Father Marco Tulio Lopez quietly celebrates the 25th anniversary of his priesthood

Friday, Dec. 23, 2022

MILFORD — Being the pastor of St. Bridget Parish and its associated missions can be challenging for even the most dedicated of priests. The parish encompasses St. Bridget’s in Milford, Holy Family Mission in Fillmore, Our Lady of the Light Mission in Beaver and St. John Bosco Mission in Delta. With the faithful spread across four communities, the pastor regularly travels many miles just to reach his parishioners. But for Father Marco Tulio Lopez, who celebrated the 25th anniversary of his ordination Dec. 20, serving as pastor of this community has been a joy, he said. 

The primary reason for that is how involved the local Catholics are, he said. “I am delighted with the participation and support of the whole community.”

Fr. Lopez particularly praised the role of women in the four Catholic communities. The female parishioners are especially important to the life of the parish community because, although some men participate, the leadership in the four communities is overwhelmingly made up of women, he said.

“They organize almost everything,” he said. “Sometimes we know that women are the most involved in all aspects of the local Church, but we sometimes fail to mention that.”

“I think not just in these communities but everywhere, if the women don’t take the role that they take, I don’t know what will happen with our Church because even when men’s participation is strong – it is very important everywhere – but the reality is it the women who are in front,” he added. “Almost everything you want to do as a priest, women are in front. In my parish, if the women were to leave what they are now doing, I don’t know what I would do, myself.” 

Although St. Bridget’s parish communities are far-flung, there is strong participation at Mass, catechism efforts and activities that gather the people together, Fr. Lopez said. Most of the catechists, who serve close to 80 children in the four communities, are women. Since October, nocturnal Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been celebrated at all four churches each month to pray for an increase in priestly vocations in the diocese and across the world. 

“I decided to have this every month in each community because if we believe that Jesus Christ Our Lord is present in the Holy Eucharist, then we have to pray,” Fr. Lopez said.

In keeping with the diocesan Pastoral Plan’s goal of faith formation, Fr. Lopez started an online theological pastoral institute, which has 109 people enrolled. Initially, he offered the institute to parishioners of St. Bridget and its missions, but interest spread and now participants hail not only from central Utah but other parishes across the diocese and even from Mexico and El Salvador. Fr. Lopez estimates that more than 500 people have already participated in the institute’s classes, which are offered in Spanish, but “it is my dream that we can offer them eventually in English also,” he said.

While participation among local parishioners in the institute is limited, “I understand that, because formation is little by little,” Fr. Lopez said. “Not everyone in our Church wants to be formed because our culture is mostly just to pray, not to form. Not everyone understands how important it is to study our faith, to understand better to live better and teach others.” 

“There are many people that need to learn, and they want to learn, and so we decided to open the classes for everyone,” he added. “There is a great need for study everywhere. This way [electronically] it doesn’t matter where someone lives; everybody can participate.” 

While many parishioners have returned to in-person Mass and parish life after the pandemic, the parish has been challenged because some families had to move on after Smithfield, the major employer of parishioners in the area, reduced its operations in Milford. This left their pastor wondering if there would be a corresponding drop off in attendance. So far, there has not been, he said.

“I have been surprised to discover that there are more Catholics in Milford than I thought,” Fr. Lopez said.

Fr. Marco was ordained a priest on Dec. 20, 1997 in El Salvador by the Most Rev. Jose Oscar Barahona, Bishop of San Vicente, El Salvador. He has been ministering in the Diocese of Salt Lake City since 2008. As he looks back on the past 25 years of his life in the priesthood, it has been a blessing to him, he said. “I am happy to be a priest; I am thankful to God for my priestly vocation.”

Although young men study how to be priests in seminary, in reality it is the community that teaches a man how to be a priest, he said.  

Fr. Lopez was honored along with the other priest jubilarians at the fall clergy convocation in October, but he requested that his parishioners not hold a celebration for him. 

He expressed appreciation to Bishop Oscar A. Solis, Msgr. Colin F. Bircumshaw, vicar general; Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general emeritus; and all the priests of the diocese for their support of his ministry. “We are not so many priests in Utah, but it is a priestly community, a fraternity and a brotherhood among us,” he said.

As a child Fr. Lopez never imagined he would be a priest, but as a youth he became involved in a youth group, and it was there his vocation started. Young men considering the priesthood should not be overly concerned about the imperfections of the Church, Fr. Lopez said.

“The Church is alive,” he said. “If the Church did not have any problems that would mean that the Church would be dead, but everything that happens in our Church everywhere that means that our Church is alive. It has always been alive and will be alive in the end.”

He counseled young men who feel the call to follow and to not be afraid “because it is God who calls us and it is God who helps us to follow the journey,” he said.