Father Joseph was born in Los Angeles, California, on February 12, 1959. He entered the Order and, after completing his postulancy at Saint Augustine Priory in Oxnard, California, made his novitiate in Monteagudo, Navarre, Spain. He pursued his theological studies at the Order’s theologate in Marcilla, Navarre, at Tagaste Monastery, Suffern, New York, and at Immaculate Conception Seminary, the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Newark, on the the campus of Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.
He made his profession of solemn vows on August 28, 1993, and was ordained a priest by Augustinian Recollect Bishop David Arias on October 1, 1994, at Tagaste Monastery. He has exercised his priestly ministry in several parishes in California and has been prior of the monasteries in Oxnard and Suffern. At the time of his election as prior provincial, he was prior and pastor at Saint Benedict Parish in Montebello, California.
Q. – What does your election as prior provincial imply for you?
A. – A total and complete service to the province in the tradition of our Order, a challange and an opportunity to help the province, encouraging it in its life and in its ministry.
Q. – What are some of the main positive characteristics that you see in the province?
A. – Our religious dedicate themselves to working very hard in pastoral ministry, even at a very advanced age. They give evidence of a great spirit of sacrifice.
Q. – And what are some of its greatest needs?
A. – Lifting the morale of our religious so that they can live with greater oprimism. Forming worthy and holy candidates for the province and the Order. Preparing each one of us and every community to accept and form new members and to form our young members in the traditions and the spirituality of the Order.
Q. – Which of the directives of the provincial chapter do you consider the most important?
A. – The consolidation of initial formation into a single house. The support of this house by the entire province.
Aging Members
Q. – In the face of the increasing age of the religious and the scarcity of vocations, what can be done?
A. – Be more faithful to our commitment. Entrust the entire province to the powerful protection of Our Mother of Consolation.
Q. – How do you perceive our Secular Fraternity and the work of lay people?
A. – The Secular Augustinian Recollects are flourishing in the majority of our houses, and our religious are dedicated to their spiritual formation. Lay people are like leaven in our ministries and diffuse the Augustinian Recollect spirit to the arena of the laity.
Q. – What can the Augustinian Recollects offer to the Catholics of the United States?
A. – A visible link with the univeral Church as members of a worldwide Order. Continuity of the ancient Church with the present Church through Saint Augustine and the Recollection. A broader vision of the Church and of the Christian life.
Q. – What would you ask of the Order as the next General Chapter approaches?
A. – That, faithful to what the Church asks of us, we live out our charism in the spirit of our founders at the Chapter of Toledo in 1588. R.- Que, fieles a la Iglesia, vivamos al carisma con el espíritu que lo vivieron nuestros fundadores en el Capítulo de Toledo de 1588.