Fr. Martinez named pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Intermountain Catholic

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Fr. Oscar Martinez

CEDAR CITY - Father Oscar Martinez will become the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Parish in Salt Lake City on Aug. 1, his first assignment as pastor.

"I want to thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to work in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish; it’s a miracle that she has picked me to begin this new ministry, " said Fr. Martinez, currently parochial vicar of the Christ the King in Parish in Cedar City.

His call to serve the Lord is something he cannot describe with words, but as a teenager he worked in different missions in his hometown in Colombia. His family was a big support for his call to the priesthood; he has two brothers and a sister.

"In Hispanic countries being a priest is a very special gift from God. It is not only for the person, it’s for the entire family and for the community," said Fr. Martinez.

"Since I was 16 years old I have been trying to respond to the Lord, working at the missions where poor people, farmers, and very humble people are. That’s where I learned that I wanted to be a priest, to serve our Lord, and that’s where I found the motivation to search for a missionary diocese such as this one in Salt Lake City," said Fr. Martinez.

At the time, Father William Wheaton, now pastor of Saint Pius X in Moab, was the vocations director for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City; he contacted Fr. Martinez and invited him to Utah.

"Fr. Wheaton brought me through the vocations office as a seminarian to finish my studies, that was in June 2002," said Fr. Martinez.

Saint Francis of Xavier Parish in Kearns was his first assignment; then he was sent to Wisconsin to study English at Sacred Heart Monastery. Upon his return to Utah he was assigned to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Price.

He was ordained a deacon at Saints Peter and Paul Parish in West Valley City; then he was assigned to Saint Francis of Assisi Parish in Orem.

The Most Reverend George H. Niederauer, who was Bishop of Salt Lake City from 1995 to 2006, ordained Fr. Martinez as a priest in 2006.

"Archbishop Niederauer was already in San Francisco, Calif., but he came back to ordain us," said Fr. Martinez.

After ordination, he was assigned to Saint Joseph Parish in Ogden for three years; then he was given his current assignment in Cedar City.

Among the challenges that Fr. Martinez will face at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish is to keep the community as united as it has been.

"He is a young priest who has been serving the southern missions of Utah," said Monsignor J. Terrence Fitzgerald, vicar general of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. "He is enthusiastic, excited about having his first parish as pastor and looks forward to serving the people with the love of the Good Shepherd. Father Martinez speaks excellent Spanish and English and is known to deliver wonderful Sunday homilies. Likewise, he is well organized and cares a great deal for the parish facilities."

Fr. Martinez’s first intention is to show the parishioners of his new parish his devotion to Our Lady. "Our Lady of Guadalupe is very special to me," he said. "I am looking forward to being part of that community."