For Fr. Jesús Zamarripa, SVD, St. Augustine of Hippo serves as a model. And not only because the saint is renown for his theology as a doctor of the Church but also for his powerful conversion to Christ. It seems fitting, then, that Bishop John Dolan installed Fr. Zamarripa as pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Phoenix on Aug. 28, which is also the saint’s feast day.
While addressing the congregation at the end of the liturgy, Fr. Zamarripa recalled the words of St. Augustine: “The measure of love is to love without measure.”
“Just as I want to work for the holiness of each one of you, so I’m here to work, and you know that my heart is with you,” said the new pastor. “Just like St. Agustine, with that measure and working each day to guide the community to love without measure, loving God above all else with a heart like my own, fervent and always thirsting for God.”
When he was younger, Fr. Zamarripa attended a seminary for the Archdiocese of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, but left after finishing six years, immigrating to Los Angeles, where he worked in a hotel. After five years outside of the seminary, the future priest remembered his plan to serve others through ministry. After encountering a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, he returned to the seminary and was ordained June 2, 2001.
“In those five years I was outside of the seminary and then returning and being sent here to St. Augustine, I’m reminded of his words: ‘Late have I loved you,’” Fr. Zamarripa said, “because those five years I was working and living only for me, to pay rent, pay for food, for whatever I needed.”
Fr. Zamarripa arrived in Phoenix July 1 of last year, serving as pastoral administrator at St. Augustine before being formally installed as pastor. Not only did he serve in the parish for a year but he is also the first member of the Society of the Divine Words to serve in the Diocese of Phoenix.
Bishop Dolan — who served alongside Divine Word Missionaries when he was still in San Diego — invited the religious community to serve in two parishes in the diocese. Today, three Divine Word Missionary priests serve at St. Augustine, including Fr. Zamarripa and parochial vicars Fr. Fransiskus Santoso and Fr. Yori Sodanago, and two more serving at Sacred Heart Parish in Prescott. The five missionaries now support each other through a new district that meets every two months.
“Your new pastor is a good shepherd who has followed Christ, the Good Shepherd,” Bishop Dolan told the congregation in his homily.
“I can testify that you will be cared for and loved as a shepherd cares for his sheep. Assisted by Fr. Fransiskus and Fr. Yori, your pastor, Fr. Jesús, has made it his pledge to listen to each of you here at St. Augustine,” he added. “It is important for the sheep, of course, to hear the voice of the shepherd but the shepherd must also hear the voice of his sheep.”
After the Mass, a troupe of matachines danced in honor of the new pastor, and members of the 33 parish ministries provided food to serve.
“It’s a really big joy for me that we have Fr. Jesús here. I’m sure God put him here for a reason, and he has so much to give in this community,” said youth minister Jackie Oñate.
She said she’s looking forward to working alongside the Divine Word priests in helping the teens get to know Jesus and “learn that they can trust in Him, that God is calling them to a personal relationship with Him.”
To celebrate the feast of St. Augustine, a group of parishioners gathered together for nine days to pray a novena to the saint. After the Mass, another troupe performed an original play about the life of St. Augustine, who was known for his sinful life before his conversion, as described in his “Confessions.”
“I realized that many of the things I’ve done in my life were like his, and he can become a saint from as far away as he was from holiness,” said Arnoldo Navarro, who portrayed St. Augustine in the play.
The community also formally welcomed Fr. Santoso and Fr. Sodanago, both originally from Indonesia. Fr. Santoso grew up in a Buddhist family. While his parents supported him becoming Catholic, he faced resistance when expressing a desire to become a priest. It wouldn’t be until after he moved to the U.S. and was making more money than he needed during the 2009 recession that Fr. Santoso revisited the possibility of becoming a priest.
“After discerning one year, I made the decision that I wanted to become a priest but I wanted to be religious missionary,” he said, recalling discovering the Society of Divine Word in a vocations magazine with the description as “the largest missionary congregation in the world.”
Fr. Santoso was ordained a priest on the Feast of St. Rita, May 22, 2021. After his ordination, he served at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino, Calif. and St. George Parish in Ontario, Canada, before arriving in Phoenix. While he was sad to leave his previous parish, he said he feels inspired by the people of St. Augustine.
“I love the people here. They are on fire with Jesus,” he said. “We have eight Masses on weekends. Everything is packed. People go to church on fire. That’s motivated me to be on fire with them.”
Fr. Sodanago entered a minor seminary in Indonesia, where he was first introduced to the Society of the Divine Word, who then inspired him to discern a vocation with their community. After he was ordained in 2013, he served in his home country before being sent to the U.S. While he said he’s not exactly used to the heat, Fr. Sodanago said he also finds inspiration from the people at St. Augustine.
“I was really stunned, impressed by the vibrant faith of the people here,” he said. “St. Augustine said that our heart is restless until the heart rests in the Lord. It really reflects on how the people of St. Augustine live their faith.”
Central to the mission of the Society of the Divine Word is to teach a love for the Word of God and that that love inspires action for peace and justice.
“It’s a mission through Scripture, through media, through justice, peace and care for our home here in the world and with working with the laity,” the Very Rev. John Kirby, SVD, Provincial Superior for the Society of the Divine Word Western Province, had shared.
Gilberto Alvarez, who serves as coordinator for liturgy at St. Augustine, said he looks forward to uniting with the society’s missionary efforts.
“We are now united in their own mission of spreading the Word,” he said. “As missionaries, they go around the world, and now, they also unite that mission with us.”
As an immigrant himself, Fr. Zamarripa felt called to serve other immigrants. After his ordination, his superiors sent him to Seville, Spain, where he worked with immigrants from Romania, Morocco and other countries. After two years, he returned to the U.S. where he served primarily in California.
As part of the society’s mission, the priests are responsible for bringing the Word of God to places that don’t know God very well.
“Many times, we go to places where there is no community. We’re there to start one, and after we start one, we move to another place,” said Fr. Zamarripa. But at St. Augustine, it is “one of the first times when we arrived at a parish and community was already formed.
“Everything is well-organized,” he added. “It’s one of the communities where everything is formed, and all that’s left is to accompany the people.”
