon José Rolando Pérez

I was born on October 8th of 1989. I am originally from Mexico. My home parish is Saint Michael Church.​

​I entered seminary in 2016 because God mercifully invited me to follow him; He called, and I answered. He made a way and I followed him.​

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing ​else you find satisfies you.” ​

-St. John Paul the Great​

Deacon Andrew Raffanti

I was born on May 17, 1996. I am a parishioner of the Church of the Incarnation.​

​I view the priesthood as a life of prayer and service. I know it is the bridge between God and His people. Through-out my prayer life, I have felt the desire  to be a vessel for God through the priesthood., and to focus my life on growing with God into the best man and future priest I can become.

Deacon Kacper Wojcieszko

I was born in Poland in 1996. I came to Memphis to be part of the Diocese in 2020, thanks to the visit of the diocesan Vocations Director in SS Cyril & Methodius Seminary. ​

I became a seminarian to be a priest, to serve among the people, to give people healing from and through Christ’s Sacraments.​

​“The surest, easiest, shortest way is the Eucharist.” ​

-St Pius X, Pope​

Chris Fagin

 I was born June 10th, 1998, in Edgewood, KY, near Cincinnati. I came to Memphis for college and fell in love with this city. ​

I want to be a priest because I realized that life was more than just a job, it is about bringing Christ to others, and that the Lord was calling me to do that as a priest. ​​

“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him, the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” ​

– St. Augustine​

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Deacon Horst Lorenz

I was born in Berlin, Germany, on April 5th, 1998. I lived in Germany for 15 years. Then I decided to move to Poland to finish my high school. I entered SS Cyril & Methodius Seminary in Cracow, Poland. ​

After my Philosophy studies I came to the United States to continue my formation. I felt God’s call to serve the Church and its people, and offer myself in the US because of the need for priests. ​

​“Think well. Speak well. Do well. These three things, through the mercy of God, will make a man go to Heaven.” ​

-St. Camillus

Felix Pesce

 I was born February 24th  of 1965. I was born and raised in Memphis, and am of Italian descent. My home parish has been the Cathedral since 1994. ​

I started to go to daily mass in 2016. As my relationship with God deepened, my call to the priesthood grew stronger, until after some resistance I thankfully said yes.​

​“The saints did not all begin well, but they ended well”   ​

-St. John Vianney​

Luiz Dutra

I was born May 4th of 1998. I am from Belo Horizonte, in Brazil. I came to Memphis to study Mechanical Engineering at CBU, and graduated in 2020.​

​I decided to become a seminarian because I want to use my gifts to serve God and His people to the fullest.​

​“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”​

–St. John Paul II​

Jarrett McBride

I was born on July 26th, 1998. I am from Lexington, TN, and moved to Memphis after graduating college last December. I have become a seminarian because I believe I am called by Christ to live a life of prayer and service to Him and His Church.  ​

​“What, dear brothers, is more delightful than the voice of the Lord calling to us? See how the Lord in His Love shows us the way of life.” ​

– St. Benedict

Andrew Elkins

I was born on April 9th, 2001. My home Parish is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.​

​There is such a great need for priests right now, and God wants to make many men priests for his Church if only they’d give Him their “yes”. So I thought I could be one of the ones that gives Him his “yes”. ​​

“Faith is to believe what you do not see. The reward of Faith is to see what you believe.” 

– St. Augustine of Hippo​

Matthew Brewer

I was born on February 24, 2000. I am a parishioner of Saint Brigid Catholic Church. ​

​I became a seminarian because I have felt God’s call. He has inspired me through the energy and the reverence of many of the young priests of our Diocese to pursue this vocation. ​

​“If I speak with angelic tongues, but do not love, I am but a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal”  ​

1.Corinthians 13

Vinicius Oliveira

I was born in Mogi Mirim, Brazil, on September 1, 2000. In these years of formation towards the priesthood, the Lord has been teaching me how to fully surrender to His Holy Will.​

 “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee”​

– Saint Augustine.​

Deacon Mateusz S. Wegrzyn

I was born in 1992, in Poland. For me, a Priest is a mediator between God and His people, and he needs to focus on both, God and His people, in prayer and in building community. I want to give all my strength and talents to ministry in our Diocese.

“Take, Lord, & receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding, & my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given it to me. To You, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours. Do with it what you will . . .” – St Ignatius of Loyola –