Father Lachica is ready to serve his new community

Intermountain Catholic

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HELPER — Father Jose Nestor P. Lachica is back from his training at Fort Jackson in North Carolina and now is serving as the associate pastor (parochial vicar) of Notre Dame Parish, Price, with residence at St. Anthony in Helper.

At Ft. Jackson, Fr. Lachica completed the Chaplain Basic Officer Leadership Course.

"I was called for active duty, so I had to leave Utah and attended the training for several months," said Fr. Lachica.

A captain in the United States Army, Fr. Lachica is the chaplain for the 98 Signal Battalion, which operates out of Mesa, Ariz. However, Fr. Lachica asked his commander for permission to serve in the Diocese of Salt Lake City when he is not on duty with his battalion.

"I asked Monsignor Fitzgerald (then the Diocese of Salt Lake City vicar general and vicar for clergy) if they could give me an assignment after I completed the training and he said, ‘OK, we will give you an assignment,’" said Father Lachica, who was assigned as a visiting priest at Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Layton when he arrived in Utah in October. He already has started in Helper even thought his official start date there is Aug. 3.

Fr. Lachica was raised in the Philippines, where he was ordained on Dec. 21, 2002 by Bishop Jesus Varela.

Born in a family of one brother and four sisters, he is the second to the oldest. His call to the priesthood happened when he was just a little boy.

"Since I was a child and I attended Mass, I told my father that I wanted to be a priest. They didn’t think I would become a priest, but when I was in my formation at the seminary they did believe me because before they thought I would not complete the courses," said Fr. Lachica.

Before coming to Utah, Fr. Lachica was at a parish in Texas that was located near a military base. It was back then, when Fr. Lachica celebrated Mass for the military for the first time, that he discovered the meaning of chaplaincy and found his calling.

"Chaplaincy is all about serving soldiers, serving the people of God," said Fr. Lachica.

The expectations in his new assignment in Carbon County are still the same: To serve all the people as much as he can.

Speaking English and Spanish, and with the help of Father Stanislaw Herba, pastor of Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Park City and Saint Lawrence Mission in Heber, Fr. Lachica thinks he has one challenge.

"The challenge is the travel," said Fr. Lachica, who has to commute more than an hour to celebrate the Masses at the missions.

Fr. Lachica is also very excited and happy about this new assignment. With a smile on his face, he said he already knows what he will tell his new community about himself. "I will just tell them that I am here to serve them to help them as much as I can. I’m not a perfect person. I have weaknesses and strengths, too, but I will try to do my best to do my duty in this community of Carbon County. I am already enjoining it."