Father Cerón assigned as St. Elizabeth pastor

Friday, Jul. 10, 2015

(This is the first in a series of profiles of priests who have been given new assignments as pastors in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.) 

VERNAL — Father Manuel de Jesús Cerón has been appointed as pastor of Saint Elizabeth Parish in Central Valley, effective Aug. 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Fr. Cerón’s previous assignment was as the administrator for Saint James the Greater Catholic Church in Vernal, and before that he was at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, working with Father Eleazar Silva, who was then the parochial vicar.

Fr. Cerón is originally from Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, México. His call to the priesthood was heard at a very young age.

“When I was a little kid [around 3 years old] my mother used to take me to give flowers to the Virgin, and all the time I  felt that God had chosen me,” said Fr. Cerón, who feels that since his birth God has been always present in his life. 

When Fr. Cerón was 19, he entered the seminary in Mexico. On May 31, 2007 he was ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Madeleine by the Most Reverend John C. Wester, the ninth Bishop of Salt Lake City, who is now Archbishop of Santa Fe, N.M.

“This assignment [in Vernal] involved driving a lot, but I enjoyed it very much,” said Fr. Cerón, who said that in his first year of the assignment, when he took care of the communities in Roosevelt, Duchesne and Fort Duchesne, he experienced the missionary feeling that he loves so much.

“This was very similar to what I am going to experience in Richfield, because I will be also serving Ephraim and Gunnison,” said Fr. Cerón.

Saint Jude Mission is in Ephraim; San Juan Diego Mission is in Gunnison.

He was very happy and thankful for these assignments because it was the first time that this part of the Diocese of Salt Lake City has had a Hispanic priest.

In Vernal, “at the beginning there was just one Mass in which the attendance was around 30 people. … I thought to myself, ’There has to be more Hispanic Catholics here,’ so with the help of the community we visited restaurants, laundry facilities, sharing that every Sunday we will have a Spanish Mass. …In about two months the parish was totally filled (around 250 people),” said Fr. Cerón.

Another thing that started happening in Vernal is that now every year they celebrate their patron saint.

“There was no celebration for Saint James the Greater, the patron of this parish, so we started celebrating him every July 25 with a bilingual Mass and a potluck,” said Fr. Cerón.

 As he looks back on his three years as administrator of the Vernal parish, he will miss the community and also “I will miss sharing the faith here,” he said.

But Fr. Cerón is ready to share and serve his new community in Richfield.

“What a priest does is share his personal experience with God with the community,” he said. ”I have always tell the community not to just only go in peace, I always exhort them to go and Glorify our Lord, to go and share the Word with their example, because a Catholic has to be a Catholic 24 hour a day, seven days of the week.” 

Now in his new assignment as pastor of Saint Elizabeth Parish, Fr. Cerón expects to continue his missionary work with his faithful companion,Tenda (the name means Hope in Swahili).

“She is my pet and kind of my personal ice breaker. … Kids love her and she goes with me everywhere I go,” said Father Cerón about his black Labrador.

Father Cerón’s last Mass in Vernal will be on Aug. 9.