Fr. Lopez assigned to St. Andrew

Friday, Jun. 06, 2014

WENDOVER — “For me the beauty of a parish doesn’t depend on their location …  it depends  on the community’s faith and in the support that it has from the work of God and the priest,” said Father Marco Tulio Lopez, discussing his new assignment as pastor of Saint Andrew Catholic Church in Riverton.

The assignment is effective Aug. 6.

The current pastor, Father John Evans, has been reassigned to Saint Thomas More Parish in Sandy.

Fr. Lopez is from El Salvador; his first day in Utah was July 1, 2008. Among his appointments in Utah have been associate pastor of Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Park City and administrator of San Felipe Parish in Wendover.

Before arriving in Utah, Fr. Lopez worked for several years in the Diocese of Tyler in Texas. His ministry there included close involvement with the Hispanic community, providing Scripture, family formation and catechesis.

When Fr. Lopez was in Park City, a Spanish Mass started in Heber and a Mass began to be offered once a month in Colby.

Transferring to Wendover, he instituted a 24Holy Hour and many parishioners came back to the Church, he said.

Now, with his new assignment, Fr. Lopez said that he goes to Saint Andrew with a lot of hope and dreams.

“I am going with the goal that together [as a community] we will keep working for God,” said Fr. Lopez, who was ordained a priest on Dec. 20, 1997 in El Salvador by the Most Rev. Jose Oscar Barahona, Bishop of San Vicente, El Salvador.

Since his ordination, Fr. Lopez said he considers the priesthood an apostolate, “not a profession.”

The Wendover community has left in him a lot of joy and admiration.

“I admire their spirituality, their collaboration, their sense as a Church, their generosity and sacrifices to support their parish … especially this community has been very special for me because I define Wendover as a treasure field,” he said. “There is a lot of potential here.”

The distances in Utah and remoteness of some of his assignments have never bothered him, he said.

“Sometimes people may think that the parishes that are located in the big cities are the ones that are richer and the ones that are far away people may think they are not-so-good parishes,” said Fr. Lopez, but for him other things matter more than location.

“Parishes shouldn’t be thinking that the parishes located in the city are more important,” he said. “It is true that they have more accessibility to possibilities, but the most important is not the materialistic resources, it is the human resources, the community’s faith.”

For the two years he worked in Wendover, Fr. Lopez is happy and grateful that his parish accomplished a lot of things. 

“In that sense I have to be very proud of this Wendover community,” said Fr. Lopez, who wants the community now to welcome the newly assigned priest, Father Roberto Montoro.

“Please welcome Fr. Roberto with a lot of joy. … Work with him and with all the priests who come and work in this community,” Fr. Lopez urged. “Remember that the parish is all the baptized who live here,  and the future of the parish depends upon God, and also upon the work that the community and the priest do together …  so by working together, many things can be accomplished. When community and the priest work together with God, great things can be accomplished. That is my dream, that we all do something great. We are not here to waste our time.”